TSGL: Old computer

[The Computer Whisperer]

sometimes an item such as a USB hub or Printer can stop the pc booting in
that fashion, make sure when starting it up that all you have is  the
keyboard, mouse, power supply and screen plugged in to the pc.

2008/7/17 Don Penlington <deepend at tpg.com.au>:

> Colin wrote:
> >Ive had some m/boards in the past where the drive controller had gone bad
> a
> >this produced the results mentioned>>
>
>
> That's a distinct possibility.
>
> I tried booting with the hard drive disconnected. It sill booted to POST
> but this time without showing any hard drives.
>
> Re-connecting the hard drive and rebooting, POST again showed the hard
> drive.
>
> If the drive controller is bad, would POST recognise the drives correctly?
>
> Trying yet another keyboard and holding down Delete while booting, I was
> able to access bios a couple of times, but no keyboard keys would work, so
> I was unable to select anything in bios. Everything seems locked up as soon
> as POST is finished. Keyboard numlock light is working, can switch on or
> off by numlock key.
>
> I doubt that re-setting bios, whether by jumper leads on the mobo (I
> wouldn't have a clue where they are) or removing the battery would help. I
> did remove the cmos battery overnight, but it made no difference.
>
> I tried boot CD's and floppies, but again, couldn't get past that POST
> screen.
>
> What normally happens immediately after POST?  I assume the next step is
> that bios looks for NTLDR---or does it look for the MBR first? Maybe the
> MBR is corrupt, but I don't see any way to fix it with the computer locked
> up.
>
> Don Penlington
>
>
>  From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
> Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
> http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html
>
>
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