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Original poster

Could anyone please help me with a computer/techie question or two?

28 replies

zephyrcat · 19/02/2006 21:04

My Mum bought my Sister a pc last xmas. My sister broke it it by turning it off without shutting down all the time. Mum took it to her tech man at work who put a new hard drive in windows xp and all the trimmings. Then it was discovered that it needed a new motherboard, not a new hard drive so my sister's grandpa said he would fix it for her. Her Dad then went and got her a new one this xmas and put it through his business.
Anyway! I asked Mum if I could buy the original one off her and I would put a new motherboard in, so she asked for it back from sisters Grandpa who told Mum that he has put the 'new' hard drive into a new tower and put win2000 on it.

I've just brought it home and switched it on - the start-up screen shows the black American Megatrends 1998 475mHz screen that my old Time computer brings up. Does that mean that it still has an old hard drive in it and he's ripped Mum off?? It's also got windows 98 on it - not even 2000 whereas Mum's new hard drive had the newest win xp/office etc on it.

I hope some of that makes sense and someone can confirm that he's pulled a fast one before I go and tell her what I think he's done!!

OP posts:
Original poster
zephyrcat · 19/02/2006 21:06

Forgot to say that basically the 'new' tower he has 'supposedly' put the new hard drive into is a big old grey thing with a dvd rom drive and a HP cd-writer drive in - neither of which do anything because they haven't had the software or drivers installed with them.

The one Mum gave him to fix was a brand new E-machine with cd-writer.

OP posts:
spacecadet · 19/02/2006 21:07

ive no idea im afraid, but hopefully someone techy will be along soon!

Kidstrack2 · 19/02/2006 21:09

OMG zephyrcat he really done that! thats shocking what you supposed to do with that everything is so hi tec now I hope your mum didn't pay a lot of money

Kidstrack2 · 19/02/2006 21:10

yes mean't to say he has placed an old hard drive in it

kittyfish · 19/02/2006 21:10

It all sounds a bit fishy to me - if you put a new motherboard in that shouln't affect what is on the hard drive unless the hard drive fries (I think). You may be better off going to a techie site where someone can talk you through checking the registry etc for software/hardware installed. bravenet.com would be a good starting point or google pc help or something. Good luck.

Original poster
zephyrcat · 19/02/2006 21:13

My Mum paid 300 for the computer then another 100 for the new hard drive with win xp etc on it.

So it's safe to say that if there was a new hard drive in it, it wouldn't be coming up with american megatrends 1998 (ie the original Time start up)?

OP posts:
Mistymoo · 19/02/2006 21:17

Lots of possibilities on this one Im afraid.

My first guess would be the hard drive right enough. Howveer there are some things to check first.

Do you know how much RAm is in it, and does it count all the way up to that amout when switched on.

Next thngs would be to go intot he BIOS (ooooo technical). There should be a section about auto detect IDE seetings. This basically scans the computer to see what drives are attached. Does it detect the hard drive? Could be some fo the settings are wonly if it does. Access mode is a favourite.

Check cables (both power and Ribbon cables to motherboard to) Fitted right way round?
`
Lots more unfortunately but so little to go on

LoveMyGirls · 19/02/2006 21:18

my dp who knows about these things says that the american megatrends thing is the bios so doesnt have anything to do with the hard disk.

hub2dee · 19/02/2006 21:19

The American Megatrends stuff is information displayed by the Motherboard, during its self-test on power up. Nothing to do with information on the hard drive. It's like the motherboard saying 'hello, my name is Mary.' Well, kinda.

kittyfish · 19/02/2006 21:19

This is on the outer limits of my techie knowlege, but your hard drive holds all of the information, software etc so a brand new hard drive needs to have an OS installed to even run (I think). If you say XP was installed on the hard drive that is meant to be in the pc then you will get an XP start up page etc. XP would automatically come up as the default version of Windows. Hope that helps and didn't just confuse you as much as it confused me.

Mistymoo · 19/02/2006 21:21

Id worry about the drive before going anywhere near the registry by the way.

As its only a 475Mhz machine it's not really worth putting anything other than Windows 98SE or Millenium (yuk) on it.

And at that price it's a total rip off.Espcially having also to spend money on a new drive. Only worth £150 max (with new drive) sorry....

MrMiaou · 19/02/2006 21:21

When you say that it displays American Megatrends 1998 475mHz on the "startup screen" do you mean the very first thing you see when you power on? If so this bit is nothing to do with the hard drive, it is the BIOS, which is built into the motherboard.

It may be that he has put the new harddrive into an existing PC, alongside the harddrive it already contained.

When the PC boots, it should display some basic information such as what hard drives etc it detects. See what that says if it says there are 2 hard drives then that is a partial answer, let me know on here, and then I can give more help.

LoveMyGirls · 19/02/2006 21:22

also american megatrends thing is nothing to do with the operating system.

Mistymoo · 19/02/2006 21:23

Another thing to try is booting off the CDrom drive. But that depends on how it's cables up. If you can boot from it, then it's possibly a dodgy IDE channel for the HD (or a cable) or the drive is dead....

If drive is dead and it's parameters were set in the BIOS it should flag up an error mesasge like
Missing device on IDE channel 0. But depends on motherboard

kittyfish · 19/02/2006 21:23

Phew, a proper techie. You're safe from my bs now Zephyr.

Mistymoo · 19/02/2006 21:25

Stupid question but how do you know it has Windows 98 o nit if you cant get bast the inital boot screen?

Original poster
zephyrcat · 19/02/2006 21:48

Ok - took a while! I had to take the keyboard and power lead with me - very tech house this!

The american megatrend screen is indeed the first screen that comes up - so not to do with the hard drive - just wanted to be 100% sure. I can't get all the info from that screen as it goes quite quick...I did get the processor clock as 475mHz and then 'Main processor 2/475' Is that meaning 2 hard drives?

I can get into 'settings' by hitting delete but not sure where to find the right info on there...

OP posts:
Original poster
zephyrcat · 19/02/2006 21:49

The first boot is from the cd-rom before the ide. I guess he installed win98 from a boot disk.

OP posts:
Original poster
zephyrcat · 19/02/2006 21:51

I can get into Win98 fine - I'm just trying to figure out if he has taken the new hard drive that Mum paid for and given her back a dodgy old one!

OP posts:
MrMiaou · 19/02/2006 21:57

ok, when it boots it should give you an option to enter "setup", usually you have to press a key or 2, either "del" or F2 or someting else, it should tell you on screen what to do.

Do what it says, and somewhere in there it should give you information about IDE drives.

See what it lists in there.

Original poster
zephyrcat · 19/02/2006 22:20

Yep that's what I've been into - I'll have another look - what exactly am I looking for?

Sorry for being so dim about it all!!! - you wouldn't believe that I used to know my way all around this stuff!!

OP posts:
MrMiaou · 19/02/2006 22:26

not being dim at all, and it is scary how quick you forget it all when not dealing with it day to day!

I haven't worked on an american megatrends bios for years, so I can't give exact screen by screen details I'm afraid. What you are looking for is the screen that details the disks that are installed in the PC. It should mention IDE in the menu item responsible. Just click through the menus until something mentions hdd and cd / dvd drives.

You are looking to see what hard drives it lists - does that make any sense?

Original poster
zephyrcat · 19/02/2006 22:30

Yep that makes sense - thank you - off for another look!!

OP posts:
Original poster
zephyrcat · 19/02/2006 22:45

ok - all I could find about the IDE is:

Boot Device Options IDE 0, IDE 1, IDE 2, IDE 3

Offboard PCI IDE card - auto
Offboard PCI IDE Primary IRQ - disabled
Offboard PCI IDE Secondary IRQ - disabled

Onboard IDE - Both

Does that mean anything? I might just have to write it off and bin it!!

OP posts:
Miaou · 19/02/2006 22:51

zephyr - just been talking to MrMiaou and he suggests that it might be easier to go through this over the phone, then he can talk it through with you rather than going back and forth between computers ....

If you are comfortable with that, then CAT me and we can swap phone numbers or whatever. He did say he would rather do it tomorrow though as he is just back from a fishing trip so a bit tired atm. The offer's there anyway