catgate Posted July 29, 2004 Report Share Posted July 29, 2004 Our neighbour was having problems with IE running on W-XT. Unfortunately the machine had been fiddled with, seriously, by her teenage son, who has since gone to live many miles away. It set out as a relatively new Packard Bell (oh dear) running Windows ? (presumably PB's version of Windows ?), but son had ditched the mobo and fitted one from a Dell? machine in order to run XT (don't ask). The whole thing was in such a mess that I decided to do a low level format and start again, because there was so much obvious bacterial and nematode infection, (no electronic condoms installed). I booted from a floppy (win 98 rescue disc) and did an fdisk check. It found HDD C: but not HDD F: . Nevertheless I told it to format C:, which it appeared to do. However, when I put the instalation disc into the CD drive and fired it up it booted back into XT which was still present on C: (as was everything else). HDD F: was virginal. I went into BIOS and found that there was no Primary Master and no Primary Slave, although there were the two CD drives shown as Secondary Master and Secondary Slave. Being an AMI BIOS there was the auto search for this setting, but when used it returned exactly the same result. To my fevered imagination it could be ribbon cables or it could be jumper settings, or in reallity it might be something totally different. If anyone has any thoughts on the matter I would be a most appreciative recipient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madboy33 Posted July 29, 2004 Report Share Posted July 29, 2004 I assume the discs worked before the formatHave you got a windows DISC then? with a packard bell?How are you going to install XP?Ok look at the back of the 2 HDDs and set both of them on cable select, which is normally the second one from the left.Remeber on the ribbon black is 1st boot and grey is second Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catgate Posted July 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2004 I assume the discs worked before the formatC: must have worked, and still apparently does, but F:? (what happened to D: and E:?)Have you got a windows DISC then with a packard bell?No.How are you going to install XP?Going to load 98SE from a CD left over from the their previous machine which fried its HDD and led to the obtaining of the PB in the first place. I Hope :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madboy33 Posted July 29, 2004 Report Share Posted July 29, 2004 ok take out all drives except the C driveFormat itInstall windows on itNow start the computer to ensure windows is presentNow add the next HDD onto the same IDE as your HDD with windowsRestart computerEnsure that the cables are set correctly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted July 29, 2004 Report Share Posted July 29, 2004 Unplug all drives except the master, then after installing windows, plug them back in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nellie2 Posted July 29, 2004 Report Share Posted July 29, 2004 Check the jumpers too.... B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catgate Posted July 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2004 Thank you all so far for your kind help. Tomorrow I shall have a look-see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catgate Posted August 4, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 Well I did "look see" and the problem was solved by rearranging the ribbon cables and resetting the jumpers on both HDDs and both CDs (more or less as was suggested above). However I am still fighting the little beast. As mentioned earlier it was a Packard Bell machine into which their son had introduced a different mobo (ex Tiny it now appears). Unfortunately, although it is now "computing", it will only do it in 16 colours, because there does not appear to be a suitable driver in Win98SE to fire up the PB monitor (A520) in glorious technicolour.I have downloaded two different drivers which were claimed to be suitable, but Win98SE does not seem to want to recognise them. Is it possible that PB have done the dirty and locked the monitor into using only drivers supplied by themselves and locked into their cobbled versions of Windows ? Once more I am open to any polite and useful suggestions....Pleeeeze. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted August 4, 2004 Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 If it's onboard video, your going to have some troubles..You could always go out and buy a vid card from a flea market or something for $5. It would be worth it, not having to look at 16 colours all day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catgate Posted August 4, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 If it's onboard video, your going to have some troubles..You could always go out and buy a vid card from a flea market or something for $5. It would be worth it, not having to look at 16 colours all day.I can see the way your thinking, but I should have thought that in this case any card would need to be compatible with the PB monitor, which, to my tiny mind, seems to be the crux of the problem. Or is there something I am missing in the logic of it all? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted August 4, 2004 Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 I'm not sure what a PB monitor is.. I've only been in the comp business a few years.. :P, But monitors do cause problems with display as much as graphics cards do. I don't know what else to tell you, besides getting drivers? Try a differen't monitor, and also try the same monitor on a differen't computer. This way you would know which is causing the problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catgate Posted August 4, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 PB =Packard Bell. As far as I can see the aim of PB (and Dell, as well as M$ and others) is that people who buy their products should become "prisoners" rather than "customers". The chairman of the company with whom I spent "a lifetime" used to proclaim "We do not have problems, merely opportunities" (he was never confined for it, as he should have been). I am hoping I do not have an "insoluble opportunity"!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted August 4, 2004 Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 I see, MUCH clearer now..and I agree with you 110%...people who buy their products should become "prisoners" rather than "customers"...Yep. I've dealth with HP (Hewlett-Packard) computers before and thier a nightmare!I don't know if I can provide you with any help though.. The computer I worked on never got completely fixed for this very reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.