Strange Boot Problem

[Piyono]

This morning my will and my body made a concerted effort to get out of bed at the sounding of my alarm clock at 8:00am instead of my usual 11:00 - 11:30 am.
My reward? My computer wouldn't boot. "Boot disk failure. Press F1 to resume or press any key when ready". I dutifully pressed F1.
No boot.
I pressed the "any" key.
No boot.
Hard reboot. Same. Arrrrrr. Again. Same. Arrrrr.
Check the BIOS. 1st boot device set to "Disabled". No option for IDE0, although Promise TX2 drives listed. Hmmm.
Autodetect HD in BIOS returns "User configured" 40GB drive, not "Maxtor 5T040H4. Hmmmm. Try reboot anyway. No dice.
Set BIOS primary IDE to "Auto" and reboot.
Bingo.

I'm not sure where the fault lies, here. BIOS? HD controller? HD spindle? IDE controller? Power Supply?

What does it sound like to you?

Gigabyte GA-7VRX
AOPEN FSP300-60BT power supply (stock)
AMD AthlonXP 1600+ (233)
Swiftech MCX452+ / Panaflo 92mm
Generic 80mm case fan
2x512 PC2100 generic Micron
LiteOn LTR522-46S
Lite-On LTD163D
Maxtor 5T04H04 (Boot, onboard IDE0)
Maxtor 6Y080L0 (Data, Promise)
WD800JB (Data, Promise)
M-Audio Delta 1010
Promise Ultra133 TX2
D-Link NIC
Generic Motorola hardware modem
ATI Radeon 7500 Retail


Piyono

 

[P5-133XL]

It sounds like the CMOS battery is going out. Though it could have been a power surge. If one item in CMOS has changed, I'd be going through the rest of the settings too or at least reset them to optimized/default values.

 

[Piyono]

It sounds like the CMOS battery is going out. Though it could have been a power surge. If one item in CMOS has changed, I'd be going through the rest of the settings too or at least reset them to optimized/default values.

But Mark,
Not only was the item changed, the option I wanted was no longer there.

Piyono

 

[P5-133XL]

If the options within the CMOS have changed then the BIOS has changed. Do you have a MB that allows remote bios updating or automaticly downloads and installs updated bioses? If so disable those options: It is like playing russian roulette with your computer. When a bios has changed then it is again wise to reset the CMOS to optimized/default values and then modify those values using your judgement.

 

[Piyono]

I don't use any auto-BIOS-update utilites, and while I did manually flash my BIOS once, it was a few months ago already, and the computer has been working properly since then, until just now.

Anyway, the computer's been starting normlly again, but I'm on constant guard now every time I push the power switch.

]-[

 

[Handruin]

I had a similar problem on an older BX motherboard several years ago. My system had problems booting and the end result was a replacement of the motherboard to fix the IDE controller.

My temporary fix was to boot off the secondary IDE controller. I had similar symptoms where my machine would occasionally not boot because the device wasn't found. I tried everything to fix the issue by replacing cables, swapping power leads, to eventually taking the entire system board out of the case in fear of a short circuit. (I had never seen an issue like this)

If the problem persists, try swapping your boot drive to the other IDE channel to see if it resolves your issue. That's how I figured out my issue.