Operating system not found

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by Syzygys, Jul 5, 2008.

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  1. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    OK, next mistery. One old (5 years) computer keeps giving me this message. Sometimes it does start XP and switches to the black screen with this error message later on, sometimes Windows doesn't even start. Would this be a motherboard issue?
    Is it worthy to try to tinker with it and trying to save it, or is this already dead? It was only used for very light internet/email usage...
     
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  3. Xelios We're setting you adrift idiot Registered Senior Member

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    Sounds like a hard drive issue, either the Windows install was corrupted or the hard drive is on its last legs.

    Put the Windows disc in, tell it to boot from CDROM and in the Windows setup environment press R to get into the recovery console. From there type 'chkdsk' and see what it comes up with.
     
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  5. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Every 3 years or so I just buy a new hard drive. I usually need one because the old one ois getting full or it is about time for it to crash. They really aren't that expensive if you buy a 200 GB or so HD but they do go up after that.
     
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  7. Xelios We're setting you adrift idiot Registered Senior Member

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    Mine crashed last week. After a long struggle with depression and delayed write failed errors it decided it had enough of life, taking Windows down with it with a nice "Unrecoverable errors found on host drive" error in chkdsk.

    65 EUR for a new 500 GB Samsung, good riddance.
     
  8. draqon Banned Banned

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    reformat C drive
    reinstall windows
     
  9. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    Here is the weird part, shaking the computer works! After not working I moved it and it booted up nicely, has been running for 3 hours. It does have a new HD and it has very limited usage, so I don't want to get a new one just for checking mails...

    Could it be a loose wire or something???
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2008
  10. RubiksMaster Real eyes realize real lies Registered Senior Member

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    It could be one of the cables connecting the hard drive. Check both ends of the IDE cable (or SATA if the computer isn't that old). Then check that the power cable to the drive is securely plugged in.
     
  11. domesticated om Stickler for details Valued Senior Member

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    "Operating system not found" is a message that your motherboard gives out if it can't find a bootable partition or drive. It means that the BIOS and POST operations on your motherboard are functioning properly [the good news], but your hard drive has become unstable for some reason.

    LOL -- gotta love modern BIOS. I remember older mobos giving somewhat cryptic messages like "disc0 error".

    The two common causes IMO would be hard drive failure, or not enough juice to the hard drive from the power supply. Underpowered hard drives can also boot/die unpredictably ---sometimes they will work, and sometimes they wont. It's kinda like a slot machine.

    Oh well--- in the unlikely event that you replace the drive and the problem doesn't stop, it may be the power supply.........but it's probably just the hard drive.
     
  12. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    You really should just have that as your usertitle.
     
  13. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    I had a boot problem at one point with a computer that sometimes would have the power just cut right out, I'd actually have to unplug it for 10 or so seconds before trying again. It turned out that one of my Fan power wires was actually shortening the system out and causing it to power down.

    In the case of trying to regain power, sometimes it's possible to turn of USB devices that use power that you aren't using at the time, otherwise it might be necessary to sacrifice an extra drive or look for a new PSU altogether.

    In the instance of your problem though, definitely sounds like either a faulty connection or a jolt (bump) sometimes gets sticky cylinders/heads moving again.
     
  14. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    I did replace the HD like a year ago and installed everything and the problem came back. A change of the power supply would have been easier/cheaper. Should I give that a try?
     
  15. domesticated om Stickler for details Valued Senior Member

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    I'd give it a shot and see what happens. You can also try unplugging another component for a short while (like a CD/DVD drive), or playing "musical-molex" with the cables to see if that fixes it (perhaps the problem is isolated to a single power cable).
     
  16. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    I guess I have found the problem: it is the power supply. I had the computer open and I was moving the wires when it froze. I also hooked it up to another computer's supply and it ran for 1+ hour without problem.
    So I have just ordered a new power supply online.

    In sligthly related news, another computer's HD died. Took it to BestBuy if they can save some business info from it, but the geek said it wasn't spinning at all. So I could get a new HD for it, but the cheapest one is around $80 but for $300 I can buy a brand new computer, so I guess with old computers the price of worthy to fix it is somewhere around $150-200. Since this is pretty old and not much needed, it will be used for parts...

    Unfortunatelly its power supply is different than the first computers...
     
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