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View Full Version : HUGE problems booting rebuilt system:HELP!!!!


Fiery251
02-05-2002, 06:36 AM
HELP!!!!!!!.
I recently rebuilt a system that I had after I upgraded to my new Athlon XP.
Its a Pentium III500,64Mb PC100 SDRAM,ATI Rage128 16Mb AGP card,Trigem Napoli2 mobo,4.3Gb Seagate H/D,all running under W98.
Here is whats happening......
I had removed the original H/D from the above system to fit to my new PC......no problems there.....
I basically put everything back to standard and fitted a small 4.3Gb H/D from my old Pentium 120.It had been untouched and was simply removed from the P120 and fitted into the PIII500,it has W98 and some other programs and apps on it....and it worked perfectly before I moved it.
Now,when I boot up the PIII500,I get three beeps in quick succession during the POST...which I reckoned was memory related.So I removed the existing memory and fitted another stick.....still the same...3 beeps.I have tried 5 other sticks of memory,including a brand new one and it still does it.The first three sticks of memory I tried were the ones from my new system,which work perfectly in it.So it is not memory,but what else would make the POST beep 3 times?.
PLEASE KEEP READING.......I know this a long winded post!!!!!.
Ok,so it beeps 3 times at the post.Then it says "Error 202 http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gifrive not ready",and "insert system disk,press any key when ready".So I insert a W98 start up disk,select the CDROM support and:-,
I do that and it runs a few PCI Bus scans and complete`s them.
It then fires up RAMDRIVE correctly and the screen changes to:-
W98 has detected that Drive C does not contain a valid FAT or FAT 32 partition.It lists some possible causes for this to check.
It says it may need partitioned,but if you try FDISK,it says "No fixed Drives detected".
AH-HA!!!,you may think:-"Faulty Hard drive?".
NOPE!!!!.I took out the H/D and swapped it over to my new system,where it booted up first time,loaded windows and began going thru the "detecting new hardware" stuff....
So I am at a loss at what to do now...
Pleaze help.....if I have left out anything else you need to know,let me know what.....

O/Cwannabe
02-05-2002, 07:00 AM
no help from me here, just maybe some moral support. sounds like you have a ghost in your machine too. ain't it just great? but i gotta say, at least YOU can boot up! I envy YOU pal. I now have TWO machines with extra mobo/cpu/parts etc., and i can't even get anything to POST! I realize it has got to be something simple and stupid, or are there that many new and used parts being peddled on Ebay that don't work?

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Bill Gates, I might have more love for ya if I were a long time stock holder!

Fiery251
02-05-2002, 07:07 AM
Hello there......

Are`nt computers wonderful???!!!!.

Still trying to exorcise the ghost,no luck yet,sorry to hear you cant even post!!.Thats bad,mate......I cant suggest anything either......sorry!!!

Rick
02-05-2002, 09:23 AM
If Fdisk is not detecting the hard drive.
Then the Bios isn’t detecting it Or it is not setup correctly .

If the drive works in another system then the first place to look is in the cmos settings.
If it has Auto detect use that.
Or boot it up in the second system and check the cmos drive settings, write them down and use those settings in the Non booting system.

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To ERR is HUMAN
To REALLY screw things UP, YOU NEED a COMPUTER !