Has anyone ever put a BIOS chip in backwards? I burned myself :shock: when I figured out y the computer wasn't booting up. Hey, I was only 10, I learned a lot in the last four years. I just have old crappy computers (Best processor is 350 MHz) I kno, sad, but hey, I'm learning. But one thing I can't fix is I got a cheap maxtor hdd, windows XP detects it, has the drivers installed, knows it's there, the CD is E:, but it doesn't show up in My Computer. Stumped........................................
Jason#8
Last edited: Jul 02, 2004 15:14 (edited 1 time)
So it doesn't detect your cdrom? Well theres a couple reasons why this could be, is your cdrom light always on? If so this is a reversed ide cable, either turn it around on the motherboard or on the cdrom. If your light is off until you put in a cd, then its possible it is a jumper issue. This relates to the jumper issue, how is your cdrom and hdd connected to the motherboard? Through one ide cable? If so you need to make sure the jumper on the cdrom is set to slave. Another problem could be an issue in the bios, does it say it detects it at the beginning when you turn on your computer? If it is an older computer it should list what it detects right away, like your hdd and cdrom drive. So go into your bios if it doesn't show up on that list (there is also a list in the bios it detects what you have) you need to set it to slave or auto detect something like that.
Check the jumper (little black thing that connects two leads. Total of eight leads.) make sure it is on Master if it is your only HDD or SLave if it isn't. Also, if the HDD is on the end of the IDE cable, put it on master. If it isn't on the end but in the middle put it on slave. If it is in the middle and nothing is on the end then put it on the end as a master.
Also if that doesn't work put the jumper on slave, put it in another computer (a newer computer with XP preferably, and put it in the middle of the cable) and put any file on it, like a Word or pictures. Anything. Then put it in foloowing the first paragraphs directions. If none of this works, switch the HDDs around if there is more than one and see if that works. If the HDD is on its own cable now, then it might be a F***** up cable so just get a new one. They'te cheap. Hope this helps, I had the same problem but I don't know how exactly I fixed it.
Tell us the Operating System and specific stuff.
Hope this helps. If you read this and understand it, then you are a decent home PC builder. DOn't get too much pride and feel free to ask again, specificly about my stuff. No one, except maybe MM, Nova, Acro, rest of the memberlist will think less of you. :? Praying helps when I crew up my computer. So does crying and buying new HDDs. :wink:
Oh, XP sorry. is the HDD or the CD messed up? If it isn't reading the CD drive, it might be a bad IDE cable. Follow my previos first paragrapgh and replace the cable. If that doesn't work, get a new drive from newegg.com (very inexpensive, great warranty, shipping, return ploicy, overall excellent and reliable). Then get a shotgun, bring a friend out and have him throw the drive (while standing next to you) in front of you both and take a few shots at it. Relieves all the s*** a messed up computer brings with it. Don't get hurt, make sure no one is around, don't hurt anyone else, etc. Don't do anything that might get u in trouble with the law.
don't mean to be rude, but have you formatted this drive in fat32 or whatever you are going to use? If memory serves me right, windows will detect the unformatted drive. But nothing else will until it is properly formatted. if you don't know how to do this go to control panel > administration tools > computer management > storage > Disk management
there should be a list at the bottom and one will say unpartitioned, for you make it all the same partition, and most choose ntfs if it is an xp machine, or fat32 for the other os' this may solve your problem.
ya, it was the HDD, It's FAT32 and i'm running XP, thanx for the tips. I'll try formatting it, but I have a few things I wanna keep off of it, any ideas for that?
Funny thing is, I'm running XP on a computer with 350 MHz cpu, 128 MB ram, and it's a lot faster than when it had 98 SE on it. Cant run as much stuff at once, but games are better. 16 MB Graphics card, old Sound Blaster 16 Sound Card (Ancient, but sounds great) ya, built in 98, used extensively, still works good.
It's great to see a lot of people who offer help.
Jason#8
Good Call SJ, everyone learns something here.
Well?? What, if anything, worked?
works like a charm, thanx guys
Jason#8
Welcome on behalf of everyone.
