Cannot Bootup System

I am close to panic stage. My system was working fine (Vista, SCSI hard drives, 4GB of memory, C drive on RAID 0, F drive normal, Tyan S2665 motherboard), until I attempted to recover a hard disk after putting it in the freezer. The drive was fried so I pulled it out. I inserted a newly purchased Seagate drive and now the system will not bootup. I have power and the amber light that ususally indicates the CPU is operating is on solid and will not flicker. I cannot boot from a floppy or CD. PLEASE help me with some trouble shooting. So far I have checked all of the cables and they seem to be connected fine. I have also used compressed air to clean out the system and the connections. I am at a loss.

Thanks in advance ...

 

Let's check a few facts.

Do you mean SCSI or SATA?

If you put in a brand new hard drive why do you expect the system to boot?

Was the failed drive the system drive or another auxiliary one?

Where does the RAID come in?

Please describe the system and the symptoms more fully.

 

It's SCSI.

The new hard drive was not the C Drive ... It was my F drive. I did not change the C drive at all.

The failed drive was an auxiliary drive (i.e. my old F drive).

I have an Adaptec 2010S card that sets up the RAID for my C drive.

The system is a dual Intel processor system on a Tyan motherboard with 4GB of memory. I have an ATI video card, a Creative Soundblaster card, and the RAID card in the slots. There are two SCSI connectors on the motherboard. One is connected to the tape drive. Another connects two drives that are connected as RAID 0, my C drive, and the auxiliary drive. I also noticed that the system does not read my A drive or CD drive but that may be because is does not seem to want to post. Normally, it will boot, read the SCSI devices then go to windows.

I have had the system on for over 30 minutes and nothing is happening. Should I turn it off and leave it off for some period of time? Can a SCSI system take a long time to post if it is trying to reconnect with the drives? Not sure what I am asking but what the heck.

 

If you disconnect all drives the system should post but fail to find an operating system i.e. the BIOS should display a notice to this effect or a notice to the effect it can't find any drives.

But the sytem should count its memory before this and allow you to use the normal BIOS access keys.

Does it do this?

 

I have disconnected all drives ... SCSI and power. I do not get any posting or beeps. There is no signal to the video monitor. Prior to the situation with the hard drives, the system would boot up normally and there was no indication of any problems -- no delays, error messages, funny noises, etc. So this is very strange that I don't even get any posting beeps. How should I proceed?

 

The most likely cause is that you have disturbed cabling somewhere and not reconnected it properly. Perhaps a fan lead?

Check Check Check

 

There is no response from the system. No signal to the monitor. I tried pressing F2 to get into the BIOS utility but nothing happened. Given the rather sudden nature of the problem, is it possible that one of the memory sticks (I have 4) "died"? I've never heard of memory dying and always thought that if one died, the system would still try to bootup. I also seem to recall that the memory sticks operate in pairs so I have to take two out and test the system. Then try with the other two. Am I thinking straight on this or should I try something else?

 

I have checked and rechecked cabling. In some cases, I have disconnected, cleaned with compressed air and then reconnected. The area where the hard drives are and their connections are isolated from the rest of the computer wiring. I also removed memory sticks 1 and 3, rebooted, no change. Then I removed memory sticks 2 and 4, rebooted, no change. Not sure if that is the right configuration, i.e. should I have removed 1 and 2 and then 3 and 4?

Other suggestions?

 

Thanks for all your help ... Given my situation, I checked another forum and it was suggested that I clear the CMOS. I did that and the system booted up fine. It appears all is back to normal. Hopefully this will be a useful reference for someone else in the future. Thanks again for all the advice.

 

Thanks for the feedback, glad its sorted.