[warr1or2]

earlier today my computer was working fine. Now it's shot and know the cause is 1 of 2 reasons.
1. Yesterday i read on Yahoo News that a Virus was going to hit (could this be it?)
2. Bad storms rolled in, i went ti shut off my computer to protect it from surges. Storms passed, I went to turn on my computer, the first thing it says instead of "Verifying Pool Data..... Done" it says "Creating Pool Data... Success." and gets stuck there. So i restart my computer & now it keeps saying "Insert System Disk and Press Enter" over & over again. (could the storms have done this?)

[Tabvla]

A computer virus or electrical storm can disable any computer but in most cases the problem usually lies elsewhere.

I note that you categorise yourself as a "Beginner" and because of this I am very reluctant to advise you as to what you could do to firstly identify the problem and then to fix it. It is almost certain that you will need good technical skills to fix this problem and attempting to fix it without the necessary background knowledge may do more harm than good.

Do you have a friend that knows quite a lot about computers?

T.

[warr1or2]

Not close to me, but the only things i'm capable of is changing out/adding drives, memory cards, & power boxes.
The power box has a switch, just throwing it out there. Could it be possible that after shutting it down & flipping the switch on the power box (flipped that switch several times & nothing) could have done it?
Also I even Disconneected ALL hard drives from the system, come to find out it seems to want to boot up by means of Floppy Drive first.

[DoubleHelix]

The "virus" you heard about yesterday was a very obscure one that only affected a small number of computers' ability to browse the web. That's it.

The error you're seeing indicates the computer is not booting from the hard drive. The steps to troubleshoot this are as follows:

* Go into the BIOS and verify the hard drive is detected.
* Download the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic disk image, burn the ISO file to a disk, boot from it, and run a scan.
* If the drive isn't detected or is damaged, it needs to be replaced, and Windows and all your software needs to be reinstalled. Depending on the type of damage to the drive, your data may or may not be recoverable.

How comfortable are you with these steps?

[Tabvla]

DoubleHelix's advice is correct. There are really only two possibilities: -

1) The CMOS became corrupted during the storm, power-surge; switching ON/OFF....... etc. and has lost the HDD settings. For a technical person this is a relatively easy problem to fix but not one that I would recommend for a "beginner".

OR

2) There is a problem with the HDD. This could be anything as simple as a loose connection to an electrical fault or the Boot File has been "lost" or corrupted or Windows is having a bad hair day. Even for a technical person fixing this type of problem can be quite challenging - not something that I would attempt after a dinner that included a couple of glasses of wine For a non-technical person it could be a rapid transit to grey hair.

We all have to learn at sometime and many, many years ago this is the way that I learnt. But if the data on your PC is valuable to you then I would not recommend that you start learning now.

T.

[CFLager]

Storms can do weird things. A few years agp my brother's motherboard got toasted in a storm. Replaced and all was well. A few weeks ago after another storm my brother's computer wouldn't start, HD would not even begin to spin up, not a peep from the fans or anything. I messed aroumd and finally booted with the DVD and floppy IDE disconnected (yes it is that old). Turns out that the DVD had a dead short (maybe from the storm, maybe not.) Listen to DoubleHelix and Tabvla, but I'm just giving something to consider if other things fail.

[warr1or2]

Originally Posted by DoubleHelix

* Go into the BIOS and verify the hard drive is detected.

I tried Disconnecting the Hard drive to see what it'd do & it always tries to boot from floppy first wanting a system disk.
I may try to swap drives to see what happens (though the same thing is somewhat the same problem with my sister's computer, & the drive is still good on hers so that can't be it)

Originally Posted by Tabvla

2) There is a problem with the HDD. This could be anything as simple as a loose connection to an electrical fault or the Boot File has been "lost" or corrupted or Windows is having a bad hair day. Even for a technical person fixing this type of problem can be quite challenging - not something that I would attempt after a dinner that included a couple of glasses of wine For a non-technical person it could be a rapid transit to grey hair.

T.

Originally Posted by CFLager

Storms can do weird things. A few years agp my brother's motherboard got toasted in a storm. Replaced and all was well. A few weeks ago after another storm my brother's computer wouldn't start, HD would not even begin to spin up, not a peep from the fans or anything. I messed aroumd and finally booted with the DVD and floppy IDE disconnected (yes it is that old). Turns out that the DVD had a dead short (maybe from the storm, maybe not.) Listen to DoubleHelix and Tabvla, but I'm just giving something to consider if other things fail.

so there's possibly a short somewhere? could switching power boxes work?

[CFLager]

If you have a voltmeter, you can check the power supply and all of the lines it supplies except where the power goes to the mobo. You may have to jump a pair of so to test that connector (check with board mfg) or you may be able to probe through the top of the connector. I totally agree with the quote from Tabvla that you posted.

Electrical bugaboos are the pits. I used to work for a P.C.B. mfg. Even a small bit of volatage in the wrong place can burn through a couple of board layers. It can cut a trace that you will never see.

Did you try to get into your BIOS and have it start with the HD?

[DoubleHelix]

So you swapped hard drives and neither are detected in the BIOS? Did you try a different SATA port? A different SATA cable? A different power connector to the drive? Also try resetting the BIOS to defaults.

I highly doubt you have a power supply problem if every other component is functioning and getting power. It's possible that particular SATA port failed. That's why you need to try another one.

[warr1or2]

Before the storms it all worked
After the storms it quit (nothing inside was changed)
It keeps saying
"BIOS rom checksum error"
"detecting floppy drive A media..."
"Insert system disk & press enter"

Originally Posted by DoubleHelix

So you swapped hard drives and neither are detected in the BIOS? Did you try a different SATA port? A different SATA cable? A different power connector to the drive? Also try resetting the BIOS to defaults.

How do I do that?
I know on some computers, pressing DELETE opens BIOS. Works on my sister's.
Tried tapping delete & nothing.
Held down delete the second time &...

"detecting floppy drive A media..."




"Insert system disk & press enter"
Came up like this, then Black Screen.

[DoubleHelix]

The key to press is usually displayed during boot. It's different on every computer.

[Tabvla]

Warr1or2, I am going to reply specifically to your last post.

Windows computers are typically setup to boot (startup) from the Primary Active Hard Disk (or Partition). If this Hard Disk (or Partition) is not detected then the startup instruction will usually be to boot from the Floppy Disk Drive, if one is installed.

So the message you are receiving is telling you that the system cannot "see" the Primary Active Hard Disk (or Partition) and it is subsequently asking you to insert a system disk in the FDD - something which you probably don't have.

There are a number of possible reasons why the system cannot "see" the Hard Disk. One of these reasons is that during the storm the BIOS became corrupted and lost its settings. For a technical person it is a relatively simply task to enter the BiOS and re-establish the correct settings for your computer. But you are having difficulty in even accessing the BIOS, which tells me that you are not a technical person.

So even if you did eventually figure out how to get into the BIOS, the reality is that because you have no knowledge or practical experience in setting up the BIOS that you could potentially (almost certainly) really mess things up and end up with a much worse situation.

You need an experienced technical person to be sitting next to you and guiding you step-by-step through the process. In my view, anything less than that is a risk not worth taking.

T.

[warr1or2]

Originally Posted by DoubleHelix

The key to press is usually displayed during boot. It's different on every computer.

On startup it didn't tell, so i'm thinking... Button experiment time.
and Tabvla, you could say that i'm a Novice. All i know how to do is switch/add/remove drives in general, memory cards, & power boxes. that's it.