Help my computer died

not sure murph.

It is dangerous to mess with the system setup, if you are not an expert. If you can get to system setup you may be able to reset the setup to the factory default. I would try that and see if you can boot up.

Bill

 

What are you running?

My first guess is that you left a disk in one of disk drives and the machine is thinking you are trying to run startup from that.

If that is the case, remove the disk, then press any key and you shold be good to go. If that is not the case, let me know, and I'll do some checking.

 

Duh! I use the floppy drive so rarely, I completly forgot about getting that message when you leave a disk in the drive.


Bill

 

Steps to acheiving computer stability:

1. Turn off and unplug PC.
2. Disconnect monitor and peripherals.
3. As quickly as possible obtain a new Macintosh G5, or G4 if the budget will not allow the G5.
4. Reconnect the monitor and peripherals.
5. Restart the system, install the software for printer, scanner, etc.

You are now ready for "Computer Nirvana"

 

At least you are getting that message.

That message tells me that the disk that the system is trying to boot from is recognizable.

However there are no system files or the system files that were there once have become corrupted.

It is a bad message, but there are worse.

There is still hope.

What Operating System are you supposed to be running on that system?

Dave.

 

That is true. You will get that exact message if you leave a non-bootable floppy in the drive, then reboot the computer.

Dave.

 

Good advice.

Consider it as one of those last resort types of things that can't make things any worse and might even fix the problem.

Dave.

 

C.S. Murphy:

Normally I would say such a problem as yours is most likely due to conditions in this following order:

1. You left a non-system floppy in the drive
2. CMOS settings regarding the boot sequence got messed up
3. Your bootable hard drive may have a problem, e.g. the Master Boot Record is corrupt or something to that effect.

Other boot-up parameters may also do this, but this is where I'd check first.

You say that you were playing with the "setup" I am assuming in your case possibly item #2? I always keep a back-up, even if written, of the CMOS settings.

 

HINT: When replacing the CMOS battery, wear gloves or handle it with a soft cloth such as a clean handkerchief. The oils from your skin can damage the CMOS battery. I had one computer that constantly said I needed to replace the battery no matter how often it had been replaced.

Diane

 

When nothing else works... go to Virtual Doctor!

Click here for computer woes!

Diane

 

From what I've read sounds like it is failing when it goes out to check for a 'Boot Record' on the Hard Drive.

What you can do depends upon far too many variables to just 'answer the question'.

If you can find a 'Bootable Floppy' try booting to the floppy and see what happens.

Your original O.S. Install Floppies should be bootable. If you have a friend who is running Win98 get him to make you a 'Start-Up Disk'.

Alternately, you can try booting from a bootable CD-Rom. *IF* the BIOS (Set-Up) will allow booting from CD.

Most of the more recent O.S. Install CD's will boot from CD.

What we *really* need to know is *where* the fault lies.

Your hard drives boot record could be blown away by a virus.

Your hard drive may have 'crashed' requiring replacement. Always check the date of manufacture before trashing a broke hard drive as it may be in warranty. I once got an 80GB drive to replace a 20GB once. Never know.

When was the last time your computer had the dust blown out of it? Heat can and will kill electronics rather quickly.

Had a friends Gateway Slot-1 P3 die because of Gateways stupid cooling method. Fortunately, I was **finally** able to convince Gateway that the Processor was bad (Had a lot of I/O errors including Hard Drive issues.)

But, only *after* borrowing a known good one and running it continuously for 48 hours without failures!

To proceed further *we* must have...

What Operating System are you running? Win98; WinME; WinNT; Win2000; WinXP As this will make a difference in how you recover from this problem.

Need to know who made your computer. This may impact on what replacement parts you can get and where they can be bought.

How old is the system?

What have you added after the original purchase?

Is it in warranty?

The above Gateway system can't use normal SDRAM Dimms as the key is off set just enough to prevent an O.T.C. to fit!

How big is the Hard Drive? Was It backed up?

Let us know... We'll see what we can do,.

 

Hi Murph,

As I understand it,

You boot your system and get the "invalid system disk" message.

Then you set the BIOS to its defaults and the system will boot for that one session only.

Either something is changing the BIOS settings or like others have mentioned your BIOS battery needs replacing.

In most cases, the BIOS should hold its information as long as you don't turn off the computer. Do you still get that error when you only do a restart? That is not turning the power off.

The next time this happens, take note of what might have changed in the BIOS. That is, before you set the BIOS to defaults, look around and try to see what entries may have changed. Try to compare the default settings to the settings that are there when your system won't boot correctly.

Dave.