Okay, so my system go over heated and my power supply fried. Actually it was working on and off since the overheat but have this burning smell. It turns out my system got too dusty that's why it overheated.

So I cleaned out the whole box, cleaned and replaced the thermal grease as well as the power supply. Burning smell is gone and I can boot to Windows after power cycle but hangs during POST on a warm reset. System would also hang during scan disk and after some use after login.

with that said, my speculation is that my HDD got over heated as well and got damaged during the process. If it's the chipset or the processor, it shouldn't be able to get that far plus all Intel processor and chipset have thermal protection once it hits the thermal limit.

So now, without buying a new HDD, is there any good FREE SW out there that I can use to test the HDD to see if it's really dead? Thanks!

 

shoulda got an AMD system instead...

[ducking for cover...]


bring it to my work and i can plug it in my test/setup rig and see if it will spin up...

 

AMD? I think Intel processors are much better...

spin up? you mean the HDD? i can boot to windows just fine, just not on a warm reset. seems like when it reads certain sector of the hdd that's when it hangs up the system.

if I can't find the sw by tomorrow i think i'll just go buy another SATA-300 HDD... it's only $60 or so... not too bad nowadays...

 

You can try out this method.

If you have another computer (2), try connecting the "fried" HDD from computer (1) to it as a slave and see if it still works. If the computer (2) recognizes it and detects it as second hardrive (iono D: drive?) then this would be a good time to save your work..... for those just in case moments. Just dragging it to the desktop or specified folders. The files should save on the master HDD that is on the computer (2). If it doesn't then the HDD may not be good. But since it can sorta boot up windows it should or might work.

 

^^^thats usually what I do when the my or a friend's computer doesn't boot up because of I got defeated by a trogan or virus or worm. And all I can see is the blue screen of death!

This is cheaper and easier then to go out and buy an enclosure. i think.

iono about SW but that was my HW troubleshoot.

 

sounds like you fried the MB and have an intermitant short. the HDD is not the problem, like you said, you can boot into windows

 

I don't know... I've seen this before and sound more like a HDD problem than the board... If it's the board, should be more constant.

But if it's the board, then I guess it would be time for me to upgrade to XBX2!! I have BX now... and I can upgrade from Core Dual to Core 2 Dual (I have it sitting at home with BX doesn't support it).

It's great to have free processors and motherboards (sometime)!

Yeah, it's too much trouble for me to bring my HDD to my friend's place. I know I can boot and read the drive (except for some sectors I *believe*) so that doesn't serve me anything.

 

damn stupid disk imager (4004i) sucks! It has all the capabilities to do a full diagnostic but would only work during a disk copy..... Well, I guess time to go buy a new drive...

 

I went through a similar mess, turned out the power supply had actually been damaged, I went down the path of a new hard drive and a whole ton of crap (all at the advise of the "pro" tech support staff from HP) before I finally figured out that the supply needed replacing.

You might save yourself a lot of time and headaches by replacing that first.

 

If you have a CD that you can boot from, try that and run through a whole process. Even a WinXP CD would work. If you can get to the final step before actually copying or formatting the drive - then I would say the drive is bust. Or, you can come pick up a CD from me that has a hard drive testing tool on it. It's a "trial" disc.

 

Pete,
That was the first thing I replaced... I even got a more powerful power supply with a bigger fan as well...

Charlie,
Could you PM your work address again? I would love to get a copy of that 'trial' CD from you. Thanks!

I hooked up the HDD in one of the systems in my lab and is doing the Windows scan disk thing before I left for lunch. I'll check it out now...

Thanks all!

 

I'm gonna go with chrisw on melting the mobo as probable culprit. I really dont think the HDD is the issue, otherwise you wouldnt be able to boot at all. my last 3 systems died like this. good luck finding the exact board to replace this one, even the same models may change on a weekly basis.

 

not going to get the same board... just going to pick up a BX2 board... Now I can upgrade the system with the core 2 dual processor I have at home...

mb can be the issue i suppose, but I've dealt with many dead hdd before and it doesn't have to be dead completely (unable to boot)... we'll see...

i guess i just don't want to face the fact of possible dead mb... dead mb = $$

 

dead mb = go buy a new system. It's no longer worth it to build a system unless you absolutely must have SLI.

 

but dead mb = $170 for a bx2, new system would much more than that...