Dead after windows intro screen - Win XP 1

[gearhead03]

I have a Dell computer with P3 and SATA hard drive. When you boot, the Windows XP intro screen comes up, then the monitor goes blank and nothing else happens.
I have tried the following items;[ul]
[li]Booting in Safe Mode - Doesn't work. It goes through the long string of white writing and then stops.[/li]
[li]Booting last known good config. - No luck [/li]
[li]Run all Dell system diagnostics including hard drive - No problems found.[/li]
[li]At this point I decided the best thing to do would be to install windows on top of itself to see what that would do. When I booted the XP install disk it was unable to find a disk drive![/li]
*******At this point I started chasing a hardware problem*****
[li]Thinking possible dead line on the Power supply, I replaced this one with a known good one. Same Problem [/li]
[li]Thinking possible dead cable I replace the SATA cable with a brand new one. No luck [/li]
[li]Dead Harddrive? I replaced this one with one from My own computer with no luck. I installed the hard drive from defunct computer in my machine. I didn't boot from it but I was recognized and I could get to all the files. [/li]
[li]Tried to get the computer to use hard drive on sata 1,2 and 3 - No Luck [/li]
[li] At this point I decided that the only thing left was a bad MOBO. I ordered a new one. (This is my parents CPU and it was at their expense to the tune of $200.00)[/li]
I have replaced the MOBO but Have the same problem! I am at my wits end and am not sure where to go from here. I have been working on computers for 20 years and haven't been this stumped before. You would know it would happen with a family member's CPU :-/
Thanks in advance for your help
[/ul]

Mark A. Kale

 

[gearhead03]

***Correction***

P4 3.0Ghz

Mark A. Kale

 

[paparazi]

Quote:
At this point I decided the best thing to do would be to install windows on top of itself to see what that would do. When I booted the XP install disk it was unable to find a disk drive!

Disk drive? are you saying the PC won't see an XP disk and start installing?

OR
That it doesn't see the hard drive once XP has gone through setup?

For the first one: try another CDrom drive, perhaps a different copy of XP, making sure the rom is set as the first boot device in the bios.

For the second one: The motherboard may require SATA drivers (third party drivers for the SATA controller) to be installed at F6.
Right at the beginning of XP install it tells you to press F6 if third party drivers are required.
At this point you need to have the appropriate SATA drivers extracted onto a floppy disk and inserted into your floppy drive, install and hopefully it will then recognise your SATA drive.
Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[gearhead03]

It will boot the windows XP install disk, Then it says that it can not find a hard drive to install to.

I can try the third party drivers but I do not suspect this as the problem because it happened while the machine was running fine and then just one day BAM it doesn't work anymore. I guess the drivers could have gotten corrupted.

Mark A. Kale

 

[Freestone]

As Martin stated, you will need the SATA drivers during XP install. When loading XP from the CD as you are trying to do, it knows nothing about any prior drivers loaded, only what is on the CD. In your case, the drivers are not on the CD and that is why you must supply them to XP via pressing F6 and feeding it the driver diskette.

 

[gearhead03]

I reinstalled the SATA drivers but am still have the same problem.

Mark A. Kale

 

[paparazi]

Look at it this way:
You have replaced so many parts, effectively two different computers with the same fault!
I still believe this is the SATA controller unable to see the drive due to incorrect/bad/or corrupt driver install at F6.
I can tell you, I have had similar headaches.
Try several dfferent floppy disks, perhaps another floppy drive and.... is the floppy drive cable correctly orientated.
The way you have described the fault and... the processors/parts you have replaced point to only one thing: the correct SATA driver is not installed.

Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[gearhead03]

Martin as it turns out you were correct! Even though I had reinstalled the SATA driver several times, It would not come up. I took the computer to a local PC shop in town who had a copy of XP SP2 already loaded with Dell's drivers! It came right up! The copy of windows that came with the computer is XP SP1 and he also pointed out similar problems in the past. Luckily I have done business there before and he only charged me $20.00 to reinstall windows.

Now, to see if Dell will take that $200.00 MOBO back......

Mark A. Kale