ECN Forum Forums Technical Discussion Re: Computers and the Internet Computer Problem

Ahh, interrupt 80! It's trying to tell you that the BIOS cannot find the 512 byte signature on any disks, which preceeds the operating system's boot tracks (in a basic sense!).

This means:
<OL TYPE=A>

[*]There is a floppy disk in the drive, which does not contain any boot data - either it is blank, or contains some raw data - but not any bootable data,

[*]The BIOS has been reconfigured, and does not have the hard disk drive setup correctly (could be many things causing this),

[*]The hard disk drive has a corrupted boot sector,

[*]The hard disk drive has been formatted,

[*]The hard disk drive's communication cable has been taken loose, or jumpers have been mis configured,
or

[*]Hard disk failure.
</OL>

Try to boot the machine using a floppy disk. Make an "Emergency Startup Disk" from a known working machine, then use it to start up the non booting machine.
If you are successful, it will boot you to a DOS screen, with the command prompt logged to the floppy drive (typically drive A, so it will look like A:\> ).Try to log onto the hard disk drive by typing in the following command:
C:\
then press the enter key. If that works, the command prompt will now show " C:\> ", which means at least DOS sees the drive and can attempt to access directories on it. If DOS cannot access drive C:, it will come up with an error, which means anything from a blank/formatted disk, to a non functioning drive.

If you are successful with logging to a "C Prompt", type in this command:

DIR /P
then press the enter key. This will display the directories on the disk, one "page" at a time. press the spacebar to "roll down" the directory list, until you come to the end of it.

If you can get this far, things aren't too bad, and you can salvage the machine + data without too many hassles
(hopefully??? )

Let us know how things turn out.

Scott35

p.s. Trivia Time!!!

Q: What was the original function of IRQ 80, and what makes that function such an important and key item for a PC type machine?

First 10 callers with the correct answer win a free Oven Mitt!

Scott35

No, it's a dead duck!.
The owner doesn't want to spend any money on it.
I put a boot disk in it, but it wouldn't even recognise that.
Looks like the kiddies have really done it this time.
(The phrase "just wait 'til your father gets home!", oddly springs to mind).
Thanks heaps for your advice on this one guys!.

Computer went back to it's owner today.
Along with the words said under the breath of "You couldn't even fix it".
Didn't worry me, got some more room for the extra TV and VCR that came in earlier on!.

I've just noticed that my computer at start up, once it's on the Windows XP screen and that blue scanning thingy stays on there for about two or three minutes now, it used to only be there for a few seconds before, have I installed something that has seriously slowed down my computer's processing time at start-up.
Or am I just paranoid?.

This is really starting to annoy me, the time taken to move from this screen to the Desktop has panned out to 5 minutes!.
Can someone give me some help w/ respect to this problem?.

I'm not sure what "blue thingy" you're talking about, as I've not used XP, but I've found that once Windows gets that hopelessly bogged down the only realiable way to get everything back to normal is to re-install it.

Get a good book, fill up the coffee pot, and make yourself comfortable. "This may take a few minutes...." as MicroSoft will tell you!

Paul,
Sorry about the ambigious note of my last message, but that was the best way I could explain it.
After the start-up Window and also after the DOS loading, there is a Desktop screen that says "Windows XP Professional"
and there is a scanning thing like the KITT car on Knight Rider, But it takes a hell of a long time to load(sometimes up to 5 minutes).
How can I speed this part of the computer start-up up?.

Trash the whole lot and go over to Unix ??!!

Seriously, I'm afraid I can't help there. Maybe one of our XP gurus has a solution.

Well, I found something on Google Groups (the old http://www.deja.com ) that might help:


To get there, right click on "My Computer" and select Properties.

Click on the Hardware tab.

Click on the Device Manager button.

Click on the plus-sign-in-a-box to the left of IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.

Right click on Secondary IDE Channel.

Click on the Advanced Settings tab.

If you can change Device Type to "None", change it. If you can not change it, that's because XP is keeping you from disabling something that should not be disabled.

Caveat: Perhaps try printing out this thread so you can go back to change things if need be. I don't know for sure if this will fix the problem, but according to this article it helps.

[This message has been edited by ThinkGood (edited 08-09-2003).]

All of which suggests that Windows might be "hangin up" for a time while it tries to communicate with a device which is not present.

Come to think of it, I've seen a problem with multiple device drivers under Win95/98.