*sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

[charvelguy]

Re: *sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

ok.. thanks tho...I think they do not want to deal with it either. I don't plan to sell copies..I just want this to work since I bought it for a friend whose computer went kaput.

[diablomozart]

Re: *sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

it's going down immediately?...unless gateway has done something radically different in the past few years, their bios was contained in the chips on the board not on the hard drive itself...sounds like you have a bad computer or chips...take it back...d.m.

What BIOS Does
The BIOS software has a number of different roles, but its most important role is to load the operating system. When you turn on your computer and the microprocessor tries to execute its first instruction, it has to get that instruction from somewhere. It cannot get it from the operating system because the operating system is located on a hard disk, and the microprocessor cannot get to it without some instructions that tell it how. The BIOS provides those instructions. Some of the other common tasks that the BIOS performs include:
A power-on self-test (POST) for all of the different hardware components in the system to make sure everything is working properly

Activating other BIOS chips on different cards installed in the computer - For example, SCSI and graphics cards often have their own BIOS chips.

Providing a set of low-level routines that the operating system uses to interface to different hardware devices - It is these routines that give the BIOS its name. They manage things like the keyboard, the screen, and the serial and parallel ports, especially when the computer is booting.

Managing a collection of settings for the hard disks, clock, etc.
The BIOS is special software that interfaces the major hardware components of your computer with the operating system. It is usually stored on a Flash memory chip on the motherboard, but sometimes the chip is another type of ROM.

[charvelguy]

Re: *sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

yes, it is going to invalid as soon as it is starting up....I'm a little familar with Bios. I guess I have two options. Take it back,(which now has been about a month) or tear into it and see what is going on with CMOS.
I have another Gateway board, maybe two around here..not sure if they are compatible tho.

[charvelguy]

Re: *sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

Thanks to you guys for your help btw.. [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[hippietim]

Re: *sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

I've not seen a machine made in at least the last 15 years that didn't give you the opportunity to modify the BIOS before it even comes close to hitting any disk. I've had half a dozen Gateways at work and at home in that time frame - they all worked as expected.

If you are getting an "Invalid System Disk" message then the POST completed successfully and the BIOS was loaded and run. There is no other way for you to get to that state otherwise. Even other boards such as SCSI and video cards come after the system BIOS boot strapping because the system BIOS controls the PCI/ISA bus configuration with I/O ports, IRQs, etc.

You need to find the magic key sequence to get to the BIOS to configure the boot order. I've seen a ton of variants - F2, Del, F8, F5, Ctrl+Alt+Ins, etc.

To boot from a CD, you need to creat a BOOTABLE CD image. This is not the same as you burning some random data CD. And copying an existing installation of Windows 2000 to a CD is not going to do you any good at all unless you like making coasters. You should go to the shop where you got the PC and make them pony up a bootable CD.

[charvelguy]

Re: *sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

I am mistaken..it goes into startup, but it is a quick flash of "Gateway" then a startup with lasts about 2 seconds, then into "invalid...thanks again.

Ahh, boot image.. I was wondering..ok, I just wasted 3 or 4 CD-Rs then..I'll use a CDRW...any clue as to where I start other than 'startup' program files?

I emailed them and will see if they are willing to load a system on there.

[charvelguy]

Re: *sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

ok I'm in BIOs setup utility. It was F1 to access.
Its setup to boot from disk, then floppy, then IDE-HDD.

[hippietim]

Re: *sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

[ QUOTE ]
Ahh, boot image.. I was wondering..ok, I just wasted 3 or 4 CD-Rs then..I'll use a CDRW...any clue as to where I start other than 'startup' program files?

[/ QUOTE ]

You need a real bootable CD image to copy from. IOW, you are not going to pull this off because if you had a bootable CD image you wouldn't need to make one.

[hippietim]

Re: *sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

[ QUOTE ]
ok I'm in BIOs setup utility. It was F1 to access.
Its setup to boot from disk, then floppy, then IDE-HDD.

[/ QUOTE ]

from disk? as in CD?

FYI, once this is all up and working - make the hard drive the first choice so your computer boots faster - you can always change it back if you ever need to boot from a CD or floppy.

[charvelguy]

Re: *sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

from disk? as in CD?-yes..this is first, I did change it over to hard drv tried a boot and back again to disk.

[Newc]

Re: *sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

If they set the BIOS up to check the CD first (maybe intending to install but never got around to it?) the disk error would make sense.

Unless you finalize a CD-RW (effectively killing the RW function) or the BIOS supports reading from a CDRW, it won't load the OS from the RW.

You'd hafta use a finalized/closed CDR and set the BIOS to boot from CD-ROM first, then at the first "Reboot to continue installation", you'd hafta switch back to the HD as the first boot device.

[Soap]

Re: *sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

Ex.
Lets say, I download through a P2P WN2000 OS.
Burn the file image(file/OS)to cd-r disk.
Most of this OS's downloaded through a P2P aren't ready to go.
They provide you with the OS but usually not the "start up" disk. Usually, these are the same files and data from the system floppy disk. These two (floppy and OS disk work to gether during the installation of a OS. During the installation of the OS, you will reach a point when you don't need the floppy any more.

With all that said,
1. make sure you have a start up disk and the OS disk.
2. To access the info on the OS disk (its been awhile for me, so my memory isn't fresh about this)need to throw it in and boot up with it already in the rom drive. Once booted up, it will begin to install.

Your given scenario:
The "POST" is the hardware and software speaking to one another. Its peforming the very basic essential check to see if everything is present to load up and make it to the desktop screen. In your case, its performing this task and learns its unable to successful communicate, thus the "eroor" mesaage your getting. You have some if not several files and possibly drives needed missing.
Sometimes having a floppy in the floppy drive and not knowing its there, you boot up and get a similar message your getting too. So make sure theres nothing in your floppy drive.

BIOS:
Not able to enter into your bios?
If the bios isn't damaged/corrupt(bad)you should be able to enter into the bios even without and OS installed. Don't need an OS to view the BIOS, BUT, you do need a video card thats functioning properly to view the bios. If the bios is corrupt(no good anymore)no matter how many times you try you won't be able to install a OS. It also could be a dead bios battery, for the lack of a better way to explain. Might give that a try, put in a new battery. You can pick up a battery at any place really. See, if this helps any. If not then you know its not the battery.

To me:
Its sound like your video card has fizzled out or the drivers are missing. Possibly your CD Rom drivers are missing too. This will give you a black screen and an error message but it won't give you a BSOD.

Error messages:
Windows the "blue screen of death" error messages.
The last two digits of the error number are very important.
It will tell you what/where the potential problem lies.

The easiest route:
Try to reinstall the OS.
As mentioned above, make sure you have both the startup disk and the OS disk and you should be able to install the OS.

Trouble shooting:
Its never a fun joyous ocassion.
Its a process of elimination approach.
Try this and that untill you concluded and solve the problem or give up first. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
Check and make sure all cables are attached to their drives correctly. Check your floppy cable, HD cables CD rom cable make sure their connected.

[PowerTube]

Re: *sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

Compaq used to do that crap where the BIOS was stored on a non-DOS partition on the hard drive. You could still load an OS on the drive and then later download their setup utility from their website. The problem was that you had to accept all system hardware defaults until you got the utility loaded. They finally got away from doing that a few years ago.

In case I didn't mention, I hate Compaq.

[xenophobe]

Re: *sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

Soap, XP doesn't have a "setup" floppy disk like W95. Win95, NT and possibly ME needed them, but Win98 and XP both boot off the CD. All you need is the XP CD to install directly from. His video card isn't fried. Also, the fact that the computer is going through POST, flashing the gateway screen, being able to access and view the BIOS screens and viewing the error easily rules that out.


I think there was a period when Gateway used to format their drives in some proprietary manner so they wouldn't be read by another non-gateway motherboard, though it would probably have to be an older system, though if that was 486/pentium1 days.


Charvelguy, just borrow or buy a XP/or W98 install disk. All this hassle could have been avoided by installing a system from a genuine disk, or from a burned CD with a real os disk image.

[hippietim]

Re: *sigh* computer woes...guru help wanted

He does not need an XP or Win98 install disk - Win2k installs from CD no problem - he just needs an actual setup image. Any attempt to put one together manually is a complete waste of time.