Your thoughts

[DANIMAL]

Had this problem I while back when I was running Win 98 on a single HD, I was going about my own business running apps surfing and the such, Suddenly had a freeze up and rebooted only to find that it said now system disk insert boot disk , no operating System. My problem was solved by trading Molex cables with an unused one in the case. Great fix and saved me the headache of a new drive and install.

Anyway today I had a similar problem while running 3 hard drives with Win98 and XP pro dual boot. While I was making an avatar using paint the system froze when I saved the file and 10 seconds later it was fine but Could not use paint anymore. I rebooted and found the same messages as above and again changed molex'x for the fix.

My question is do I have a weak 250W power supply or a bad HD somewhere. I'm not positive if it was the same Hd as previous.I'm leaning on saying it was not the same HD but is still installed on the system and all molex's are in use.

[Platypus]

I'd be inclined to suspect the power supply, it may not have been changing the molex connectors that gave you the temporary cure, but turning the power supply off for a few minutes while you did the change. (You did have the power off when you swapped connectors? )

Alternatively, check the soldering behind the power socket on the hard drive(s) for any sign of cracking.

[DANIMAL]

yes it was off you freak! J/K

and I don't see any cracks any where so I think that I'll ask for a 300w PSU and Case for Christmas Just for safe measures.

[Platypus]

[quote]Originally posted by DANIMAL:
<strong>yes it was off you freak! J/K

</strong><hr></blockquote>

Just checking...

A caution though, last year my next door neighbor (note American spelling) was getting a similar symptom with his PII, and when his hard drive tested OK in my system, he borrowed my power supply. When there was no sign of the fault he decided he'd get a new supply, re-installed the old one meantime, turned it on, PSU smoked & killed his m/board.

[Ruslan]

Have seen similar problems caused by bad harddrive as well. If there are micro-rifts on drive's electronics or simply bad contacts somewhere on board, it could cause that weird drive's behaviour...as well as overheating of harddrive - some of modern drives are running too hot. There is special utility (hddtemperature)
for monitoring HDD's real temperature using datas obtained from buit-in drive special chip. <a href="http://www.siguardian.ru/hddt1rus.zip" target="_blank">http://www.siguardian.ru/hddt1rus.zip</a> (Russian?? )
There are also English,Greek,Japanese,Portuguese versions.

What harddrive,by the way? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

[DANIMAL]

[quote]Originally posted by Ruslan:
<strong>Have seen similar problems caused by bad harddrive as well. If there are micro-rifts on drive's electronics or simply bad contacts somewhere on board, it could cause that weird drive's behaviour...as well as overheating of harddrive - some of modern drives are running too hot. There is special utility (hddtemperature)
for monitoring HDD's real temperature using datas obtained from buit-in drive special chip. <a href="http://www.siguardian.ru/hddt1rus.zip" target="_blank">http://www.siguardian.ru/hddt1rus.zip</a> (Russian?? )
There are also English,Greek,Japanese,Portuguese versions.

What harddrive,by the way? </strong><hr></blockquote>

I can't find the english version only Ukranian russian and one other. can you post the english link for me?

[techguy13]

[quote]Originally posted by DANIMAL:
<strong>

I can't find the english version only Ukranian russian and one other. can you post the english link for me?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Danimal try:
<a href="http://www.siguardian.com/products/download.html" target="_blank">http://www.siguardian.com/products/download.html</a>

[DANIMAL]

[quote]Originally posted by techguy13:
<strong>

Danimal try:
<a href="http://www.siguardian.com/products/download.html" target="_blank">http://www.siguardian.com/products/download.html</a> </strong><hr></blockquote>

Thanks Tech Guy.

[DANIMAL]

can't get the tempurature monitor to start is seems onle ME/98/NT/2k are supported not XP.

Anyone have one for XP?

[confus-ed]

Do you really need a program to tell you this??

Just put your finger on one of the chips on the base of the drive, if you can't keep your finger there its too hot!!!

This is what chasis fans are for, ain't it???

KISS !!

[3fingersalute]

I know this is probably not the cause of your problems, but here is a good one to keep in mind, a lot of the Intel P4 Mainboards will sometimes POST and start the boot sequence before the HD's even have time to spin up, thus giving you the same error. The solution is to go into the BIOS and enable the HD delay for at least 3 seconds, this will delay the system long enough for the HD's to spin up.

[Ruslan]

[quote]Originally posted by 3fingersalute:
<strong>I know this is probably not the cause of your problems, but here is a good one to keep in mind, a lot of the Intel P4 Mainboards will sometimes POST and start the boot sequence before the HD's even have time to spin up, thus giving you the same error. The solution is to go into the BIOS and enable the HD delay for at least 3 seconds, this will delay the system long enough for the HD's to spin up.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Good point,3fingersalute! He can also try disabling quick POST in BIOS settings. It will add some time for testing RAM and another stuffs and thus, needed delay for spinning up harddrive.
May be,checking current SMART status of the drive would be also good idea... May be, some of SMART parameters are failed... Danimal,You didn't say, what exactly drive You have?

[DANIMAL]

Thanks guys the problem is not reoccuring it has only happened twice in a 1 year period or so.

btw i have 2 case fans and three 4 gig Fujitsu HD's

I am still leaning on a weak power supply so I'll wait and buy a new case sometime.