Power Surge blew up old desktop

Hallo

A power surge blew up my brothers old Aopen desktop. It popped and smoked. In the hopes that the hard drive was okay, I took it out and installed it in his spare Aopen. When I tried to boot it, nothing appeared on the screen. I pressed the button on the monitor and a very brief message appeared "no signal detected or cable disconnected or power saving"

Does this mean the hard drive has had it, and all his information lost? Is there anyway that I can get his personal docs out of it?

I rechecked all the connections, and took the battery out and replaced it.

 

Assuming the machine works without the HDD installed, I would guess the HDD is fried. That also assumes you have correctly installed it in the second machine.

 

Hi Tadpole, re-read Snerdly's reply.

Does the spare machine boot and display anything on the screen without the HD installed? It seems the "no signal" message may be a monitor/video problem unrelated to the HD.

 

I have tried another monitor that was working last time I used it, the green light comes on and then goes orange, with nothing appearing on the screen. When I boot up, the CPU makes all the right sounds. Nothing happens on screen with or without the hard drive being connected.

 

It still sounds like the computer isn't giving out a video signal. Even with no HD the BIOS screen should show on the monitor.

Is there a video card installed or is it onboard video? If there one or more video connections on the back of the PC? If it has a video card make sure you are connecting the monitor to that connector.

 

It has an onboard video.

 

On the spare computer try booting it with no HD, no CDROM connected. Just the monitor, keyboard and RAM. See if you can get something on the screen. Try again with no battery. Then try again with the battery installed.

If none of that works. Try taking out the RAM and seeing if you get a long beep from the motherboard when you try to boot with no RAM installed.

(We just want to see if that PC will boot up to BIOS screen)

 

Thanks, I will try that and get back!

 

I did as you instructed, no display appeared at any step. Once I removed the ram and booted I was getting one long beep - it kept giving one long beep until I switched the desktop off.

 

So we know the motherboard is not completely dead.

You could try again with the battery, still no HD or CDROM and only one module of RAM. Try each module of RAM individually to see it it boots with any of them.

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Has this spare been used at all recently? Do you know if it was working before it was put away?

To answer the original question there is a chance that the HD is still good but you have to get it into a computer that is running to check it out. The HD is not causing this spare not to boot since it is not connected.

This spare may have a video problem or a Power Supply Unit problem. Do you have a video card you could test in the spare?

 

I was using the spare in June last year without any problem. I have another spare monitor I can try, but no video card suitable for a desktop. I will try out your suggestions, thanks for taking the time

 

I doubt it is the monitor since you have tried two, but it couldn't hurt to try one more.

I've experienced similar issues when taking an old computer out of storage. Do you have a model number on the spare Aopen you are trying to boot? (I'd just like to see what the clear CMOS instructions are but taking the battery out for a few minutes while it is unplugged should accomplish clearing CMOS)

When you disconnect the HD and CD are you disconnecting the data cable as well as their power plug--if not try it that way. (I'm assuming it is an IDE-flat data cable-hook up) Sometimes leaving the data cable connected to a device like HD or CDROM,even without their power cable connected, can cause POST problems.

 

You are right, it is not the monitor. If I disconnect it from the PC, it lights up.
It does have flat data cable, which I did remove as well. The model is AX4BS-V . I have also tried disconnecting the floppy drive. Swapping different RAM around the 3 slots did nothing either.

 

I was just looking at that motherboard and it doesn't appear to have onboard video. Are you sure you don't have a card in there? If you realize it is a card, make sure it is properly seated in its slot.

ftp://ftp.aopen.com/pub/image/mb/ax4bsv/ax4bsv.jpg

 

:-o Sorry I realise that now, I took out the card and replaced it, it is sitting firmly. I do have another I can try - although It is in a computer that does not work. I will try it, thanks.

 

Success, I put in another video card, and everything is working. I swapped the hard drive for the one that was in the desktop that went up in smoke. Booted up, it gives a message "Detecting IDE drivers.... then verifying DMI pool, then choose your operating system:
Microsoft windows recovery
do not select this [debugger enabled]
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Microsoft Windows

When I choose XP Professional, the windows loading line goes across the screen and I land back at "Detecting IDE drivers..."

I went to CMD prompt and did a chkdsk, for drive C: that found one or more errors. It did not understand chkdsk/f

Microsoft windows recovery is only giving drive D: as an option.

 

Additionally, I Pressed f8 and disabled restart so I could get the BSOD error codes.

Stop : 0x00000007B(0xF8BOD528, 0XC0000034, 0X00000000, 0X00000000)

 

http://kadaitcha.cx/xp/stop/STOP_0x0000007B_INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE.html

My guess based on all your posts is a problem with the hard drive.

When you put it into a different computer, did you use a different cable?

 

Let's see, if the object is to recover data off the old HD then it would be simplest to keep the HD that was already in that second machine as the boot drive. [That would eliminate the errors if they were being caused by differences in the motherboards between the two machines.]

If I am reading things correctly, the second machine booted OK into Windows before you switched HDs. If this is true then you would want to keep that working HD in place as the boot drive and add the one you want to recover files from as a slave/secondary drive. You would attach the second HD to the middle connector on the flat/IDE cable and switch the jumper to slave position according to the diagram on the HD.



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On the command: it would be chkdsk (space) /f
or you could try chkdsk (space) /r

If you are able to boot into Windows with the two HDs attached as above you could run chkdsk through Windows by going to My Computer then right-clicking on the drive you want to check and selecting Properties. On the Tools tab there will be an option to check drive for errors and you can select both boxes to fully scan and repair any fixable errors.

 

I used the cable that was in the second computer

 

Thanks, yes, recovering the data is my no 1 priority. I will follow your instructions and thanks for the diagram.

 

Couple of questions. I have put the good hard drive back in with no problems. The other hard drive, has 10 pins, not 8. So am not sure exactly where to put the jumper. The IDE cable, can I use the one that is currently in the floppy drive? Or do I take one out of a spare desktop?

With the good hard drive installed, XP is asking to be activated, as soon as I logon. I presume this is because the hardware is different. I use satelite internet, and need to physically enter my IP, gateway etc. It does not automatically connect. Is there a way to get to networking? I tried safe mode and that does not get me there. I do have a valid XP License key.

 

I'm not sure exactly where we are.

The simplest setup would be to have the good HD installed as Master on one cable.
And then disconnect the CDROM and just plug in the HD you are trying to recover to the CDROM cable on the end where there CDROM had been connected. That way no jumper may have to be changed. But this would just be a temporary solution.

If you give the brand name model number of each HD I could help find the jumper settings. (I had forgotten that some model HDs have a jumper setting for Dual Master meaning if you want to have two drives on one cable you would have to change the jumpers on both drives)

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On the activation, I thought the good HD was from the spare Aopen--so there should be no hardware change? Maybe, I have something wrong? Do you see a choice of Safe Mode with Networking?

 

I will try using the CD Rom cable and get back with the Hard drive make and models. The good hard drive came off a GA-8IDML intel 845 AGPset mother board, it has the 10 pins, think it is a Sea Gate, but will have to check. I have bits out of 3 desktops in the Aopen I am trying to get up and running.

 

I think the jumpers are fairly standard for Western Digital and Seagate. I'll look for a print out. They should have diagrams printed on the label.

If you just have each drive on its own cable they they can both stay Master because they would be the Master for their cable.

*****
Have you considered trying a Live Linux CD like Linux Mint? That would allow you to boot from the CD and run Linux. It would give you internet access which might be easier for troubleshooting. If you can download the 700mb ISO file you would burn it to CD as an image file using imgburn or similar burning software. (You have to write it as an image file to make it bootable.)

Or you could put it on USB flash drive using something like http://www.linuxliveusb.com/ creator program.

 

There are some links for jumper settings. The one from WD is pdf format.

Seagate drives: http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/images/support/en/us/mxo_ata_jumpers_rev.jpg

Maxtor: http://www.seagate.com/images/support/en/us/u5_family_1.gif

Western Digital: http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp...umpers&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.&fp=eda1291fdd569703

Looks like Seagate/Maxtor is fairly standard to set Master or Slave.

Western Digital is the brand that has Dual Master settings. But that is only applicable if you attach two drives to one cable and the Western Digital drive is the Master boot drive. For WD 10 pin drives it looks like no jumper for single Master (which would be correct for having it on its own cable) or vertically over the center pins (third row) for Dual Master if you were to connect the second HD to the same cable.

 

Was unable to work on it today. We had no power, and the generator was hit by the surge. Hoprfully tomorrow, power is about to go - bye

 

The desktop is a 2002 model, so am I correct in saying the Seagate hard drive should be set to master with CLJ? That is the hard drive that is working.

 

If the computer is from 2002 you should not need CLJ settings. Just Master should be fine.

"CLJ" is for computers that can't recognize a drive larger than 32GB which a 2002 model should have no problem recognizing.

EDIT: I was just reading that if the drive is formatted in FAT32 you may want to use the CLJ setting. I think you should not have to change settings if you put the working drive on the HD cable and the non-working drive on the CDROM cable. The jumper settings should already be set as Master on each and both would be considered master since they are on separate cables.

 

I tried putting both hard drives in, with their settings as master, the good one on the hard drive cable and the one I wish to recover (Exelstor) on the CD Rom cable and power plug. When I booted I got a blue screen, Stop : 0x0000007B and a message to remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured.

I then set them both to cable select, and when I booted, there was nothing on the monitor nor a mother board beep. Same happened when I set the good one to master, and the other to master with CLJ .

If I try putting the one I wish to recover in, on its own, I can boot it and get microsoft windows 98, which is what it came with initially. I can access the old docs. If I boot into CMD and type DIR, I can see files dated recently. If I try and go into windows XP, I get a blue screen.