Joe said:
Wow. I came home from a trip and turned on my computer. It won't boot. et
this message-RPL-ROM-FCC: 5 Not found. It can't find the HD. Checked BIOS.
Says primary HD not found. Tried F3 auto detect all drives. Nothing. I have
a WD120g drive. I put the drive in another computer and it works.
Cleared BIOS. Same thing.
Other queries with Google said CMOS battery. Bought battery, same thing.
Any suggestions?
RPL stands for "Remote Program Load" and apparent resembles
PXE. They're both network boot options of some sort. You'd
examine the boot order, to see where the RPL/PXE is in the
boot order. It might be further down the list, from
the normal floppy/CDROM/HDD items. So if you see RPL or
PXE mentioned, it means no other boot alternative was
located.
Can you boot from the CDROM drive ? Is the CDROM on the same
cable with the HDD ? Being able to boot a CDROM, would at least
prove that some storage device is working, and the IDE interface
works.
Since you've put the drive in another computer, you've proved
the disk works. You also might try verifying the ribbon cable
is good (if an IDE drive). Or, if the motherboard has two IDE
connectors, move the ribbon cable with the hard drive, to
the other connector. That would help, if it is the IDE interface
on the Southbridge, which is defective.
If Western Digital had a disk diagnostic, you could also try
booting that, just to see whether the diagnostic can see
the drive and print its ID string on the screen. If WD
doesn't have a diagnostic, you could use Seagate Seatools
For DOS, and the utility should at least go as far as
determining the drive brand is not Seagate. I haven't
tested Seatools, to see how it treats non-Seagate
brand disks. The Seatools for DOS I have here, fits on
a floppy, and boots FreeDOS (provided), before starting the
diagnostic program. I only mention Seatools, because
the Seagate site is a bit friendlier with respect to
downloads and details.
Paul
