Hard-drive problems

bluep

As Mr Skint says, that accesses the bios settings once the pc had started up - the screen that flashes up first (usually black with white writing) is called "posting" ie. when something goes wrong with your computer the first indicator of WHAT is wrong with it is whether it "posts" or not. The "posting" shows it recognises the hard drive devices, the processor, the memory, then the periphery mobo devices like dvd rom drive etc...

Sometimes if you have put a new memory stick in, fiddled about with the hardware, stuck a graphics card in etc... or sometimes for no reason whatsoever (my boyfriend turned my pc off at the plug rather than shutting it down one night and it happened for me) the bios just goes a bit "funky". This is the little bit of firmware in your motherboard that tells the mobo how to talk to the other parts of the computer to start up. Bad news is, it looks dire - the pc is dead, won't even post, won't start, the hard drive might click, might whirl, might light up and freeze. Good news is, it is easy to remedy. There's two little pins on your motherboard that you connect with a jumper for something like 2-3 secs, and often two solder mounds that you can short with a screwdriver instead for teh same amount of time. All this is in your motherboard manual (manufacturer's website if you bought a pre-built comp and didn't get the manual). This resets the bios back to standard and it should all work again!

Obviously if something else is wrong like the processor is overheating and freezing, then this wont solve the problem, but it is usually teh first port of call for computer technicians when a pc won't post.

Doesn't help you at the moment, but is useful to know for the future.

The_One_2

hey cool 4 tht.

well..my mates wantin the computer so i aint really botherd, its his problem 2 sort out, i havent got any very important files on it, so its ok. BUT i'll give the BIOS settings thing ago.
thanks 4 all ur help