I have experienced this with failing hard drives, usually they don't spin up
like they should.  Cycling the power several times seems to kick start them,
and sometimes they will spin up given a little time, without cycling power.
Of course, it could be the controller, and checking the CMOS battery, as
suggested, is a good idea too.
Glen Sagers

>An old 486 system I have recently started leaving messages when booting
>up.  It stated "HDD Controller Error, press F1 to resume".  Hitting F1
>worked a few times and I was able to get into the system but eventually, it
>well and truly died and I could not get access to the hard drive.
>
>Any other suggestions you might offer?

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