HelP!!! Compaq 5700T motherboard problems,

[igobetter]

I have a compaq presario desktop model 5700T that i recently bought second hand. Problem is it no longer boots up fine with the original hard drive - a western didgital 13gig 5400 rpm Ata 66. It's running win98 and memory is 160mb, slot 1 processor 500mhz. The computer will boot up and win98 logo will show but just when the desktop will show, the computer will just power off. I tried a seagate hard drive 20gig, ata 100, yet exactly the same problem. But when i put a samsung 2.1gig hard drive model No. WA32162A, the computer will bootup without any problems and run just fine. I've tried to update the bios but no solution.
I'll appreciate any help to resolve this problem.

 

[ski]

There may be a problem with the power supply. It's possible that it's overloading with either of the larger drives, while the smaller one does not need as much power.

Disconnect all other drives, remove all cards except the video card, and see what happens with the original HD connected.
If it now runs ok, then replace the PS.

Or you can either see if another PS works, or have yours tested.

 

[igobetter]

I don't think this ois a power supply issue. i've tested it with a Realpower 450 watts power supply, yet it powered off during boot, after showing the win98 logo. Someone suggested i get an ide controller card and disable the motherboard ide controller. Will this work? I'll like to know from you tech guys before i go into further expense on this item.

 

[ski]

If the HD is being recognized in BIOS and it shows up on the BIOS screen during startup, then the controller should be ok.
To check that the IDE 1 controller is ok, just connect the HD to the secondary controller, and remove all other drives. If it starts ok, then the IDE 1 controller is bad.

If the same thing happens with the HD connected to IDE 2, then see if it starts in Safe mode. If it does, then do a clean boot to troubleshoot the problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q192926

If the problem also happens in Safe mode, then try the following:
-Restart the computer, press the Del key(or whatever key is specified on the 1st screen at startup) to enter CMOS Setup, use the arrow keys to highlight Default, Standard, or Setup settings, press Enter, press Y at the warning(if it appears), highlight 'Save And Exit', press Enter, type Y at the warning, insert the Windows boot floppy disk, press Enter, select 'Start Windows Without CD-ROM Support', press Enter, at the A:\> prompt type dir c: and press Enter:

(1)If you do not see the contents of the hard drive, then it has a problem(defective, or loose or defective cable).

(2)If you see your hard drive's contents, then do the following:
-If your hard drive is using 3rd party overlay or compression software, make sure it's properly configured.
-Use an antivirus floppy to check the hard drive for a virus(see your antivirus program's instructions).
-Reconnect the FD, insert a Windows boot floppy, select 'Start w/o CD-ROM support', press Enter, type scandisk c: at the A:\> prompt, and press Enter to fix any errors.
-If no good, then type C: at the A:\> prompt, press Enter, type fdisk /mbr at the C:\> prompt and press Enter to replace the master boot record.
-If still no good, then type sys c: at the A:\> prompt, and press Enter to replace the system files.
-If nothing works, then the memory or CPU may be bad. Try the RAM in different slots one stick at a time, and/or try different RAM.

 

[ski]

I forgot to mention in my previous post to first restore the Registry if the problem does not happen in Safe mode, and it started within the last 5 days.
To do this, hold down the CTRL key during startup, select 'Command prompt only', press Enter, at the C:\> prompt type scanreg /restore and press Enter, select a Registry that predates the problem, and press Enter.