Boot Up

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What is the sequence of events at start-up? My friends system does not boot on start-up, there is no beep, the HDD does not run. However if the IDE is removed from the Motherboard the HDD runs.

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… if the IDE is removed from the Motherboard the HDD runs …

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[/indent]I don’t understand what you mean by that statement, Ed. Is the hard drive NOT an IDE or EIDE drive, but SATA instead? A bit more info would help. If there is not even the usual beep from the BIOS when the computer is turned on, it could be that the motherboard is bad, or one or more “connectors” on it.

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I agree with what Al said; a little more info.

If there indeed is a working speaker (or similar, that previously has “beeped” once at boot time), no beep could indicate bad motherboard, memory or perhaps power supply (PSU).

Some month ago I had a system with a pair of new memory sticks. When mounted nothing happened at start time, no beep. A little troubleshooting showed that one of the memory sticks were bad, the other one worked. With both in the PC nothing happened.

So some more info. about that “removed” IDE etc. would help.

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The only additional information I can supply today is the motherboard was replaced with a new board. I realise this is difficult but I only see my friend once a week. What he was trying to determine is when you switch a computer on what is the event cycle?
My guess is the BIOS is saved to the chip, the HDD parameters are saved in this BIOS what happens next? When is the HDD accessed?

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You can find a pretty good description of what happens when a PC starts up here.

StuartR

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Thanks Stuart and others, I saw my friend again yesterday. Turned out to be a defective Power Supply. The link you gave Stuart was great value.

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