XP pro breaks down after 2 weeks!

[Paul]

Hi, I hope you can help me! I've recently instaled
Windows XP professional in my computer, and also
installed Office XP. Also installed the latest updates
for win xp (SP-1a), and for office xp.
The thing is, within two weeks the computer has been
behaving strangely: slowing down, taking a lot of time
writing to the hard drive, etc. In two weeks, it
collapsed.

It now restarts in a few minutes, and it says: "Boot from
ATAPI CD-ROM" "Insert system disk".
It can't find the hard drive?! How come?
Do I have to format and install Win ME again? How can I
save this situation? Is it a hardware problem? I hope I
don't need to flash BIOS...
I know someone who had the same problem, and even
reinstaling has the same result. Only Win 9x/ME works.

How can I contact Microsoft if problem solution is not
found in the newsgroups? Tech e-mail is...?

_______________________
Some info: The Computer is a AMD Athlon 1000Mhz, with
256Mb RAM, 20 Gb hardrive, and (reported by the AIDA32
benchmark software)

Soltek Motherboard:
Motherboard Name
Soltek SL-75JV(-X)/JV2/KAV(-X)/KIV/KV(-X)/KV+(-X)/KV2(-X)
Front Side Bus Properties:
Bus Type DEC Alpha EV6
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 134 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 267 MHz
Bandwidth 2136 MB/s
Memory Bus Properties:
Bus Type SDR SDRAM
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 134 MHz
Effective Clock 134 MHz
Bandwidth 1068 MB/s
Chipset Bus Properties:
Bus Type PCI
Bus Width 32-bit
Real Clock 33 MHz
Effective Clock 33 MHz
Bandwidth 134 MB/s


Chipset Properties:
Motherboard Chipset: VIA VT8363(A) Apollo KT133(A)
In-Order Queue Depth 4
CAS Latency 3T
RAS To CAS Delay 3T
RAS Precharge 3T
Memory Slots:
DRAM Slot #1 256 MB (PC133 SDRAM)
AGP Properties:
AGP Version 2.00
AGP Status Enabled
AGP Aperture Size 32 MB
Supported AGP Speeds 1x, 2x, 4x
Current AGP Speed 4x
Fast-Write Supported, Disabled
Side Band Addressing Supported, Enabled


BIOS Properties:
Award BIOS Type Award Modular BIOS v6.00PGN
Award BIOS Message REV Q7
System BIOS Date 03/08/01
Video BIOS Date 01/03/28
BIOS Manufacturer:
Company Name Phoenix Technologies Ltd.

I know,... a large post, lots of questions, and a lot of
useless info, but I'm really desperate! :(
And another thing,... I don't have access to BIOS
(passworded by the shop, but they forgot the pass,...
stupid isn't it?)

Please help, how can I solve this problem? Please reply,
it's really urgent!
And no, it's not a virus... for sure!

Paul

[Will]

If you could still access your drive, make sure you backup all important
data.

1. You can clear the BIOS password by clearing CMOS, refer to motherboard's
manual for this. Usually you need to put a jumper for about 10 seconds
(while the puter is off), then put the jumper back and you can set the BIOS
settings again.

2. Depends on your harddrive manufacture, you need to download utility from
their website to run a disk test to ensure that it's not a harddrive's
harddware problem.

3. If you are using FAT32 you could use Win98 bootdisk to run a thorough
scandisk.

If there is no hardware problem then you can consider to reinstall the XP
again.


"Paul" > wrote in message
...
> Hi, I hope you can help me! I've recently instaled
> Windows XP professional in my computer, and also
> installed Office XP. Also installed the latest updates
> for win xp (SP-1a), and for office xp.
> The thing is, within two weeks the computer has been
> behaving strangely: slowing down, taking a lot of time
> writing to the hard drive, etc. In two weeks, it
> collapsed.
>
> It now restarts in a few minutes, and it says: "Boot from
> ATAPI CD-ROM" "Insert system disk".
> It can't find the hard drive?! How come?
> Do I have to format and install Win ME again? How can I
> save this situation? Is it a hardware problem? I hope I
> don't need to flash BIOS...
> I know someone who had the same problem, and even
> reinstaling has the same result. Only Win 9x/ME works.
>
> How can I contact Microsoft if problem solution is not
> found in the newsgroups? Tech e-mail is...?
>
> _______________________
> Some info: The Computer is a AMD Athlon 1000Mhz, with
> 256Mb RAM, 20 Gb hardrive, and (reported by the AIDA32
> benchmark software)
>
> Soltek Motherboard:
> Motherboard Name
> Soltek SL-75JV(-X)/JV2/KAV(-X)/KIV/KV(-X)/KV+(-X)/KV2(-X)
> Front Side Bus Properties:
> Bus Type DEC Alpha EV6
> Bus Width 64-bit
> Real Clock 134 MHz (DDR)
> Effective Clock 267 MHz
> Bandwidth 2136 MB/s
> Memory Bus Properties:
> Bus Type SDR SDRAM
> Bus Width 64-bit
> Real Clock 134 MHz
> Effective Clock 134 MHz
> Bandwidth 1068 MB/s
> Chipset Bus Properties:
> Bus Type PCI
> Bus Width 32-bit
> Real Clock 33 MHz
> Effective Clock 33 MHz
> Bandwidth 134 MB/s
>
>
> Chipset Properties:
> Motherboard Chipset: VIA VT8363(A) Apollo KT133(A)
> In-Order Queue Depth 4
> CAS Latency 3T
> RAS To CAS Delay 3T
> RAS Precharge 3T
> Memory Slots:
> DRAM Slot #1 256 MB (PC133 SDRAM)
> AGP Properties:
> AGP Version 2.00
> AGP Status Enabled
> AGP Aperture Size 32 MB
> Supported AGP Speeds 1x, 2x, 4x
> Current AGP Speed 4x
> Fast-Write Supported, Disabled
> Side Band Addressing Supported, Enabled
>
>
> BIOS Properties:
> Award BIOS Type Award Modular BIOS v6.00PGN
> Award BIOS Message REV Q7
> System BIOS Date 03/08/01
> Video BIOS Date 01/03/28
> BIOS Manufacturer:
> Company Name Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
>
> I know,... a large post, lots of questions, and a lot of
> useless info, but I'm really desperate! :(
> And another thing,... I don't have access to BIOS
> (passworded by the shop, but they forgot the pass,...
> stupid isn't it?)
>
> Please help, how can I solve this problem? Please reply,
> it's really urgent!
> And no, it's not a virus... for sure!
>
> Paul
>