SOS 2 Non working Pc's and a harddrive fail

[Chuan]

Hi

I have a very big problem and a very bad day... I went to upgrade a friends PC with a new motherboard which involved case switching (as his current case was too small) ok so it boots windows XP starts loading then crashes with millisecond of blue screen. next time i start it in safe mode and it works. I disable all startup services in msconfig-- still crashes on normal xp load.
Msi Platimum(K8N Neo4) AMD 3200+ 1gig ram

But it gets worst. As i fix togeter his old machine back together and turn it on i just get a blank screen. no bios, no beeps.

So i reset the bios take out all addon cards and stll... nothing.
Compaq presario, Celeron D, Gigabyte 6600GT(also has onboard graphics but worked perfectly) 2 gig ram

I tell him that he can have my comp until i fix either of his. I take out the hard drive and plonk it in my computer. I almost get a heart attack as it says
"A disk read error has occured. Press Control + Alt+ Delete to restart. I do this a few times and change the jumpers on the harddrive, remove any discs and restart... Same message No idea how the harddrive got stuffed. i put the hard drive into the external harddrive reader that i have and plug it into my good PC. It displays the hardrive as 0bytes... I cannot save anything on to it or recover any data.

Any Help on fixing the pcs or fixing / recovering the harddrive would be greatly appericated!!! Ask any questions!

Thanks

Chuansen

(p.s the laptop i lent him just decided to crash while playing CoH and running firefox & internet exploer



Update:
The harddrive seems to be working. i got it to boot on the MSI Platinum on safe mode. I scheduled a disc check on next startup. I get the blue screen then a restart. I boot it in safe mode and it freezes. I will wait an hour.

 

[Waynos_Face]

Hey,

Welcome to PCReview

On the first PC that got the mobo replaced, its going to be something in the BIOS if it POSTS fine then blue screens whilst loading XP.

Check all the little settings like the thermal CPU control, i had a very similar problem installing Vista it turns out that the default setting in the BIOS is too low for the CPU temp so when it loads the drivers and starts the O/S the CPU temp goes up and BSOD.

Also check memory timings and voltages, set to default in the BIOS then use the manufacterers settings thats on the RAM.

If the Laptop crashes whilst playing Company Of Heroes its probably because it isn't good enough, i maybe wrong but get him to lower the resolution to minimum (800 x 600) and all detail to low, see how it plays.

With the PC you have put back together that doesn't POST if it worked before then you have either broken something or its not put back together properly or you have a short somewhere.

Do the fans spin?? Does the PSU turn on??? Put your hand on the Hard Drive can you feel it spin??

Check the 4 pin power connection on the mobo if it has or needs one?

Let us know how you get on?

 

[Chuan]

One down

I finally got one computer to work by reinstalling XP He lost most of his data but will forgive me.
I think i must have killed the motherboard on the compaq, all the fans go the hdd spins but no bios or anything. tried resetting still no luck

The laptop exceeds the minimum requirements for company of heroes. it loads fine but just dies after a few mins. odd tho the sound of the game is still playing eg. when i do a campaign and it quits you can still hear the narrator going on. It also crashes on things like firefox and internet exploere...

Thanks for all the help!!!