computer not working

[enrique]

when started up told system disk error replace disk and press any key.also told disk drive a error.have replaced cd drive and disk drive.have been told it may be motherboard.i don't have the foggiest on computers and need very clear detailed help.i have a siemens computer.if anything needs changing could you give me the full name and cost and how to go about doing it.handy at diy will try anything once.

MOD

see item 9

and get your boiler fixed first

 

[Igorian]

Time for Kev to get his balls out!

First, how old is this machine, what specification is it and what operating system do you run?

The message you are getting means that there is either no operating system installed or that the boot sector cannot be accessed. You would normally get a BIOS message in the event of a hardware failure. One cause is if the floppy drive is set as the first boot device and it contains an unbootable floppy disk. Sounds daft, but had more than one call for this.

Try using a bootable floppy disk or CD to start the machine and get to a command prompt. See if the C drive is accessible from there.

You say that you changed the hard drive. Did you test the old one to confirm that it was faulty? What is the size old/new drive. Have you tried to install an operating system on the new drive?

Can you access the BIOS of this machine? There will be a setting to either detect the hard drive or to alow parameters to be entered manually.

 

[kevplumb]

for you mate hope it helps

 

[nstreet]

Are you sure you didn'y have a floppy disk in the drive to start with?. Seen this many times before.

 

[kevplumb]

Time for Kev to get his balls out!

Are you sure you didn'y have a floppy

ohhh errrrr missus

 

[Igorian]

for you mate hope it helps

Ty, I now have moving balls

 

[kevplumb]

go get it floyd !!!
nice one

 

[AdamW]

I have seen this one spontaneously appear with both Windows and Linux PCs (makes sense, seeing as it is pre-OS booting). A reformat and reinstall sorted it out. So not necessarily a hardware failure.

You say that you changed the hard drive

Not necessarily... they said disk-drive, it is my experience that most use this to refer to the 3.5" drive.

Personally, I haven't had a floppy one in 6 years!

 

[Igorian]

You say that you changed the hard drive

Not necessarily... they said disk-drive, it is my experience that most use this to refer to the 3.5" drive.

Tis true. My ball was cloudy

 

[enrique]

There was no/is no floppy in the disk drive.The drive i removed is the floppy disk drive.The computer is about five years old, and was using windows 98'.Tried windows xp but to no avail.
So far as my boilers concerned i do intend on doing something about it, would have liked to have fixed it my self but doesn't seem poss.
And you with the crystal balls, i'd hate to see the future of anything in them.

 

[Igorian]

5 years old. Possibly the CMOS battery is depleted and so hard drive settings have been reset in BIOS.

Are you able to access the BIOS?

 

[enrique]

yes, i am able to access bios.

 

[Igorian]

Have you got a windows 98 disk and will it auto run from your CD or do you have a bootable floppy disk?

 

[enrique]

Don't have a floppy.Do have windows 98 disk but don't think it will autorun from cd

 

[breezer]

if you can access the bios you may be able to tell it to "first boot drive x"
X being the letter of your cd rom drive