[coolhand420]

1782-disk controller failure ok whats this mean and how do i fix it. this doesnt sound good. its a compact presario 500mhz 256mb 10g hd win98 3yrs old blah,blah,blah! all the obvius things wont start it so i tried to run my quickrestore cd and it wont even load it i whent into startup bios and checked all the settings all ok i even reset the defaults i tried with the start up disc it loads but wouldnt with cd support ive had this problem before with my burner so i unplugged it and it now starts with cd rom support but the quick restore still wont load so i tried to fdisk and reformat that went ok and my drive is now clean now upon running setupit gets as far as scandisk and tells me windows needs..........kbs to install...... nothing else ever happens ive tried about ten times and it wont work



EDIT: just so no confusion i treid both athe quick restore cd and a cllean install from a win 98 cd

[lyrical]

The disk controller failure error is more than likely related to your on board IDE controller -unless you have a PCI IDE controller. Generally I would interpret this type of error to mean that either the first IDE controller (the connector on the motherboard) is bad, the IDE plug in the back of the HD may be bad or have a bent pin, the IDE cable may be bad, or the actual HD controller itself may be going bad.

Of course, it could be any of these things, and each problem has different reprocussions. So lets start simple..

Have you been moving the HD around? You'll want to try and swap your IDE cable anyway to eliminate it as a problem, so you might as well check for bent pins now. Try a new cable on the same IDE slot. If that doesnt work, move it to the other IDE slot. Make sure that you make any nessesary BIOS changes. If you have access to another HD that you know works, you may want to try that as well to iliminate the connector as the problem.

It could also be an issue of the HD being physically damaged. You havn't by chance had a crash lately have you?

Try some of this stuff, and get back to me.

[kilowatt1]

See HERE . It doesn't sound very promising.

[LANMaster]

Excellent advice Lyrical.
My guess is that the bios setting is set for the wrong type.
Coolhand,
Backup all you can, and write down existing bios setting before changing much

[coolhand420]

well i changed the cable switched the ide controlors compaq doesnt let you change much in the bios all auto for the most part im not sure i like. i put another hard drive in from another machine and it just goes to black screen with a blinking curser wont even load with a start up disk? also i havent had any crashe but ive always had minor problems since day one invalid page faults and stuff but after sending it back to compaq twice they said there was nothing wrong and they couldnt duplicate my errors ya right what ever. but nothing so severe that it didnt work. i read the error post you gave me killowatt and it says replace hdd any other thoughts before i go bye a new hard drive?

[kilowatt1]

What model of Presario is it? You will probably need to go to Compaq's website and download the correct ROMpaq to get the correct parameters onto the hard drive before you can reinstall. Compaq unfortunately puts a lot of the necessary BIOS features/controls into a partition on the hard drive.

[coolhand420]

its a compaq presario 7360 i think i fuond the rompaq you suggesed i will give it a try if it is my hd failing any suggestions on what i should get

[kilowatt1]

If I'm not mistaken on the same page as the Rompaq there is a download for the system diagnostics which will help determine if the hard drive or any other hardware is defective. Click on the more info choices for installation instructions for the various downloads. Let us know how you do.

KILOWATT

[kilowatt1]

Coolhand,

The Rompaq you will need to use is "Presario System Rom 686C3 Update for Specific Models".

Kilowatt

[coolhand420]

i seem to be getting no were fast mind evyone that i can access my harddrive with 98 startup disc ive ran fdisk and reformatted already and it says that i have almost 10000mb of free space wich i partitioned correctly and im too the point of installing windows and when i run setup c: it say windows needs to check the disk or whatever scan disc flashes on then off usually you have to exit after it scans but it does'nt prompt me it just says that windows requires so many kbs on you .... sometimes i get a little more sometimes alittle less but itss only by a few letters
and i ran the bootable diskettes from the rompaq and it says invalid system disk replace disk and try again but im no longer getting the disk controll failure error

[coolhand420]

and yes kilowat that is the download i found as well it says to make a bootable floopy with it and and start from a cold boot but it says invalid syste disk?

[lyrical]

Hey guys,

I was speaking with a couple other tech heads in class last night and mentioned your little problem.

A couple of the guys who I happen to consider quite savvey in the world of motherboards and such detailed several perceptions that they have about Compaq 's earlyer products. Apparently they did have some lingering difficulties with some models not performing to the customer standard. To quote of of my friends whom I attend MCSE Cert classes with, "Granted, hardware problems arnt the only reason Compaq solt out to HP -but it was part of it."

I personally dont know how much validity there is behind his thesis, but I thought I would convey his thoughts to you.

Have you tried hooking your HD to a working PC? Based on the information I have heard in the last 24 hours, if your HD works in another machine you may be able to simply replace your MOBO.

Let me know what happens.

[coolhand420]

you say i may just be able to replace my mobo are you saying my mother board maybe bad or faulty and maybe compaq knew about it? one thing i remembered today was about a week ago i ran a diagnostic program on it and it was saying that my winapi hard drive failed there test and it may have been do to a bad cylinder? any thoughts on this or relation to my problem now? is that a mobo problem or a hard drive problem? sry you threw me a curve ball with the mobo thing now im really stumped

[coolhand420]

ok i put my hard drive in a working computer and it does the same as when its in mine i also put the harddrive from the working computer and it says unable to access the disk does this mean the end of my comcrap motherboard if so whaat should i replace it with that will allow the rest of my hardware to be compatible and still keep it cheap. also i am guessing since my hard drive wont work in the other machine that it is bad as well i allready ordered a 40gb western digital hd should be here today.

[lyrical]

Given the fact that the HD did not work in another machine, and it also failed a diagnostic leads me to believe that your HD has crashed.

You also tried hooking a working HD up to the machine, didn't you? If a working HD did not work, the problem may be harder to forsee.

Some of the older machines have problems with HDs when the jumper settings do not corispond to the physical location of the drive on the cable. Meaning it needs to be set to master AND be the first device on the IDE cable. Having a slave as the first device on the IDE cable will cause you problems in older machines.

Try hooking either the old HD or the new HD you ordered up to the machine, and boot with a DOS boot disk. Go into FDISK and look at the partition tables. If it shows the tables, then the master boot record and FAT table should be in tact. While you are in FDISK look for the ACTIVE PARTITION. At least one partition needs to be labeled as active in order for the system to boot correctly.

While you have the DOS disk in, try running scandisk on the drive. It may not work, but it may also tell you weather or not the drive is shot.

It is starting to sound like the drive is shot. We'll see.

Plz let me know what this brings.