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Thread ID: 63991 2005-11-29 09:00:00 Windows Boot Up Problems Chemical Ali (118) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
408546 2005-11-29 09:00:00 Windows XP Pro (with SP2)
PC Chips motherboard
768MB RAM
3 HDDs & 1 DVD Burner installed

Having problems with my Jukebox PC at the moment – hangs on the Windows XP splash screen (the one with the XP logo and the moving green line) every time I boot up and won't proceed any further.
I can’t get in under ‘safe mode’ either – have established that 2 of the 4 drives in my PC [has 3 hard drives & a DVD burner] -- 1, a hard drive and the other a DVD burner --are not being picked up under the CMOS settings in the BIOS even though they all list okay on the initial boot/splash screen when the PC first starts up – The PC is still emitting the normal two beeps on POST/Boot up as per normal but just won’t go past the Windows XP splash screen unless I manually detect the 2 drives in the CMOS settings and then I can get it to boot successfully

So unsure if it’s a faulty hard drive (the 1 with the O/S on it) or a motherboard problem – interestingly the O/S hard drive shows up as “BAD” in Partition Magic 8 but as “HEALTHY” under Disk Management in XP!

Possibly more inclined to think it’s the Mo/Bo – what is the considered opinion of other forum members??
Chemical Ali (118)
408547 2005-11-29 10:28:00 Come on ... someone must have an idea?! Chemical Ali (118)
408548 2005-11-29 19:16:00 Well in my opinion its a terrible motherboard.... pctek (84)
408549 2005-11-29 19:57:00 If the DVD burner is on the same ide connection as one of the 3 hdd's, remove one or the other. They shouldnt be on the same ide connection. Speedy Gonzales (78)
408550 2005-11-29 21:43:00 If the DVD burner is on the same ide connection as one of the 3 hdd's, remove one or the other. They shouldnt be on the same ide connection.
With 3 hard drives and only one IDE channel left, exactly where is the DVD burner supposed to go then!

Also with 80 wire cables and fast modern computers it really doesn't make much difference now if optical devices share IDE 1

A proper setup would have the DVD burner as master on IDE 2 though

I would disconnect everything apart from the boot drive to discount a fault with any of the other drives
bartsdadhomer (80)
408551 2005-11-30 08:59:00 Cheers for the suggestions -- turns out that when I had put this PC back together a couple of months ago I was using old IDE cables where it wasn't so easy to determine the master and slave connectors -- so being too lazy to actually sit down and work it out I referred to a diagram in an old install pamphlet for a Sony DVD-Rom drive to ascertain which should be which.
Turns out that whoever did that diagram for Sony labeled the Master & Slave connectors on the IDE cable the wrong way round!!
So, in short that's why the PC was having a spew on boot up almost all the time!
Fixed up now and running perfectly -- hope that clown who did that install guide for the Sony DVD-Rom drive got fired!
Chemical Ali (118)
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