New harddrive...now the system won't boot?

[R0CK3TM4NN]

Not sure where to put this, but yesterday I installed a Western Digital 80 GB drive with the 8 MB cache. It ran fine for the first 3 hours, after I installed XP pro and got it working the way I had on my old harddrive.

However, when it was transferring a dowloaded file from the temporary directory the system shut down and started beeping: just the repitition of long beeps followed with short spaces. When I restarted the system, the BIOS (its a version of AwardBIOS, I forgot which, on an Asus A7A266 mobo with an Athlon Thunderbird 1.2 Ghz) said the "processor hung" because it was at an improper clock speed. Well...the clock speeds were fine, 133 MHz FSB and 9.0 multiplyer, where its always been since I built it last year.

What is this problem then? Bad bios? Did I fudge the heatsink when I stuck my hand in there to install the harddrive? As always, thanks in advance for your help.


(LAN party tonight!!! So I guess you could say this is urgent...)

[glock19owner]

I am not a Asus fan and have read about this problem before and the only place I knew that I could link you too with a solution is down for the next day or so. Sorry, I can not remember the solution either.

But have you tried to clear the CMOS and seen if that helps?

Also, you didn't happen to have your PSU cord still plugged into the PSU when you installed these parts...(sorry, but I have learned to ask this question from a few people that I have helped out before to find out after months of help that they where keeping the PSU cord still plugged in while working on their systems, bad mistake.)

[R0CK3TM4NN]

no, I didn't leave the cord in...actually had it on my island in my kitchen, close to the sink so I could try my best to be grounded...

See, this is the frustrating part...I'm actually on my computer right now...the one that wouldn't boot up this morning.

All I did was set the clock to 900 MHz and everything runs fine.

The temperature probe says its running at 44 C. At 1200 MHz it runs around 50 C, and 55 C when under stress.

If it requires flashing the CMOS or updating the BIOS, I might need help in that area.

Thanks for the help.

[Arkaine23]

This just happened to my friends the other day. One of their HDD's crapped out. He stuck it in the freezer and got it working again, so they backed up the important data across the home network to their other computer. Then they installed a cd-rw in the second computer. After that it would not post.

The problem was that in adding drives, the motherboard wound up getting bumped slightly and it grounded out on the metal casing of a hard drive. What you should do is check everything inside the case and make sure nothing is touching the motherboard that shouldn't be, wiggle the motherboard and make sure its secure, reseat ram and video card to make sure they have a tight fit. If any little thing happened to get loose or move slightly while you were adding your hard drive, that could be the reason you aren't able to POST.

[glock19owner]

Check and see if you have the latest BIOS and clearing the CMOS is easy, unplug the PSU, look for a jumper right by the MB battery. It should be a 3-pin setup with the jumper shorting out 2 of them with one open. Just move the jumper over to short the middle one and the open one for a few seconds, then replace the jumper back to the original setting. That should clear the CMOS.

[glock19owner]

Arkaine23,

Since I am far from a Asus fan, would that cause his BIOS to
the "processor hung" because it was at an improper clock speed. Well...the clock speeds were fine, 133 MHz FSB and 9.0 multiplyer and with them setting the CPU to 900 makes everything run fine?

To me that wouldnt be because of a short. If it was a short or a dead HD it wouldn't post at all, even now...

IMO it sounds more like a BIOS issue with possible the new 80G HD...but that is just IMO...

[glock19owner]

Also if it was a short, then they wouldn't of been able to run the system for 3 hours before it screwed up.

I am still a firm believer it is the BIOS, but then again it is a Asus board.

Not jumping you Arkaine23, just pointing out a few facts that leads me to believe it is the BIOS cool.

[Arkaine23]

I skimmed through and stopped reading the first post after the mention of a restart followed by beeping. Should have paid more attention there, and I probably need to reconsider posting while I'm toggling the montior between the forums and a freeBSD server I'm configuring.

Sounds like the bios may have switched over to safe settings, possibly because the CPU was very hot or the HSF had been bumped. Best thing to do is reset CMOS and/or flash to a newer bios. Then put back the settings you were using beforehand.

PS. Asus = anywhere from suxx - pretty ok. I prefer Abit or Epox.

[TollPhree]

I had asusv333 board and it was really nice =P dont be dissin asus ehhe

[glock19owner]

That might of been where most of your problems were comming from Zac...lol...J/K...;)...

[blohin]

R0CK3TM4NN you might need better PSU!