Willie's latest computer problem

[Tony Junior]

Well, bad luck has visited Willie --- AGAIN! Last Saturday he bought a new computer, an HP A1623-W

Day before yesterday it crashed big time, and he had to reformat his 250 GIG hard drive. He got it running again, and thought all was well --- until this morning when it did the same thing!

I told him I think it's a bad hard drive, because the system will not boot, and more obviously, he gets a "disk read error."

He just asked me to let y'all know he'll be offline for a while, until he gets it repaired, replaced, or his money back.

[rodtrotter]

i had the same sort of problem with my medion the guy came to put a new hard drive in he fond that it was a problem with the ram not the hard disk and it was the ram i added so i had to buy more ram bugger

[Sid]

Strange indeed....

[dattia]

That is really a shame. Willie is such a nice man. I hope that he gets it worked out soon.

[Fighter Pilot]

Well hello all. Yes, it's me.... While on the phone with Tony talking about my computer issues, I got a message that said 3rd master hard disk error. Just for kicks (and so I could say I tried everything) I removed my Tiger Woods 2007 DVD from the DVD drive and decided to try to reboot again. It booted and here I am. I don't know how long this may last, but we shall see. Tony has Tigher Woods 2007 and he leaves it in his drive all the time with no problem, Go figure!!!

[hanabi]

Good to see you are back with us!!!

and even better to see you are embracing the Dark Side!!

[Tulsa]

Willie, in your cmos, do you have the machine set to boot from the CD first then the HD?

[Sid]

sounds like its trying to boot from the CD and it finds no operating system and it wont proceed to boot up..

[Fighter Pilot]

I have no clue. I will reboot, and see if thats the case....if I remember how.

Ok, it looks like that was the problem. I changed that and it booted fine. I haven't tried to boot with the Tiger Woods DVD in the DVD drive yet, but the drive was quiet on boot up this time, so all may be fine. Ty gang!!!

[Eddie]

Another reason to get a MAC!

[luckydog]

My HP checks the floppy and cd drive while booting, if I have a floppy in it will not boot.

but, it does give me a message saying that.

[logicprobe]

I saw that new computer when I visited Willie on Monday.
It's a VERY nice system! :fisheye:

Hope you got it worked out, Willie.
But don't hesitate to exchange it if you don't think it's right.

[slothappy144]

It is the boot order setting for sure I see this often. Either change and save settings in Cmos or remove the disk before booting. FYI: USB pen drives can make this happen as well except most machines this boot from option is off by default.

[logicprobe]

Upon further review...
(That's for you football fans out there)

This is what concerns the judges most... the message that was quoted, "3rd master hard disk error".

Now the big question is... can you duplicate that error by putting the same DVD in the same drive... WITH the settings the way they were BEFORE in CMOS? (Yes... change them back, and try it).

Only then will you know for sure.

If it doesn't come up with that same error... then get someone to take it back to the store for you, Willie, and get it exchanged while you still can.
We're thinking defective controller or HD here. If so, a reformat will only buy you a small amount of time, at best.

[luckydog]

my newest computer has started shutting itself off and I can smell overheating electronics.

the fan is running, so I guess I'll tear it apart tomorrow and see if its the fan or power supply.

[dattia]

Do you have a back-up computer or will you be off-line?

[luckydog]

I have a 29.99 backup system from Goodwill

plus my old hp too!!!!!

I think the power supply is dying on my new one

[slothappy144]

My first guess is your power supply fan is kaput. Put your hand back where the power runs in you should feel a breeze. Easy to do without dismantling it, yet.

[Tony Junior]

Upon further review...
(That's for you football fans out there)

If it doesn't come up with that same error... then get someone to take it back to the store for you, Willie, and get it exchanged while you still can.
We're thinking defective controller or HD here. If so, a reformat will only buy you a small amount of time, at best.

Willie's on the phone this morning. It took another dump last night.

He finally got HP Service on the phone, and confirmed it is the HD. They are supposed to send a box to him for the tower after they call him back.

The only problem with taking it back to Wal-Mart is that was the last one they had...at that time. I told him to call WM and see if they have gotten another one in. If not, for that store to check with all the other stores in the area and whichever one does have one, to take it back there. He's going to try that.

[hanabi]

Well he shouldn't really need to be dismantling it - I thought it was a new one!!

and if he is still having problems - and worried about it - it should go straight back to be replaced........