Thank you for writing.

The HD is recognized in the BIOS. I set the
bootup sequence to CD and tried the WinXP install
disk. Same symptom: the motherboard splash
screen displays and then a blank screen with
a cursor at left top and a small image of the letter
N. without any system information scrolling by.

I removed and reseated the RAM memory
which did not solve the issue. On startup the
beep code is a single beep. Also on startup
there are a series of 3 or 4 clicks audible.
With a screwdriver stethoscope I can hear
the hd motor running.

There were no indications prior to the failure;
the computer was working normally the
previous day.

I welcome any suggestions.

Michael Eisenstadt
Austin Texas

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, May 30, 2010 1:08 AM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] hard drive failure?


Does the HD show in the BIOS?
Re-seat all connections, especially memory.
Were there any other indications prior to this incident?
Can you access the drive with a boot disk?



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [PCBUILD] hard drive failure?
From: Michael Eisenstadt <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sat, May 29, 2010 8:41 am
To: [log in to unmask]

I am trying to troubleshoot the following: 500Watt Coolmaster PSU,
Gigabyte
GA-MA790GPT mb, 2G DDR3 RAM, AMD Phenom II X3, Samsung SATA 80G
hd, running Win XP Pro. The BIOS is accessible. reboots with normal
single
ping,
but screen is blank except for blinking underline cursor on upper left
and
small
image of the letter N. Monitor and onboard video are normal when
displaying
the
BIOS.

Any suggestions while I price a new harddrive?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Michael Eisenstadt

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