Member Avatar for grandmagail

Help, please!

I turned on my computer and got a black screen with the message: “Reboot and Select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key”

I had no prior warning or problems with my computer.

I hit F1 for the setup menu and there is no hard drive listed under channel devices on the main Tab! It says [None] for First and Second Channel Device 0 and 1. The CD and DVD drives are listed under Channel Device 0 and 1. For Installed Memory it says “1024 MB/PC2-3200 and Memory Bank 0 and 2 show 512 MB/DDR2 SDRAM.

Under Advanced tab, it lists CPU type as Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz with HT Technology and it lists the CPU Speed and Cache RAM.

If I go to advanced under Boot Device Priority, hard drive group is listed but has parentheses around it. To the right, it says that means the device has been disabled in the corresponding type menu, but I don’t see it anywhere as disabled.

I bought this tower several months ago used and it has no warranty. There was no boot cd with it. I hate that whenever I buy a computer, it already has OEM operating system and I never get a disk. It seems that solutions to many of my problems over the years involve inserting the cd. Is there any way to buy a boot cd or win xp cd without buying the program? As you can tell, I don’t have advanced computer knowledge.

The really scary thing is that I cannot get into safe mode or system recovery. It just goes back to the black screen with the message when I press F8 or F10!

Can anyone help with any suggestions other than buying another hard drive? I am on Social Security and it was a real hardship to buy the last one. It is a HP Pavilion Desktop a1023c with Windows XP Home SP3.

I will probably have to call a tech to come and look at it, but I thought I would try you guys first.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Gail

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Member Avatar for TurcoLoco

If no HD is detected then operating system is out of the loop so naturally you will not be able to boot your system pass the POST.

If everything was working before and you have made absolutely no changes in the BIOS settings, then "No HD detected" typically means:
~ The data cable (ATA ribbon or SATA) had either come loose or disconnected.
~ The Hard Drive is bad.

Power off the system, disconnect the power cord from the back of the PC and open the side panel to investigate the cable going from the motherboard to HD. Make sure it is securely connected at both ends. If so, then chances are the current HD is bad.

Edited by TurcoLoco because: n/a
Member Avatar for grandmagail

I tried that and put the cover back on and connected power cord, monitor, mouse and keyboard, but when I pushed the power button, nothing happened. Monitor light came on, but not the tower. Plug is secure. Any ideas on what would cause no power at this point?

Member Avatar for sweetfriend

I too have the same Problem..!!! ANy solutions ? ?? ? ?? ?

And if HD is bad what to do ?? ? ?

Member Avatar for SHENGTON

Hello grandmagail, good evening. :)

I agree what Turco posted. The error that you saw on the screen indicates that the does't detect any hard drive in you unit. That thing you should do is to replug the PATA cable of the hard disk. If that won't work then try other other PATA or IDE cables if you have extra. If you don't have then you can borrow from your friends.

Take care and God bless. :)

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