Com 226 comp trouble shooting II theory book
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| Symptoms and Solutions Now it’s time to take a look at some problems and solutions. The important concept here is that a hard-drive problem does not necessarily mean a hard-drive failure. The failure of ab Drive Testing and Troubleshooting 623 If the hard-disk controller is listed in Device manager, but has a red “ X” over it, it has been removed from the current hardware profile. Click Properties for the controller in Device manager, then click the checkbox that corresponds to the current hardware profile under Device usage. Sector or track does not automatically indicate physical head or platter damage—that is why software tools have been so successful. Even if one or more sectors are physically damaged, millions of sectors are on a hard drive. A few bad sectors do not render a drive faulty. One of the only times that a drive is truly irreparable is when physical media damage occurs on track 00, but software tools will help you to identify the scope of the problem. Symptom 17-1. The hard drive is completely dead The drive does not spin up, the drive light doesn’t illuminate during power-up, or you see an error message indicating that the drive is not found or ready. Inmost cases, you should suspect a power problem first. Be sure that the pin power connector is inserted properly and completely. If the drive is being powered by a “Y-connector,” be sure any interim connections are secure. Use a voltmeter and measure the +V (pin 4) and +V (pin 1) levels. If either voltage especially the +V supply) is unusually low or absent, replace the power supply. Also check your signal cable. See that the drive’s signal interface cable is connected securely at both the drive and controller ends. For IDE/EIDE drives, this is the pin ribbon cable. If the cable is visibly worn or damaged, try anew cable. The PC cannot use a hard drive that it can’t recognize, so enter the CMOS setup routine and see that all of the parameters entered for the drive are correct. Heads, cylinders, sectors per track, landing zone, and write precompensation must all be correct—otherwise, POST will not recognize the drive. If you have an “auto-detect” option available, try that also. Remember to save your changes in CMOS and reboot the system. If problems continue, the hard drive itself might be defective. Try a known-good hard drive. If a known-good drive works as expected, your original drive is probably defective, and should be replaced. If a known-good hard drive fails to operate, replace the drive controller board. Symptom 17-2. You see drive activity, but the computer will not boot from the hard drive Inmost cases, there is a drive failure, boot-sector failure, or DOS/Windows file corruption. Check the signal cable first. Be sure that the drive’s signal interface cable is connected securely at both the drive and controller. If the cable is visibly worn or damaged, try anew one. You should check the CMOS setup next—see that all of the parameters entered for the drive are correct. Heads, cylinders, sectors per track, landing zone, and write precompensation must all correct. Otherwise, POST will not recognize the drive. If it has an option to “auto-detect” the drive, try that as well. The boot sector might also be defective. Boot from a floppy disk and try accessing the hard drive. If the hard drive is accessible, chances are that the boot files are missing or corrupt. Try a utility, such as DrivePro’s Drive Boot Fixer or DISKFIX with PC Tools. You might also try running “FDISK /MBR,” which will rebuild the drive’s master boot record. Careful the FDISK /MBR command might render the files on your drive inaccessible. Finally, you might have a problem with your drive-system hardware. If you cannot access the hard drive, run a diagnostic such as Windsor Technologies PC Technician. Download 1.89 Mb. Share with your friends:
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