Member Avatar for sparky.sean
sparky.sean

Hello everyone, I'm a new member to this site, and am glad to be a part of such a helpful community. I've used this site on countless of occasions to get some pointers on odd computer problems that traumatise my friends and family's computers for ages. :)

My issue is with my home computer, an Intel Pentium 4 running at 3.0 GHz, 512MB RAM and 2 hard drives: One which is a Western Digital 120GB, and another which is an old Hitachi 60GB. The WD is primarily for Windows XP Professional SP2 and some files, whereas the Hitachi is for the output of my video editing.

The problem arose after I took the computer into my local computer shop to fix a different problem - It wouldn't boot, and ended up being the motherboard (it was fried). They installed a new motherboard, loaded drivers etc. and gave it back to me. It worked when I got it back (thankfully) and I thought the problem was over. But, alas, it wasn't.

When I cold boot the computer, it loads straight into Windows XP Pro and nothing goes wrong at all; everything runs fine. It's only when I warm/hot boot the system that the issue arises.

After BIOS does its POST, BIOS cheerfully informs me that:

"Error loading operating system."

Which seems a little odd, considering if I turn it off and then on again it will run like a dream.

I had a thought that maybe this problem could stem from an old Windows installation (I installed XP in May 2005) and perhaps I just need to format/reinstall? Although, this is my solution to everything... :lol:

In BIOS, I've tried almost everything I can think of - changing the boot order from HDD, CDROM to FDD, HDD, CDROM etc. to no avail. I normally have issues with computers that I can solve - but this one's got me stumped.

So, to reiterate, here are the specifications of the computer:

Intel Pentium 4 @ 3.0GHz, Socket 478
512 MB RAM
Asus P4S800-MX SE Motherboard (Replacement from computer shop)
2 Hard Drives - WD 120GB and Hitachi 60GB
Radeon 9250 AGP Video Card
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2

And the IDE settings are as follows:

Primary Master: WD 120GB HDD
Primary Slave: Hitachi 60GB HDD
Secondary Master: Sony DVD-ROM
Secondary Slave: TSST DVD-RW

Thanks in advance,

--
Sparky.Sean

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.