Sue McCartin
April 20th 03, 01:30 PM
Well, if your motherboard is a few years old it could indeed be on it's last
legs, however, instead of doing what you are doing here, look to see if you
can disable the onboard ide connectors and go out and purchase a plug-in pci
ide controller and pop that in there. When was the last time you changed
the cmos battery on your motherboard, they only last about three years (1.00
at walgreens it's usually a very common hearing aid battery). If you are
somewhat technical (don't do this if you don't know how, or get some help
from someone that has) look on your motherboard site to see if there might
be a newer bios update for your system--flash to the new version.
I've just gotten to the point where I change my hardware every three years
need it or not, I can usually get last years stuff cheap and I change out
drives first then motherboards less often.
As for those noises you're talking about, I can only assume that if that
noise is coming through the speakers that you are hearing DMA channel
crosstalk between your harddrive and your soundcard. If that noise is
coming through the case then I'd be really worried about your hard drive and
I wouldn't use it. Remember that wierd problems like you're describing can
also be memory related but I'd really, really be suspicious of your onboard
IDE controller if the problem is intermitting. Troubleshooting a
motherboard can be a real circle jerk, for what the damn things cost these
days it's easier just to ditch a suspected bad board and get a new one. If
you can find another one just like it you won't even have to reload windows
(unless your dying ide connector trashed your directory track along the
way). Good luck.
"Rebecca" > wrote in message
news:l6voa.2542$GD6.1542@fed1read02...
> Hi all,
> When I try to start up my other PC I get an approx two minute tone
followed
> by about a second of silence and then repeat possibly indefinately. It
> almost sounds like a version of a telephone busy signal. Can someone tell
> me what this means or where I can find out what various hard drive sounds
> mean?
> Background: PC crashed when not in use and a different blue screen of
death
> came up that I have never seen. It basically stated that probable problem
> was a recent install (there had been none) and if this was the first time
I
> had gotten this msg I could try rebooting. I rebooted and got a msg to
> insert system disk- which I didnt have. I was able to go into setup and
it
> didnt show a hard disk at all. I took out the hard drive and was able to
> install it onto another PC as a slave and it worked just fine. It was
> suggested to me that the MB was failing and to try plugging the ribbon
cable
> into the other (secondary) IDE connector (in place of the CD Rom drives).
I
> was able to boot up this way but the few things I tryed to run were very
> slow and then shut down took probably an entire 5 minutes. I decided to
> cross my fingers and return the harddrive to the primary IDE connector- I
> then got the tones when trying to start up. Nothing shows on the monitor,
> drives light up but nothing happens but the tones. I tryed the harddrive
> back in the secondary IDE connection again but now that also gets me just
> the tones.
>
> Any help greatly appreciated,
> TIA
> Rebecca
>
>
>
legs, however, instead of doing what you are doing here, look to see if you
can disable the onboard ide connectors and go out and purchase a plug-in pci
ide controller and pop that in there. When was the last time you changed
the cmos battery on your motherboard, they only last about three years (1.00
at walgreens it's usually a very common hearing aid battery). If you are
somewhat technical (don't do this if you don't know how, or get some help
from someone that has) look on your motherboard site to see if there might
be a newer bios update for your system--flash to the new version.
I've just gotten to the point where I change my hardware every three years
need it or not, I can usually get last years stuff cheap and I change out
drives first then motherboards less often.
As for those noises you're talking about, I can only assume that if that
noise is coming through the speakers that you are hearing DMA channel
crosstalk between your harddrive and your soundcard. If that noise is
coming through the case then I'd be really worried about your hard drive and
I wouldn't use it. Remember that wierd problems like you're describing can
also be memory related but I'd really, really be suspicious of your onboard
IDE controller if the problem is intermitting. Troubleshooting a
motherboard can be a real circle jerk, for what the damn things cost these
days it's easier just to ditch a suspected bad board and get a new one. If
you can find another one just like it you won't even have to reload windows
(unless your dying ide connector trashed your directory track along the
way). Good luck.
"Rebecca" > wrote in message
news:l6voa.2542$GD6.1542@fed1read02...
> Hi all,
> When I try to start up my other PC I get an approx two minute tone
followed
> by about a second of silence and then repeat possibly indefinately. It
> almost sounds like a version of a telephone busy signal. Can someone tell
> me what this means or where I can find out what various hard drive sounds
> mean?
> Background: PC crashed when not in use and a different blue screen of
death
> came up that I have never seen. It basically stated that probable problem
> was a recent install (there had been none) and if this was the first time
I
> had gotten this msg I could try rebooting. I rebooted and got a msg to
> insert system disk- which I didnt have. I was able to go into setup and
it
> didnt show a hard disk at all. I took out the hard drive and was able to
> install it onto another PC as a slave and it worked just fine. It was
> suggested to me that the MB was failing and to try plugging the ribbon
cable
> into the other (secondary) IDE connector (in place of the CD Rom drives).
I
> was able to boot up this way but the few things I tryed to run were very
> slow and then shut down took probably an entire 5 minutes. I decided to
> cross my fingers and return the harddrive to the primary IDE connector- I
> then got the tones when trying to start up. Nothing shows on the monitor,
> drives light up but nothing happens but the tones. I tryed the harddrive
> back in the secondary IDE connection again but now that also gets me just
> the tones.
>
> Any help greatly appreciated,
> TIA
> Rebecca
>
>
>