Computer trouble!

[mr.pipes 4]

I was at my mothers yesterday to mow the lawn and she told me something was wrong with her computer.

I don't know much at all about computers and hope someone here can give me some advice.

When she went to go on-line in the afternoon the screen looked like the pics below.

She said she thought she shut the computer down when she last used it.

Any ideas what is going on?

The first screen is what comes up when you turn the PC on.

Second is what happens if you hit F1

3,4+5 are what comes up if you hit F2

I scrolled through setup utility stuff but it is Greek to me.

Could she have done something instead of shutting it down?

Thanks for any help you can offer - Geoff

[rmaynard 16,289]

I think that someone let the "smoke" out of the hard drive.

The motherboard is looking for an operating system which is located on the hard drive. If the hard drive has crashed, you will get that screen.

That is not a message that you want to see.

Since MikesRJ does a lot of computer stuff, I hope he sees this and will chime in with his 2 cents worth.

[mr.pipes 4]

Yea, I didn't think it was a good sign.

I did click on drives and something didn't look right.

I can't remember exactly what it said now, should have taken a screen shot.

I wanna say it wasn't listing all the drives, maybe only the CD-ROM

I thought it was weird the hard drive wasn't showing.

Not that I would have known what to do anyway.

I'll be heading back over there in a bit to work on the deck so I'll take some more screen shots in case they are any help.

[Save Old Iron 1,571]

Usually not a promising sign,

but check your bios settings just in case

before the computer looks for an operating system, the "boot device" must be identified (thru bios settings) and then successfully talked to" before the operating system is loaded. This is where your message places your particular problem.

you could quickly check the bios setting for BOOT SEQUENCE to make sure your HARD DISK is not "disabled" - not likely

You could also check the PRIMARY DRIVE 0 setting = HARD DRIVE

if this setting is anything other than HARD DRIVE, the hard drive will most likely require replacement/ If this incident was after a power outage, suspect the hard drive.

If the computer is near or over 5 years old - again, suspect the hard drive.

It is possible the power connector or data connector to the hard drive has been unplugged.

Check air inlets for dust / animal fur accumulation that would have raised the temp of the computer case to abnormally high levels. It may not save this hard drive but it can help save your replacement drive.

There is a very unconventional procedure to attempt a last ditch effort on getting the system to recognize the hard drive.

Remove the hard drive from the PC and insert the drive into a zip lock bag.

Place the sealed bag / drive in the refrigerator freezer for several hours.

Remove the cold drive and reconnect it into the PC and apply power to the PC.

If the drive is recognized, immediately start to copy your valuable data off the hard drive onto a USB stick or CD/DVD writer.

Dell shows your system as a Dimension 3100 shipped in 2006 - yep, there's your 5 years on an 80 gig hard drive. My milk money goes on a hard drive issue.

On a related subject, Dell had motherboard issues back in that era - google "DELL BAD CAPACITOR MOTHERBOARD" and pull up some pics on how to identify a possible failed or failing motherboard due to swollen caps.

[mr.pipes 4]

Thanks SOI, I am going over there after I post this and will attempt to check the BIOS setting and the primary drive.

I'm not sure if there was a power outage or not but will ask her.

There shouldn't be any animal fur but will check for dust accumulations. She keeps a pretty neat house so I'm not thinking that was an issue but who knows.

Possibly she didn't shut it down like she thought and there was an overheating problem from being left on. It was only 3-4 hours however.

It doesn't sound good but I'll check it out.

Thanks for the help-Geoff

[Save Old Iron 1,571]

You are welcome Geoff,

I think the culprit here is the age of the system. 5 years old is about average for all the hard drive failures I have experienced. It is said, it is not IF a drive will fail, it is WHEN the drive will fail.

Definitely check for the bulging capacitor issue.

Lift up the front access flap where the front USB drive jacks are located and check for dust accumulation. Clogged front inlets will overheat the interior of the system and accelerate the death of the motherboard caps.

[312Hydro 474]

Here's something you may want to check also. If you reset the bios and the next time you start up you have the same problem then the battery on the motherboard should be checked. If it is bad it will not save your bios settings. If you do change it make sure to have a record of the bios settings to return to. You can get the battery almost anywhere. Unplug the computer before changing and it just unclips from it's socket.

[Actonhorse 26]

Hey Geoff, I had the same thing happen to me on Monday on a Dell Inspiron laptop. On mine the drive was making loud clicking noises when it tried to boot. The hard drive is toast... Luckily we had most things backed up but it is also 5 years old... The good news is that if the rest of the computer is still working well, you can replace the drive relatively inexpensively.

[rmaynard 16,289]

I lost the hard drive on my HP Pavilion laptop two years ago. Fortunately, I had it backed up to an online backup service and got all of my important files & pictures back. Hope your mom's hard drive was backed up in the event that it is toast.

[DOC in Kentucky 178]

I am betting on the harddrive went by by

Been there, done that and lost the data. :D

[CasualObserver 3,411]

to put some humor in the situation.....

:woohoo: