My computer is fuxxored, something about the primary master

[stangeroo]

SO on my HP, when I turn it on it goes to a screen that says

DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

You can hear the hard drive clicking about once every 2 seconds. So I pushed F1 on startup and went to the setup screen. I told it to show the boot time diagnostic screen. What happens now is that is says its detecting the primary master, then says none next to it. It moves on to detect the primary slave, then says none. Then it goes to the black screen saying disk boot failure. Anyone know what is wrong with it or how to fix it. Also, other people have told me to start it up in safe mode, how do I do that

 

[Mickroy]

cant start in safe mode if the machine isnt recognising the disk at all!

Sounds like trouble. Try re-seating your IDE cable, also try a different one altogether. If both of those do nothing, try putting the disk in another PC (provided you have one) and see if it gets recognised. If not....proceed to throw it in the bin

 

[stangeroo]

cant start in safe mode if the machine isnt recognising the disk at all!

Sounds like trouble. Try re-seating your IDE cable, also try a different one altogether. If both of those do nothing, try putting the disk in another PC (provided you have one) and see if it gets recognised. If not....proceed to throw it in the bin

lol, im a noob, whats the IDE cable.

 

[Mickroy]

oh ok...sorry, I did suspect that anyway. IDE cables connect componants such as your hard drive and cdrom to your mainboard. So unless you know your way around inside a computer, might be better to have it looked it.

 

[Laser]

The IDE cable is the cable that connects from the drive to the motherboard. Often its a large gray ribbon looking cable, but newer cables are round and dont take up as much space.

 

[jaun1477]

lol, im a noob, whats the IDE cable.

remove the power cord then the cover and where your hard drive is just unplug the cables in the back dust off and reinstall all the cables
make sure to turn off the power and dont force the cables too much
take a visual look on how the cables go ..
even better write down how it is before unpluging anything
IDE cable is the flat thin cable

 

[stangeroo]

Ok, thanks guys I guessed thats what the IDE cable did, just wanted to check. Ill look at that later

 

[stangeroo]

im about ready to pop it apart. Any chance this is a virus/worm. I havent found the system disk, should I try and find it

 

[D4RK GR4YL3N]

did you take out any floppies in the floppy drive?

 

[mrdinkel]

Just a quick thought, being that HP is Phoenix BIOS...

Go into the BIOS setup, either F1 or Del, maybe even f2, and make it revert to factory defaults, which if i remember right is F9. This will possibly answer some questions.

Also, check the clock in the BIOS, and see if it shows the same time as the current time is. Very useful, because if its different, it tells you that the CMOS Battery is dead; you might as well hit two birds with one stone, and replace it while you're at it.