Free PC Support

[Littlerooster]

Hello:

I have an older Packard Bell, Windows 98 O.S. computer that I have installed many fun games for the Grandkids to play. However the machine intermittently will not start properly. Upon bootup, it shows "Hard Drive Not Found" and will not proceed. Next, I restart and go into setup, open the bios, check all settings, find them to be in order, exit, and then upon rebooting all is well and it starts up fine. I thought perhaps the bios battery was low so replaced it with a new one, to no avail. Next, I remove the IDE Cables from their sockets and clean by pulling in and out several times in hopes of possibly removing some sort of build up from the aging process. Still no help! Then I replace the IDE cable going from the hard drive to the motherboard with a new one, still no help. Removed the memory cards and cleaned, replaced, still no help. Installed new memory cards, still no help. The strange thing about this is that when the initial boot fails, then going into setup and looking things over but changing nothing, the rascal starts right up after exiting and rebooting. Seems like just visiting the setup bios screen fixes the problem. So, I am at a loss as to what to try next and will very much appreciate your help! Will be looking forward to your comments and I will provide additional information if needed! Please advise when convenient!

Many Thanks: Richard
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Many Thanks to all:

[SoftStag]

Hi

It sounds like you have tried all the obvious stuff. I would try the following:
Go in to the BIOS and reset to defaults, then save and exit
Make sure the power connector to the hard drive is secure (reseat to be sure)
Check the jumpers on the hard drive have it set to Master and if there is another device on the same IDE cable, set this to Slave

With this being an old system, it is possible that either the motherboard or hard drive have a fault that is causing this. Often a soldered joint somewhere becomes dry and the contact is not as good as it should be, the temperature change of having the PC turned on for a couple of minutes could improve the connection and make it work. Finding such dry joints are very difficult and require a skilled person to fix, it is often cheaper to replace the whole part than repair it.
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"Microsoft programs are generally bug-free. If you visit the Microsoft hotline, you'll literally have to wait weeks if not months until someone calls in with a bug in one of our programs. 99.99% of calls turn out to be user mistakes. I know not a single less irrelevant reason for an update than bugfixes. The reasons for updates are to present more new features."
-- Bill Gates, on code stability, from Focus Magazine

[demdike]

Packard Bells of that vintage are very prone to "capacitor disease! - and would give the symptoms described
Its not cost effective to repair. Bin it

[Littlerooster]

Hello: Happy to report that changing the jumpers on the hard drive and CD Rom drive seems to have resolved the problem and the unit is working fine now! Thanks to ALL who have contributed a reply. It was very much appreciated! Richard
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Many Thanks to all:

[demdike]

so the motherboard is not detecting the drives properly. presumably they are now jumpered master/slave while before they were "cable select"?

Soumds to me that the IDE controller chips are on the way out - and the board should not be trusted
The previous jumpering could not have been "wrong" as obviously it WAS working