No System Boot

[Bluetoothguy]

Hey I have an old VPR matrix computer from best buy a few years back
(stupid mistake). Hard drive failed so I got a new hdd in it and it
was working fine for a few months. Now when I turn the computer on,
it says reboot and select proper boot device. Basically won't boot
from the hdd.

I took the hdd out and put it in my other desktop and it boots fine.
Steps I've taken so far include:

Replacing the ide cable.
Flashing the bios

Any other suggestions to get this junk working?

 

[TVeblen]

Hey I have an old VPR matrix computer from best buy a few years back
(stupid mistake). Hard drive failed so I got a new hdd in it and it
was working fine for a few months. Now when I turn the computer on,
it says reboot and select proper boot device. Basically won't boot
from the hdd.

I took the hdd out and put it in my other desktop and it boots fine.
Steps I've taken so far include:

Replacing the ide cable.
Flashing the bios

Any other suggestions to get this junk working?

Usually this happens with a cable or jumper issue. Making sure the HDD is
jumpered to Master and that it is connected to the Master connection on the
ribbon cable, and the cable is plugged into the Primary IDE slot. Also seen
this after a BIOS upgrade.
Since this happened after it was working a while I'd suspect a problem on
the main board or the BIOS. You could try resetting the defaults in the BIOS
and then resetting your personal parameters.

 

[Mike T.]

Hey I have an old VPR matrix computer from best buy a few years back
(stupid mistake). Hard drive failed so I got a new hdd in it and it
was working fine for a few months. Now when I turn the computer on,
it says reboot and select proper boot device. Basically won't boot
from the hdd.

I took the hdd out and put it in my other desktop and it boots fine.
Steps I've taken so far include:

Replacing the ide cable.
Flashing the bios

Any other suggestions to get this junk working?

Your first step should have been to replace the CMOS battery, CLEAR CMOS
(short the jumper), and then load default settings (NOT optimized default
settings). When computer loses a good hard drive like that, it USUALLY
indicates one of two things:
1) CMOS battery died, CMOS settings were lost. Replacing battery and
loading default settings in CMOS will usually cure this. FLASHING the BIOS
won't help by itself, unless you loaded default CMOS settings shortly after
you flashed the BIOS. In other words, the BIOS flash probably didn't hurt
anything, but it didn't help, either.
2) IDE controller bad. This is a more serious issue, that would require
motherboard replacement. But number ONE above is FAR more common. -Dave

 

[`AMD tower]

Hey Dave,

I read your reply here, and it got me to thinking. If the controller took a
dump, can you just say, "so what?", and install an aftermarket controller
in a slot and use that instead?
Mike

For Example:
( PCI EIDE Controller Card - N/A for $4.95 | WeirdStuff WarehouseHome > I/O
and Controller Cards > IDE > 14002 ... Jumpered PCI EIDE controller supports
up to 4 drives. Package includes: controller, IDE cable, ...
www.weirdstuff.com/cgi-bin/item/14002 - 67k )

 

[Mike T.]

Hey Dave,

I read your reply here, and it got me to thinking. If the controller took
a dump, can you just say, "so what?", and install an aftermarket
controller in a slot and use that instead?
Mike

No. The IDE (or keyboard) controller is often the first symptom of a
mainboard that is going bad. If that was your ONLY system, and you HAD to
copy some information off of the hard drive, then temporarily adding an IDE
controller expansion card to it might work. But in the long run? It's like
treating ebola virus with vitamins and orange juice. -Dave

 

[`AMD tower]

thanks for the update.
mike

No. The IDE (or keyboard) controller is often the first symptom of a
mainboard that is going bad. If that was your ONLY system, and you HAD to
copy some information off of the hard drive, then temporarily adding an
IDE controller expansion card to it might work. But in the long run?
It's like treating ebola virus with vitamins and orange juice. -Dave