Did I kill my C drive?

[James]

I was futzing around near the tower of my XP machine and accidentally
banged the corner on the front of the tower with my knuckles which
amounted to a half-hearted punch pretty much straight on while it was
playing an audio file.

The audio app immediately seized, mouse and keyboard wouldn't
respond.

Hit the reset button to attempt to reboot and I get the following:

PXE-E53: No boot filename received

PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE Rom

Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected
boot device and press a key.

Does it sound like I've killed my C drive? I didn't think it would be
that susceptible to shock.

Sincere thanks for all assistance.

 

[Wog George]

I was futzing around near the tower of my XP machine and accidentally
banged the corner on the front of the tower with my knuckles which
amounted to a half-hearted punch pretty much straight on while it was
playing an audio file.

The audio app immediately seized, mouse and keyboard wouldn't
respond.

Hit the reset button to attempt to reboot and I get the following:

PXE-E53: No boot filename received

PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE Rom

Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected
boot device and press a key.

Does it sound like I've killed my C drive? I didn't think it would be
that susceptible to shock.

Sincere thanks for all assistance.

It's possible but unlikely that your C drive is kaput. You need to see what
is actually going on to determine the problem. Part of what makes the hard
drive work is the way it spins around rapidly, so is it spinning? Can you
feel it working? If not, check the power. If it appears to be connected
OK, try the power cable from another device that seems to have power. I'm
sorry if I'm stating the bleeding obvious.

You know that the computer was "accidentally" punched front-on, so it's
likely that something has come adrift. Ensure that the cable connecting
your drive to the motherboard is attached properly, best done by removing
and reinserting the connectors. While you're at it, it may also be a good
idea to reseat anything else that plugs in, eg video or sound card (being
mindful of anti-static precautions), just in case they've been disturbed as
well.

The messages that you're getting suggest that the computer is trying to boot
from a network, which is consistent with your C drive not being bootable for
whatever reason. Hopefully it's merely a disturbance caused by your "love
tap" (this refers to you hitting it, and is in no way intended to be a
euphemistic phallus reference).

Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

 

[Sjouke Burry]

I was futzing around near the tower of my XP machine and accidentally
banged the corner on the front of the tower with my knuckles which
amounted to a half-hearted punch pretty much straight on while it was
playing an audio file.

The audio app immediately seized, mouse and keyboard wouldn't
respond.

Hit the reset button to attempt to reboot and I get the following:

PXE-E53: No boot filename received

PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE Rom

Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected
boot device and press a key.

Does it sound like I've killed my C drive? I didn't think it would be
that susceptible to shock.

Sincere thanks for all assistance.

Boot from a repair floppy, or repair cd.
then check the c drive.
Try booting from a Knoppix(linux) cd, and use it ot check the drive.
Also boot into bios, to see if the disk is detected.
If all that fails, jeh, jou did kill it.

 

[Wog George]

It's possible but unlikely that your C drive is kaput. You need to see
what is actually going on to determine the problem. Part of what makes
the hard drive work is the way it spins around rapidly, so is it spinning?
Can you feel it working? If not, check the power. If it appears to be
connected OK, try the power cable from another device that seems to have
power. I'm sorry if I'm stating the bleeding obvious.

You know that the computer was "accidentally" punched front-on, so it's
likely that something has come adrift. Ensure that the cable connecting
your drive to the motherboard is attached properly, best done by removing
and reinserting the connectors. While you're at it, it may also be a good
idea to reseat anything else that plugs in, eg video or sound card (being
mindful of anti-static precautions), just in case they've been disturbed
as well.

The messages that you're getting suggest that the computer is trying to
boot from a network, which is consistent with your C drive not being
bootable for whatever reason. Hopefully it's merely a disturbance caused
by your "love tap" (this refers to you hitting it, and is in no way
intended to be a euphemistic phallus reference).

Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

More bleeding obvious, but turn off your computer and even unplug the power
cord before playing with data cables and cards. If your drive isn't
spinning as per paragraph 1 in my response, have the computer on while you
swap power cables around. It may not necessarily be recommended but it's
sure as hell practical.

 

[Wog George]

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-95-98-me/371345-solved-pxe-e53-no-boot.html

I saw that but promptly dismissed it due to the apparent root cause of the
problem, ie an impact. While magnetism and impact don't make good
bedfellows, I considered that a decent whack would be unlikely to change the
bios. Stranger things have happened of course...

 

[Wog George]

is this a new class............dellweight, computerweight,
pcweight.......sounds like it was a KO in the first, with a blow to the
temple.

It was a blow to the OP's aspirations of using his PC.

Despite my physical dimensions, the best I've ever been able to accomplish
by punching a computer is a bruised knuckle. That was when I fought in the
no-name-clone-weight category.

 

[JAD]

It was a blow to the OP's aspirations of using his PC.

Despite my physical dimensions, the best I've ever been able to accomplish by punching a
computer is a bruised knuckle. That was when I fought in the no-name-clone-weight
category.

check the cabling

 

[Wog George]

check the cabling

My knuckle wasn't cabled at the time, and has since recovered.

 

[James]

I was futzing around near the tower of my XP machine and accidentally
banged the corner on the front of the tower with my knuckles which
amounted to a half-hearted punch pretty much straight on while it was
playing an audio file.

Hmm. I've since pulled the drive out and attached it to another
machine to see if I could salvage some of the files off it and as a
slave drive it fires up and I'm able to look around it. It's let me
copy various files from it, haven't encountered any dysfunctionality
with it so far. The date and power cables were all tight when I pulled
it out - and as tight as they fit in the back, there's no way a whang
on the case would knock them out of the socket.

This is certainly curious.

 

[Wog George]

Hmm. I've since pulled the drive out and attached it to another
machine to see if I could salvage some of the files off it and as a
slave drive it fires up and I'm able to look around it. It's let me
copy various files from it, haven't encountered any dysfunctionality
with it so far. The date and power cables were all tight when I pulled
it out - and as tight as they fit in the back, there's no way a whang
on the case would knock them out of the socket.

This is certainly curious.

I don't suppose reinstalling it in the original PC worked? Have you popped
it back in now that you see that the drive itself seems OK?

Perhaps you could put your bootable drive from the other PC into the
offending PC. I'll assume for a moment that the hardware is completely
different but you can abort the boot process if it appears to work more than
the original drive. Then plug the original drive back in. Maybe you've
dislodged a speck of dust when you've given it a thorough thrashing, um, I
mean accidentally knocked it.

 

[James]

Perhaps you could put your bootable drive from the other PC into the
offending PC.  I'll assume for a moment that the hardware is completely
different but you can abort the boot process if it appears to work more than
the original drive.  Then plug the original drive back in.  Maybe you've
dislodged a speck of dust when you've given it a thorough thrashing, um, I
mean accidentally knocked it.

I'm a bit leery to do that - don't want to bork the working computer -
but I stuck the original drive back in and now it seems exhibit signs
of botting as far as noises and the activity of the "power" light, but
am getting no video. Dunno. May just be ahead of the game by reloading
XP on the new drive and use this old C drive as a utility drive for
holding temp files or something.

 

[James]

  Reseat your video card. You may have knocked it loose just enough.

Yup, that's exactly what I did, seems to have cured the no video
issue. This particular case and mobo are just enough off from each
other that the screw holes on the PCI card brackets don't *quite* line
up and perhaps put a bit of pull on the cards in the sockets. Now the
machine is booting and running normally as far as I can tell using the
original drive, after having at one point not even showed up on the
drive list. I'm writing this from the formerly afflicted machine.

Anyone have any idea what happened? Why would mild physical trauma
affect the C: drive like that?

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

Anyone have any idea what happened? Why would mild physical trauma
affect the C: drive like that?

When you hit the machine, it disturbed something internally to the point
where the system would not work properly. I'm not sure what it could have
been--the loose video card is a possibility since it is electrically close
to the northbridge portion of the chipset. (The northbridge ties together
all the major traffic "arteries" in your system.) It's also possible that
the motherboard shorted out against a portion of the case momentarily and
this caused it to not work properly.

Did you unplug the computer at any point? All computers made today usually
have an ever-present "standby" power connection that is always keeping the
motherboard minimally alive. Sometimes if things get messed up enough it is
necessary to disconnect power to the motherboard. This forces all the
constantly powered parts to shut down and reinitialize.

William

 

[Xandros]

Reseat your video card. You may have knocked it loose just enough.

Yup, that's exactly what I did, seems to have cured the no video
issue. This particular case and mobo are just enough off from each
other that the screw holes on the PCI card brackets don't *quite* line
up and perhaps put a bit of pull on the cards in the sockets. Now the
machine is booting and running normally as far as I can tell using the
original drive, after having at one point not even showed up on the
drive list. I'm writing this from the formerly afflicted machine.

Anyone have any idea what happened? Why would mild physical trauma
affect the C: drive like that?


You may have loosened a drive cable as well as the video card when you
whacked it. You swapped out drives temporarily and in doing so
re-established good connections.