jinxy said:
Hello , I am tring to revive a P3 running XP home. The hd in question
is a Maxtor Diamond Plus 30gb. The pc posts and gives me the single
beep and starts to load windows , but keeps going back to a screen
telling me that a recent hardware or software failure your has
occured. I am given the options of starting windows normally or safe
mode and with or without network support. I have tried both the normal
and safe modes with the same results. The pc belongs to a kid down the
street, his folks are separated and his mom cannot afford a repair
shop fees. This scenario has probably been asked quite a few times I
am guessing, but please bare with me and help me fix this problem.
Thank you in advance for your time and efforts.
-J
Tests you can try:
1) Go to the Seagate web site, and download a hard drive diagnostic
program for a Maxtor drive (Seagate bought Maxtor). See if the
drive passes or not. If the drive needs to be replaced, you can
install the "clip" jumper on a higher capacity hard drive, to
reduce its shown capacity to 32GB. That is used in cases where the
machine doesn't like to see a larger drive (a BIOS limitation, not
always documented anywhere).
2) A simple test to run, would be to boot a Ubuntu (ubuntu.com) or
Knoppix (knopper.net) Linux LiveCD. Those don't need a hard drive
and also don't install any software unless you want them to. If
booting an alternate OS works, that tells you the OS on the
original disk is having a problem. Those distros are a 700MB
download from the respective web sites. Before doing this though,
check the minimum memory required to run them, as your system
may not have enough memory present to run them. I use those CDs
for testing here.
3) Check for "bad capacitors". The capacitors are the aluminum
cylinders with plastic sleeves on them. Usually near the CPU
slot or socket. The tops of the cylinders, should be perfectly
flat. If they are bulging, that means they are going bad.
Also, check near the base of the capacitor, where it enters
the motherboard PCB. If you see a brown stain, where some
liquid has dried, that is escaped electrolyte. That is also
a sign the capacitor is failed. Within a few weeks of the
capacitor going bad, the strain from the bad capacitor, can
cause other elements of the switching power circuit to fail.
Bad capacitors can be replaced with careful soldering iron
work. Sites like badcaps.net sell replacements, and it may
be easier to get them there, than to try to find the right
type at a big electronics company. In looking at the component
catalog of one big supplier, I could find no desirable types
listed, only crap.
4) The power supply could be failing to deliver enough power,
just as the desktop is about to appear. Measuring the
voltages with a multimeter, might show a weakness.
(Voltages are 3.3V, 5V, 12V, -5V, -12V, +5VSB).
Swapping a replacement supply into the system, for testing,
is another alternative. Make sure, before you do it, that a
standard ATX supply is pin compatible, with the computer in
question. There were some Dells, where that wasn't the case.
Hopefully, the computer does not rely on -5V, as many new
power supplies no longer have that rail present (missing pin).
HTH,
Paul