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Boot problem - NVRAM? - Pri Master HDD Error
Hi folks,
I'm having some serious problems with my PC and hope one of you folks may be able to help. I have a pentium III 800 Mghz with a Gigabyte GA-6VX7B-4X motherboard. Its just over 3 yrs old only by a week or so which means its out of warranty. It is always plugged into a surge protector - so I think I can rule out a surge causing the problem. The error I that first appeared on bootup was "Pri Master HDD Error Press DEL for setup F1 to continue" I thought this meant my hard drive was stuffed so being a newbie to hardware troubleshooting I went out and bought two new hard drives. $$ Imagine the horror (with a grin/grimace for my oversight) when in the process of setting up the new hard drives (Win 98 SE - FDISK and FORMAT and reinstalling windows...) the same error begins to occur again. The problem is intermittent, but happening consistently enough to make me want to throw the rotten thing out the window. In the process of troubleshooting the one thing that seems connected to the problem is in an earlier part of the boot up sequence. When booting up ok the following appears 1. Screen 1 "NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS VGA BIOS Version 2.15.03.01.07 Copyright (C) 1996-2000 NVidia Corp. Copyright (C) 1998-2000 Creative Technology Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Creative GB0010 (AGP) 32.0MB RAM" 2. Screen 2 "American Megatrends Released: 18/03/2000 AMIBIOS (C) 1999 American Megatrends 6VX7B-4X F28 Check System Health OK, CPU ID:0686 Patch ID:0008 Pentium III - 800KB MHz Checking NVRAM.. 524288KB OK Hit DEL if you want to run SETUP" When not booting up ok, screen 1 appears the same, screen 2 appears like the following (its not exact because at the moment its partially working and I need to get it to come up again). What I do definately know is different is the Checking NVRAM line, the following line is blank when it seems to have problems. And when the "Pri Master HDD Error" msg appears the computer gives two short beeps a pause then one more beep. 2. Screen 2 "American Megatrends Released: 18/03/2000 AMIBIOS (C) 1999 American Megatrends 6VX7B-4X F28 Check System Health OK, CPU ID:0686 Patch ID:0008 Pentium III - 800KB MHz Checking NVRAM.. Pri Master HDD Error Press DEL for setup F1 to continue" ___________________________________ At this point I'm suspecting RAM or the motherboard or both. Cant be the new drive. The intermittent occurance has me stumped - I'm not sure what is causing it to occur.... I'm going to keep reinstalling windows and look carefully for the next error when it occurs. Any and all help appreciated thanks in advance! - Sparks. P.S. Sorry if that was a bit verbose, Anyone know what could be causing the problem with my hard drive ? How can I fix it ? Do I need a new motherboard or BIOS update or RAM or a battery ? Hopefully hear for someone soon |
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