is this an XP or HD prob, or a virus?

[Dona]

I have a compaq armada m300 on windows xp pro

Sunday night, it was suddenly very sluggish, and it hung
when I tried to shut it off. Monday, it didn't start up
properly anymore - it never got past the win xp splash and
then started cycling from bootup to the screen which asks
which mode to start up in (safe, etc) without ever being
able to go there.

Today, I managed to boot from the win xp CD, but it
couldn't detect the hard drive. From that moment on, the
system gives me this error whenever I try to start up:

Fixed Disk Parameter Table or BIOS Error
System Halted

Does this mean that the problem is more likely to be my
hard drive and I ought to just get a new hard drive?

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Dona]

I can't get into safemode - the computer just stops when I
turn it on (won't even boot from disk anymore). So here's
another idea I have - could I take the hard drive out and
scan it on another computer for viruses to try to take
care of it that way? The main problem I can think of is
this hard drive is from a compaq armada and the other
computer I can use to check it out in an extra hard disk
bay is a Dell latitude. Would there be compatibility
issues if all I want to do is scan the compaq disk for
viruses?

Thanks

 

[Lem]

This seems to be either a hardware failure (probably the disk) or
perhaps merely a configuration error of some sort. See
http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/compaq/faq/comppost.htm

Things to try:
Call Compaq

Boot from a Win98 DOS floppy. If you don't have one, try
http://www.bootdisk.com/ If this works, post back, perhaps someone can
direct you to some useful diagnostics you could run.

Better still, go here: http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm which will
give you a bootable floppy with a NTFS file reader (assuming your hard
drive was formatted as NTFS) and try to access your hard drive.

 

[Dona]

It is a laptop, but I had removed the battery and was just
running on the adapter to avoid conflicts. What does it
mean if the internal battery is flat and how can I figure
this out?

Thanks.

 

[Steve]

Why have you removed the battery? Is it worn out? It maybe that battery
that's keeping the BIOS going. Laptops are designed to have the battery in
really. It is optional, but better in than out.

 

[Lem]

One last thing, the links on the Compaq site go to a comprehensive list
of s/w downloads. Did you perpaps download and flash the BIOS
__instead__ of flashing the hard disk controller? Or maybe the wrong
firmware? According to the original site describing the problem, you
wanted to download sp18449.exe. That seems most reliably available from
the ftp site: ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/ That is NOT what is
available if you went to
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/notebooks/us/index.html

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have a compaq armada m300 on windows xp pro

Sunday night, it was suddenly very sluggish, and it hung
when I tried to shut it off. Monday, it didn't start up
properly anymore - it never got past the win xp splash and
then started cycling from bootup to the screen which asks
which mode to start up in (safe, etc) without ever being
able to go there.

Today, I managed to boot from the win xp CD, but it
couldn't detect the hard drive. From that moment on, the
system gives me this error whenever I try to start up:

Fixed Disk Parameter Table or BIOS Error
System Halted

Does this mean that the problem is more likely to be my
hard drive and I ought to just get a new hard drive?

It indicates that the very first sector of the disk is corrupt, at the
least. Whether more is damaged is uncertain, but I suggest that you get
the MBRWORK program , from the 'Free tools section of Downloads at
http://www.BootitNG.com

Put that on a DOS boot floppy, boot and run the program. Use its
options
1 (to back up so you could put things back as they are with 2)
3 then 4 to delete the present first track of the disk
there will then be available an
A
, to search the disk for partitions and rebuild the Partition table.

Follow with
5
to rewrite the code in the MBR which starts the boot, and
6
to set a partition (probably 1) as active

And see. I would follow up by booting the XP CD to the repair option,
and using a run of
CHKDSK /F