Alright, guys, here's the question of the day! I was recently given a desktop computer. It's not the greatest in the world, but I just found out I'm getting broadband (ABOUT FUCKIN TIME!!!!) as an early Christmas present from the wife and she wants to set up a home network so both computers can use the broadband connection. Not a big deal. However, there's a problem.

The computer I was given comes from a Doctor's office and was used in some sort of network. It will not access the hard drive, which I plan on reformatting anyway to delete any old data, if any. It just tries to access the network the office was using. The hard drive seems to be OK, the light comes on briefly when powering up, the computer just can't or won't access it. Anyone know if this can be fixed in BIOS or is it a motherboard or some other problem?

I have a pretty easy time adding Plug-and-Play components and can probably handle this. What I'm looking for is a good website to hit to troubleshoot it. Any ideas? I wouldn't even have any idea what to Google for. Thanks.

Bub

Well, if your gonna F&R it, depending on the OS you choose, it will take care of that problem.  If you install windows XP, it can switch workgroups dynamically, so really, it will configure itself.  On Win9x, you'll have to specify the ip and a few other things.

One thing, if you are getting broadband, and are gonna network, get a router.  

EDIT:

As far as the HDD, open up the case and make sure the power and ribbon cable connections are good (ground yourself first).  Then boot it up, check in bios to see if it is detecting the drive, if it does, it is getting power for sure.  Try it again, (the format or whatever).  If there are still problems, check to make sure the jumper settings on the drive are correct (if these are wrong it also might appear wrong in the bios, or not at all).MOST LIKELY you have a bad drive, but there are a few things you can try after that.

I am assuming the hard drive was wipped already.... and the BIOS is configured to boot from the network card (PXE).

That fine.

Have you actually TRIED to load an OS on there?  Take an OS CD and see if it will boot from CD, and load the OS on the disk drive.  Just cause it aint booting from the drive, dont mean you cannot access it.

Go into the BIOS, and check the boot order, and remove the NIC.  Or, depending on the BIOS, disable PXE boot capability.  Also, make sure the disk drive is set up correctly and detected in the BIOS.

You need to post the brand, model, etc.. of the PC if you want more details.

Quoted: I am assuming the hard drive was wipped already.... and the BIOS is configured to boot from the network card (PXE). That fine. Have you actually TRIED to load an OS on there?  Take an OS CD and see if it will boot from CD, and load the OS on the disk drive.  Just cause it aint booting from the drive, dont mean you cannot access it. Go into the BIOS, and check the boot order, and remove the NIC.  Or, depending on the BIOS, disable PXE boot capability.  Also, make sure the disk drive is set up correctly and detected in the BIOS. You need to post the brand, model, etc.. of the PC if you want more details.

Give the man a cigar! I forgot to post, it's trying to boot from a network card. You can kick me for the omission. After it fails to find the network, it then displays a message that it can't find the OS.

I tried inserting an old Win98 CD to see if that would help, it didn't. It read the CD drive then displayed a message that it couldn't boot from the CD drive. I'm going to try making a Win98 boot floppy at work tomorrow, they still use Win98. I don't know if it will help but it's worth a try.

As for make, it's a, ACR, model ACR-K0440.

I tried disabling the PXE boot capability, it keeps returning when I exit from BIOS.

My first thought was bad hard drive but, like I said, when turned on, the HD light comes on for about 1 second before it tries to access the network. I have a friend that works on computers, he has some extra, working hard drives laying around. If all else fails, he'll probably sell me a HD cheap. I was just thinking about stuff to try before I spend too much money on it. It's only got a 333mhz processor but should work just fine to surf the net while we do serious stuff on this one.

Thanks for helping a fairly computer-literate but programming-stupid guy out!

Bub

Lightning_P38,

I thought ACR made computers, too, although I might be mistaken.

I just fiddled with the BIOS and got PXE to stay turned off. I tried loading Win98 from CD and got an error message stating that the HD is bad or missing. Guess it's probably bad after all. I'll try to get my friend to bring a HD to work tomorrow with him, we'll see if that's it.

A net machine is just fine. Since the wife finally discovered the joys of Photoshop, I hardly get any 'net time at all anymore! She's too busy downloading pics and playing with them for some stupid soap opera forum she's moderator on. How's a guy supposed to surf ARFcom when the wife's on a stupid soap forum?!?!?!

Thanks for the help, all. I appreciate it.

Bub

Hey bub - I got some spare HD's.  Got a spare 4.3GB and a 10GB.  You pay shipping, and you can have one for free.  Fedex ground is typically around $5.  Lemme know.