850GB trouble shooting - please help

This is the sequence of events that happened with my 850GB MB.

1. Installed a new PCI based TV Tuner card. Rebooted into XP, SP2.
2. While installing the drivers, the machine frooze.
3. When I force rebooted, the machine does not boot any longer.
4. Here is what I see:
> No longer see the Red/Blue Intel logo screen during boot up. I
see only a cursor.
> After about a minute with the cursor, it gives 2 beeps.
> It shows only this on the screen - "System Halted: Drive not
ready".
> I have changed the CMOS battery to a new one too, no use.
> The Harddisk by itself is fine, when tested on another system.
> Even cannot boot from a bootable CD anymore.
> I am able to go into the setup screen. Inside the setup, I see no
information about the HDDs.
> Inside the setup, the processor, ram is shown as fine.


Any clue what could be the issue? Do 2 beeps mean that some or all of
the RDRAMs have gone bad? I am confused by the "System halted: Drive
not ready" error, because the HDD works fine in another system.

Any help would be highly appreciated.

On 21/11/2006 in message
< .com>
wrote:

>1. Installed a new PCI based TV Tuner card. Rebooted into XP, SP2.
>2. While installing the drivers, the machine frooze.

Have you tried removing the card and booting?

--
Jeff Gaines
Damerham Hampshire UK

>> Have you tried removing the card and booting?

Yes, there was no change. Its really strange and the worst part is I am
unable to do any diagnosis as the HDD works by itself. Also, acutally,
I had 2 HDDs, both were working fine. Now whether I connect either of
them or both, I continue to get the same issue. I have tried replacing
the cables which connect the HDD to the MB, no change with that too.

I will try to remove the memory slots (2 at a time), replace it with
the contuinity RIMMs and see. I am not sure if it will help as the
error message is pointing to a HDD error.



On Nov 21, 1:58 pm, "Jeff Gaines" <jgaines_new...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> On 21/11/2006 in message
> <1164085543.104624.240...@h54g2000cwb.googlegroups .com> sga...@gmail.com
> wrote:
>
> >1. Installed a new PCI based TV Tuner card. Rebooted into XP, SP2.
> >2. While installing the drivers, the machine frooze.Have you tried removing the card and booting?
>
> --
> Jeff Gaines
> Damerham Hampshire UK

wrote:

> This is the sequence of events that happened with my 850GB MB.
>
> 1. Installed a new PCI based TV Tuner card. Rebooted into XP, SP2.
> 2. While installing the drivers, the machine frooze.
> 3. When I force rebooted, the machine does not boot any longer.
> 4. Here is what I see:
> > No longer see the Red/Blue Intel logo screen during boot up. I
> see only a cursor.
> > After about a minute with the cursor, it gives 2 beeps.
> > It shows only this on the screen - "System Halted: Drive not
> ready".
> > I have changed the CMOS battery to a new one too, no use.
> > The Harddisk by itself is fine, when tested on another system.
> > Even cannot boot from a bootable CD anymore.
> > I am able to go into the setup screen. Inside the setup, I see no
> information about the HDDs.
> > Inside the setup, the processor, ram is shown as fine.
>
>
> Any clue what could be the issue? Do 2 beeps mean that some or all of
> the RDRAMs have gone bad? I am confused by the "System halted: Drive
> not ready" error, because the HDD works fine in another system.
>
> Any help would be highly appreciated.
>
Perhaps the disk controller has died.

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form che...@prodigy.net.

>> Perhaps the disk controller has died.

You mean to say the disk controller on the MB? The HDD works fine on
another system, though.

I tried replacing 2 of the 4 memory cards with the contuinity RIMMS,
still the same problem (the system correctly detects the new lower
memory on board). This is the sequence (again, if it helps):

1. Power switched on.
2. I see 3 lines on the screen from the NVIDIA Graphics card (used to
happen earlier also).
3. Cursor keeps blicking on the first line of the above 3 lines
displayed.
4. At this point, it used to show the big Red/Blue Intel logo, this no
longer happens.
5. Goes to another screen where it shows the MB details, Processor and
memory details.
6. Nothing happens for about 30 seconds,
7. 2 beeps.
8. Quickly see 2 messages, CMOS battery low and CMOS <something> time,
date.
9. Goes to the final screen with just one line - "Drive not ready-
System Halted".



I did change the CMOS battery to a new one, but I dont know why it says
CMOS battery low.

Any clues with this new set of data?

Also, where can I find the details on flashing the BIOS of this MB?

Thanks in advance for all the help on this.

wrote:
>>>Perhaps the disk controller has died.
>
>
> You mean to say the disk controller on the MB?

Yes, that's what I mean.

The HDD works fine on
> another system, though.

Yes, I saw that in your earlier post.
>
> I tried replacing 2 of the 4 memory cards with the contuinity RIMMS,
> still the same problem (the system correctly detects the new lower
> memory on board). This is the sequence (again, if it helps):
>
> 1. Power switched on.
> 2. I see 3 lines on the screen from the NVIDIA Graphics card (used to
> happen earlier also).
> 3. Cursor keeps blicking on the first line of the above 3 lines
> displayed.
> 4. At this point, it used to show the big Red/Blue Intel logo, this no
> longer happens.
> 5. Goes to another screen where it shows the MB details, Processor and
> memory details.
> 6. Nothing happens for about 30 seconds,
> 7. 2 beeps.
> 8. Quickly see 2 messages, CMOS battery low and CMOS <something> time,
> date.
> 9. Goes to the final screen with just one line - "Drive not ready-
> System Halted".
>
>
>
> I did change the CMOS battery to a new one, but I dont know why it says
> CMOS battery low.

Perhaps that's its way of telling you the CMOS is corrupted. Did you
clear it after changing the battery?

>
> Any clues with this new set of data?
>
> Also, where can I find the details on flashing the BIOS of this MB?
>
If it worked before, I can't imagine why you would want to do that.
You're liable to make the problem much worse if you do. Clearing
the CMOS, on the other hand, might be worth a try. Often there's
a jumper to do that.

Usually the motherboard maker's Web site is the place to look for
such details. And it should have info to decipher the two beeps
(although two beeps is sometimes just a catch-all).

Were you careful about anti-static measures when you were installing
the new components? And there were no dropped screws, etc.?

> Thanks in advance for all the help on this.
>


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