Hard disk failing check > mobo strange behaviour bb202 12/30/2008 5:35:01 PM Suspecting that my hdd may be failing, ran a seatool test and it confirm that the hard disk is failing. So I decided to replace a new hdd from a 40gb to 160gb hdd. As usual mount on the pc> power on> and it says checking system health ok>cpu id...> checking NVRAM...update ok> 262144kb and the pc just hang there. Some times it wil show an extra line "F1>Set Up" and then nothing doing. I try to change/reset the cmos jumper but to no avail. I event put back the original hdd, but its the same situation. Question is why is the mobo behaving this way? Details of mobo 62-1001-001199-00101111-071595-v604v686-ga6940006-f and I suppose this pertain to the bios: 6VXC4X-6VXC7-4X-P F9 With these I cannot reformat the hdd.Olease advice, thanks

Re: Hard disk failing check > mobo strange behaviour Bob I <birelan[ at ]yahoo.com> 12/30/2008 5:46:56 PM recheck your connection, the other possibility is that you hit something with a static discharge while changing out the drive. bb202 wrote: [Quoted Text] > Suspecting that my hdd may be failing, ran a seatool test and it confirm that > the hard disk is failing. So I decided to replace a new hdd from a 40gb to > 160gb hdd. As usual mount on the pc> power on> and it says > checking system health ok>cpu id...> checking NVRAM...update ok> 262144kb > and the pc just hang there. Some times it wil show an extra line "F1>Set Up" > and then nothing doing. I try to change/reset the cmos jumper but to no > avail. I event put back the original hdd, but its the same situation. > Question is why is the mobo behaving this way? > Details of mobo > 62-1001-001199-00101111-071595-v604v686-ga6940006-f > > and I suppose this pertain to the bios: 6VXC4X-6VXC7-4X-P F9 > > With these I cannot reformat the hdd.Olease advice, thanks

Re: Hard disk failing check > mobo strange behaviour "Anna" <myname[ at ]myisp.net> 12/30/2008 6:10:29 PM "bb202" <bb202[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:DC6FF474-AFE8-416E-9C3B-025678C2C63D[ at ]microsoft.com... [Quoted Text] > Suspecting that my hdd may be failing, ran a seatool test and it confirm > that > the hard disk is failing. So I decided to replace a new hdd from a 40gb to > 160gb hdd. As usual mount on the pc> power on> and it says > checking system health ok>cpu id...> checking NVRAM...update ok> 262144kb > and the pc just hang there. Some times it wil show an extra line "F1>Set > Up" > and then nothing doing. I try to change/reset the cmos jumper but to no > avail. I event put back the original hdd, but its the same situation. > Question is why is the mobo behaving this way? > Details of mobo > 62-1001-001199-00101111-071595-v604v686-ga6940006-f > > and I suppose this pertain to the bios: 6VXC4X-6VXC7-4X-P F9 > > With these I cannot reformat the hdd.Olease advice, thanks bb... You've really got to clarify your post... 1. What are you attempting to do with that new 160 GB HDD? Are you installing it as a secondary HDD in your system? Is there a working boot HDD in the system? 2. Can we assume the new 160 HDD is a PATA and not a SATA HDD? 3. Is your objective to install the XP OS onto that new 160 GB HDD? If so, you're using an XP OS installation CD to accomplish this? If so, what's the problem here? 4. You're certain you've properly connected & configured the 160 GB HDD? 5. I really don't know if it's necessary to have any info about your motherboard, but anyway - what's the make & model of the MB? (Those numbers you gave don't immediately tell us that info). 6. You've been able to post your message above through another PC you have available? Is it a desktop machine? Anna

Re: Hard disk failing check > mobo strange behaviour Paul <nospam[ at ]needed.com> 12/30/2008 7:14:31 PM bb202 wrote: [Quoted Text] > Suspecting that my hdd may be failing, ran a seatool test and it confirm that > the hard disk is failing. So I decided to replace a new hdd from a 40gb to > 160gb hdd. As usual mount on the pc> power on> and it says > checking system health ok>cpu id...> checking NVRAM...update ok> 262144kb > and the pc just hang there. Some times it wil show an extra line "F1>Set Up" > and then nothing doing. I try to change/reset the cmos jumper but to no > avail. I event put back the original hdd, but its the same situation. > Question is why is the mobo behaving this way? > Details of mobo > 62-1001-001199-00101111-071595-v604v686-ga6940006-f > > and I suppose this pertain to the bios: 6VXC4X-6VXC7-4X-P F9 > > With these I cannot reformat the hdd.Olease advice, thanks You could be installing a 160GB disk, on a motherboard with a 128GiB/137GB capacity limit. My old P2B-S is like that. In the past, if dealing with an IDE disk in a situation like that, a person might use the "clip" jumper, as a test. The clip jumper on an IDE drive, causes the drive to report a different geometry to the BIOS, which will keep the BIOS happy. But doing so, might mean you only get to use 32GB of your disk. A solution, is to get a PCI IDE card, such as a Promise Ultra133 TX2, and connect the hard drive to that. That is a way of breaking the capacity barrier (since the PCI IDE card is compatible with a later version of the ATA/ATAPI spec). Then, it is up to your OS, as to whether there are further capacity related issues. WinXP SP1 and Win2K SP4 are prepared to handle >137GB disks, if the hardware is capable. Seagate makes this document available, which discusses the many possibilities. http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/tp/137gb.pdf This is as close as I could get to a board ID. They may have mistyped one character when they entered this in the database. http://www.motherboards.org/tools/moboidtools.html Gigabyte GA-6VX 62-1001-001199-00101111-071595-V694V686-9A694006-F Picture. http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/motherboards_d/Gigabyte/GA-6VX/ Manufacturer - uses VIA VT82C691 & VT82c596 AGPset chipset http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=1523&ProductName=GA-6VX It'll be something from around that era. The capacity limit is not documented that well, and I couldn't find any info for that board. As for the motherboard behavior, you'd think that clearing the CMOS (with the A.C. power plug pulled before using the jumper), would return things to normal. There is a small possibility the BIOS flash chip on an old board can fail (that is called "bit rot" when it happens). The main body of the BIOS is supposed to be protected by a checksum, and you'd expect that to flag a bit rot problem. If you try to reflash such a BIOS, to fix the problem, the board may not survive the flash. In that case, you may need to get a new BIOS chip, from badflash.com or some other similar site. And you have to tell badflash.com what BIOS file to use, so they can program that BIOS into a new chip. Paul

Re: Hard disk failing check > mobo strange behaviour bb202 12/30/2008 8:40:58 PM Connections are all ok. I dont think I hit any thing static while changing the hdd. I am trying to install xp in to the 160bg hdd using a cd. In the meantime the old hdd is been taken out during thr installation process. Well that's the plan but at the moment we cannot get past the POST. Fyi when I try to connect the old hdd(40gb) as Primary master, I cant get pass POST or I think at least there is no POST. What can I try next //// Thanks "Paul" wrote: [Quoted Text] > bb202 wrote: > > Suspecting that my hdd may be failing, ran a seatool test and it confirm that > > the hard disk is failing. So I decided to replace a new hdd from a 40gb to > > 160gb hdd. As usual mount on the pc> power on> and it says > > checking system health ok>cpu id...> checking NVRAM...update ok> 262144kb > > and the pc just hang there. Some times it wil show an extra line "F1>Set Up" > > and then nothing doing. I try to change/reset the cmos jumper but to no > > avail. I event put back the original hdd, but its the same situation. > > Question is why is the mobo behaving this way? > > Details of mobo > > 62-1001-001199-00101111-071595-v604v686-ga6940006-f > > > > and I suppose this pertain to the bios: 6VXC4X-6VXC7-4X-P F9 > > > > With these I cannot reformat the hdd.Olease advice, thanks > > You could be installing a 160GB disk, on a motherboard > with a 128GiB/137GB capacity limit. My old P2B-S is like > that. > > In the past, if dealing with an IDE disk in a situation like > that, a person might use the "clip" jumper, as a test. The clip > jumper on an IDE drive, causes the drive to report a different > geometry to the BIOS, which will keep the BIOS happy. But doing > so, might mean you only get to use 32GB of your disk. > > A solution, is to get a PCI IDE card, such as a Promise Ultra133 TX2, > and connect the hard drive to that. That is a way of breaking the > capacity barrier (since the PCI IDE card is compatible with a later > version of the ATA/ATAPI spec). Then, it is up to your OS, as to > whether there are further capacity related issues. WinXP SP1 and > Win2K SP4 are prepared to handle >137GB disks, if the hardware is > capable. > > Seagate makes this document available, which discusses the many > possibilities. > > http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/tp/137gb.pdf > > This is as close as I could get to a board ID. They may have > mistyped one character when they entered this in the database. > > http://www.motherboards.org/tools/moboidtools.html > > Gigabyte GA-6VX 62-1001-001199-00101111-071595-V694V686-9A694006-F > > Picture. > > http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/motherboards_d/Gigabyte/GA-6VX/ > > Manufacturer - uses VIA VT82C691 & VT82c596 AGPset chipset > > http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=1523&ProductName=GA-6VX > > It'll be something from around that era. The capacity limit > is not documented that well, and I couldn't find any info > for that board. > > As for the motherboard behavior, you'd think that clearing > the CMOS (with the A.C. power plug pulled before using the jumper), > would return things to normal. There is a small possibility > the BIOS flash chip on an old board can fail (that is called > "bit rot" when it happens). The main body of the BIOS > is supposed to be protected by a checksum, and you'd > expect that to flag a bit rot problem. If you try to > reflash such a BIOS, to fix the problem, the > board may not survive the flash. In that case, > you may need to get a new BIOS chip, from badflash.com > or some other similar site. And you have to tell badflash.com > what BIOS file to use, so they can program that BIOS into > a new chip. > > Paul >

Re: Hard disk failing check > mobo strange behaviour Bob I <birelan[ at ]yahoo.com> 12/30/2008 9:24:17 PM If it can't complete Power On Self Test, there isn't anything Windows XP can do about it. bb202 wrote: [Quoted Text] > Connections are all ok. I dont think I hit any thing static while changing > the hdd. > I am trying to install xp in to the 160bg hdd using a cd. In the meantime > the old hdd is been taken out during thr installation process. Well that's > the plan but at the moment we cannot get past the POST. > Fyi when I try to connect the old hdd(40gb) as Primary master, I cant get > pass POST or I think at least there is no POST. What can I try next //// > Thanks > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > "Paul" wrote: > > >>bb202 wrote: >> >>>Suspecting that my hdd may be failing, ran a seatool test and it confirm that >>>the hard disk is failing. So I decided to replace a new hdd from a 40gb to >>>160gb hdd. As usual mount on the pc> power on> and it says >>>checking system health ok>cpu id...> checking NVRAM...update ok> 262144kb >>>and the pc just hang there. Some times it wil show an extra line "F1>Set Up" >>>and then nothing doing. I try to change/reset the cmos jumper but to no >>>avail. I event put back the original hdd, but its the same situation. >>>Question is why is the mobo behaving this way? >>>Details of mobo >>>62-1001-001199-00101111-071595-v604v686-ga6940006-f >>> >>>and I suppose this pertain to the bios: 6VXC4X-6VXC7-4X-P F9 >>> >>>With these I cannot reformat the hdd.Olease advice, thanks >> >>You could be installing a 160GB disk, on a motherboard >>with a 128GiB/137GB capacity limit. My old P2B-S is like >>that. >> >>In the past, if dealing with an IDE disk in a situation like >>that, a person might use the "clip" jumper, as a test. The clip >>jumper on an IDE drive, causes the drive to report a different >>geometry to the BIOS, which will keep the BIOS happy. But doing >>so, might mean you only get to use 32GB of your disk. >> >>A solution, is to get a PCI IDE card, such as a Promise Ultra133 TX2, >>and connect the hard drive to that. That is a way of breaking the >>capacity barrier (since the PCI IDE card is compatible with a later >>version of the ATA/ATAPI spec). Then, it is up to your OS, as to >>whether there are further capacity related issues. WinXP SP1 and >>Win2K SP4 are prepared to handle >137GB disks, if the hardware is >>capable. >> >>Seagate makes this document available, which discusses the many >>possibilities. >> >>http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/tp/137gb.pdf >> >>This is as close as I could get to a board ID. They may have >>mistyped one character when they entered this in the database. >> >>http://www.motherboards.org/tools/moboidtools.html >> >>Gigabyte GA-6VX 62-1001-001199-00101111-071595-V694V686-9A694006-F >> >>Picture. >> >>http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/motherboards_d/Gigabyte/GA-6VX/ >> >>Manufacturer - uses VIA VT82C691 & VT82c596 AGPset chipset >> >>http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=1523&ProductName=GA-6VX >> >>It'll be something from around that era. The capacity limit >>is not documented that well, and I couldn't find any info >>for that board. >> >>As for the motherboard behavior, you'd think that clearing >>the CMOS (with the A.C. power plug pulled before using the jumper), >>would return things to normal. There is a small possibility >>the BIOS flash chip on an old board can fail (that is called >>"bit rot" when it happens). The main body of the BIOS >>is supposed to be protected by a checksum, and you'd >>expect that to flag a bit rot problem. If you try to >>reflash such a BIOS, to fix the problem, the >>board may not survive the flash. In that case, >>you may need to get a new BIOS chip, from badflash.com >>or some other similar site. And you have to tell badflash.com >>what BIOS file to use, so they can program that BIOS into >>a new chip. >> >> Paul >>

Re: Hard disk failing check > mobo strange behaviour Paul <nospam[ at ]needed.com> 12/30/2008 9:44:39 PM bb202 wrote: [Quoted Text] > Connections are all ok. I dont think I hit any thing static while changing > the hdd. > I am trying to install xp in to the 160bg hdd using a cd. In the meantime > the old hdd is been taken out during thr installation process. Well that's > the plan but at the moment we cannot get past the POST. > Fyi when I try to connect the old hdd(40gb) as Primary master, I cant get > pass POST or I think at least there is no POST. What can I try next //// > Thanks If you take the side off the computer, is it GA-6VX, or is it another member of that family ? There may be white lettering on the motherboard surface, identifying the motherboard. The processor socket type (slot or square socket), may help identify it as well. You can try clearing the CMOS. Gigabyte has motherboard manuals. This one is pretty small and is only 17 pages long. I don't see mention of a CMOS jumper in the section mentioning RTC (real time clock and CMOS memory). http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/Manual_DownloadFile.aspx?FileType=Manual&FileID=15500 To clear the CMOS, what I would try... 1) Normally, you want to have a written record of the BIOS settings. If any of the settings were custom values, you'll need to restore them later. When the battery died on my P2B-S, it took me half an hour, to remember how to set the boot order on the stupid thing. So it helps to have recorded any settings like that, that you may need later. 2) Turn off and unplug the computer. There is to be no power in the chassis while doing this! 3) Remove the CMOS battery. It is a round shiny disc in a socket. Keep track of which way it goes back, for later insertion. If you have a multimeter, the typical CR2032 type battery has a normal voltage of 3.0V or so. If it is 2.4V or lower, replace it. The last one I got cost $5. 4) Leave the battery out for an hour. On more modern motherboards, the CMOS jumper helps drain any stray power left over, and helps to complete the reset operation. When I say leave it out for an hour, that is my estimate of how long it would take for capacitors and the like to discharge, on their own. 5) Reinsert the battery. Plug the computer in. Enter the BIOS and set up any custom settings, such as boot order. On a board of that vintage, some of the important settings are done with jumpers, and those won't be forgotten when the battery is pulled. Aha! The F1A bios listed here, mentions support for up to 64GB disks. So it has a 64GB limit. Clipping your drive, with the clip jumper, to 32GB, should work fine with that. Using a larger drive, shouldn't really upset anything in a permanent way. I'm surprised putting the original disk back, has not straightened it out. http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ProductID=1523 Some old BIOS, will have a "reset ESCD" setting in the BIOS, and that can be used to make the motherboard forget about hardware that was just installed in it. It is a BIOS setting (so you have to be able to get into the BIOS to use it), you set it, and the next time the motherboard starts, the setting is cleared. (It is a one-shot operation, which is why the BIOS clears the setting on its own, at the same time it clears the ESCD storage area.) This is an example of a page that mentions it. I'm not sure that clearing the CMOS, also clears ESCD. They are stored in physically separate devices (ESCD is stored inside the BIOS flash chip). http://www.dewassoc.com/support/bios/escd.htm Paul

Re: Hard disk failing check > mobo strange behaviour "Don Phillipson" <e925[ at ]SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> 12/30/2008 10:07:25 PM "bb202" <bb202[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:100F04A5-267A-4AA1-A3C8-59ABF7DC010A[ at ]microsoft.com... [Quoted Text] > Connections are all ok. I dont think I hit any thing static while changing > the hdd. > I am trying to install xp in to the 160bg hdd using a cd. In the meantime > the old hdd is been taken out during thr installation process. Well that's > the plan but at the moment we cannot get past the POST. Omitted above: 1. Is the new drive C: jumpered right? 1b. Has it been formatted to accept files (and the OS)? 2. SATA or IDE connection and is it configured right in BIOS? Do you need to load SATA drivers first? -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)