Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Any hardware experts around?

PowerFullMac

PowerFullMac

macrumors 601
Original poster
Oct 16, 2006
4,000
2
My friends PC is a bit screwed, we are fairly sure its a hardware prob, the computer cant seem to read the drive and we have tried reformatting it but its not working, neither is reinstalling Vista.

All anti-Microsoft comments aside, can anyone help?

Attached are pictures of the inside of the computer, thing that are unplugged from inside the computer that I have no idea where they are meant to go and the error we got when trying to install Vista.

Thanks in advance!
 

Attachments

  • DSC_00004.jpg
    DSC_00004.jpg
    295.5 KB · Views: 52
  • DSC_00006.jpg
    DSC_00006.jpg
    379.7 KB · Views: 50
  • DSC_00007.jpg
    DSC_00007.jpg
    337.8 KB · Views: 51
The unplugged things are just extra power connectors (for additional drives etc). They are normal in a PC: don't worry about them...
 
robbieduncan said:
The unplugged things are just extra power connectors (for additional drives etc). They are normal in a PC: don't worry about them...
Click to expand...

Any idea what the problem is then?

The PC is only a few months old so I doubt its hardware unless something has been unplugged...

Then again, it broke when he moved house so something may have been damaged then.
 
PowerFullMac said:
Any idea what the problem is then?

The PC is only a few months old so I doubt its hardware unless something has been unplugged...

Then again, it broke when he moved house so something may have been damaged then.
Click to expand...

Is this a brand new drive? Or has it already been in the computer?

Do you have another computer to try it in?

Does it spin up when powered?
 
It's been a while since I've had to do any of that.

If you enter the bios - is the drive being recognized at all? Are the physical jumpers on the drive set correctly? (master vs slave, ect...) I mention this, as I've actually had one fall out in the past.

What is the boot order in the bios? Be sure to include the CD/DVD drive so you can run diagnostics from your M$.

Have you tried Fdisk and Format? (after fdisk'ing - you need to reset the PC before you can format)

Bear in mind - this all may have changed, I last (#*$ed with PCs with XP, never touched Vista, so IDK.
 
Andrew Henry said:
Is this a brand new drive? Or is it an upgrade?

Do you have another computer to try it in?

Does it spin up when powered?
Click to expand...

Its the drive that came with the PC.

No.

Yes, my friend says it does but I cant hear much.

I made a video, I'll upload it to YouTube and post a link. (My friend was messing with my iPod touch in the background).
 
Just a few questions

1. Has the hard disk been checked for faults ? Bad sectors Whats the model / maker?
2. Has the ram been checked for faults http://www.memtest.org/
**When your checking the memory make sure you do it one stick at a time**
3. Do you have another hard disk you can put in there and test? I see in your video that the hdd is mounted so the bios is detecting it.
4. Is the drive completely clean? no existing operating system on it? are you trying to perform a upgrade or clean install?
 
PowerFullMac said:
...we are fairly sure its a hardware prob, the computer cant seem to read the drive and we have tried reformatting it but its not working, neither is reinstalling Vista.
Click to expand...


drive not reading is the problem. now the question is why is it not reading the drive? i can see the sata cable and power connector going to the hard drive in the pictures, you could try re-seating the cables (with the power off). that is gently pull off the sata cable, and then push it back on, and same with the power connector. the extra bits are just unused power connectors, no need to worry. as above, you do need to get into bios and see if the drive is showing up. for fujitsu laptops, it mashing the f2 button at the first screen, don't know about desktops, but that, or f10, or delete... something should work. if reseating doesn't work, you could also try replacing the hard drive sata cable as a quick/cheap check to make sure the drive is the problem.

the video gave me motion sickness! but did notice it starts by showing the boot from lan screen. that is, the computer can't find a drive, or disc, so it's trying to boot off the network as a last resort. and the next try with the disc in, it boots straight away, so bet the hard drive is dead.

if the computer is under warranty, request a new hard drive. if not, find a decent sata drive, pop it in, and install windows as the rest seems to be working fine. best of luck.
 
OK, we will try that later (watching some tellie now!)

Yes, the HD does show up in the BIOS we checked it, and yes I set it up myself so it would try booting from the disk drive first when I was trying to reinstall Vista and yes as is in the video it boots from the Vista DVD first and works until it fails to install.

Yeah, its just a few months old so there is still a warranty so if we have no look we will use it.

Thanks for all the help, guys!
 
Right disconnecting it and reconnecting wont work and I tried reformatting C and got this, meaning there is definatly something wrong with the drive or the connection to it, also when it boots now with a disk in it hangs on "Press any key to boot from CD/DVD"
 

Attachments

  • DSC_00008.jpg
    DSC_00008.jpg
    286.7 KB · Views: 40
To add to the other comments already made.

Double check all connectors, by re-seating them. Believe it or not, they can come loose during normal operation due to the vibrations of the PC. Additionally, sometimes connections oxidize a bit so they won't work reliably. By re-seating the connectors many times you can improve the connection to were it will work reliably.

Regarding checking out the hard drive, if it is spinning, IMHO, there is no better software than SpinRite for any platform (Windows, Mac or Linux formatted) when it comes to drive recovery and maintenance. Well worth the fee. The only negative is that you need a PC to run it.

Of course these days, you can pick up a a large HD for under $100 so it might not be worth it to try and recover the HD and just get a new one.

Good luck!
 
sushi said:
To add to the other comments already made.

Double check all connectors, by re-seating them. Believe it or not, they can come loose during normal operation due to the vibrations of the PC. Additionally, sometimes connections oxidize a bit so they won't work reliably. By re-seating the connectors many times you can improve the connection to were it will work reliably.

Regarding checking out the hard drive, if it is spinning, IMHO, there is no better software than SpinRite for any platform (Windows, Mac or Linux formatted) when it comes to drive recovery and maintenance. Well worth the fee. The only negative is that you need a PC to run it.

Of course these days, you can pick up a a large HD for under $100 so it might not be worth it to try and recover the HD and just get a new one.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Instead of wasting so much cash we have decided to use the warranty if reseating everything wont work.

Thanks for everything you guys!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back