At 08:13 AM 10/06/1999 , you wrote:
>Listers,
>I submitted this earlier in the week and got no response.  I thought I'd try again.
>Steve...
>
><original submission>
>I am troubleshooting a problem with an associate's Gateway P5-133 computer with a WD
>1.3GB hard drive running Windows 95 on 32 MB RAM.
>
>The PC's owner came to me when he was unable to start Windows.  The PC would POST and
>boot into DOS and indicate that Windows had fatal registry errors and could not
>load.  Upon examination, I found that several key files were missing from the hard drive
>such as USER.DAT and SYSTEM.INI.  As a quick fix for the problem, I decided to reinstall
>Windows (95) and the process proceeded as expected until the point where Windows detects
>PnP devices.  The PC hung unrecoverably and I was forced to reboot.  Upon reboot, the
>PC, after POST, informed me that "no bootable media was found".  Rebooting and entering
>CMOS setup showed that no hard drive could be found. Even if I selected "USER" and
>specified drive parameters.
>
>After some head scratching, I suspected that a virus (Chernobyl-type) had wiped the hard
>drive and possibly the bios.  I reflashed the bios to no avail, no hard disk
>found.  Everything else in the BIO/CMOS seemed in order.  I then proceeded to remove the
>hard disk and install it in another PC.  Disk was auto-detected just fine and appeared
>to be intact and clean.
>
>I now suspect a faulty hard disk controller, since everything else seems OK.  Is this a
>logical conclusion?  I assume that the disk controller is on-board, so a new motherboard
>is in order, correct?

If you are certain that the hard drive is functioning properly, using
your test on another computer, then I believe you have answered
your question.  The only other thing I would do first is replace the
data ribbon cable, as it may be bad.

One other thought here is you might be able to save money
by using a controller card in either an ISA or PCI slot on the
motherboard.  The price of a controller card vs. a new motherboard
may only save $20 or so...  and in the long run a new motherboard
will be more reliable and offer additional options for future upgrades.




                 Bob Wright
        The NOSPIN Group, Inc
http://nospin.com - http://nospin.org

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