Strange boot problem with WD120GB - read/write heads stuck?

[Bill in SD, CA]

W2K, PIII 1.0Ghz, 256 PC133

Boot order is: Floppy, HDD, CDROM.

Occasionally when I re-boot and more often when I shut down overnight and power up in the morning, I get the message "boot disk failure insert system disk in CDROM - press any key to continue." So, I keep hitting enter over and over and eventually the the machine boots up. Sometimes it only a couple of "enters" and sometimes it like 20 or 30.

My thought is that the read/write heads on the HDD are not moving or are stuck. Then after all the little "nudges" they get loose and the system boots.

I have run WD diagnostics and get no errors. I have not run the diagnostics while having the problem though.

Problem is I think it is the heads and would like to RMA the drive while I can.

Has anyone else ever experienced problems with the heads not respondings at boot?

Thanks,

Bill

[sam]

try changing boot order to HDD-- cd rom --floppy

[Xeroid]

Originally posted by sam
try changing boot order to HDD-- cd rom --floppy

That's what I was thinking Bill. Try what sam said and move the floppy to a lower position in the boot sequence (just in case) and see what happens.

I've seen HDs that wouldn't spin up until you tapped gently on the side of the HD case. If your problem continues after changing the boot sequence, I'd try booting the PC (one morning after it's had time to sit for an extended period of time) with the case cover open. Instead of hitting enter repeatidly, try laying your had on the outside of the HD case to see if you can feel it spin up.

Mike

[billniceguy]

i got similar problem. p4/2.4 gig/win98se/60gig hd...when i turn on i usually get zip. Then i press reset, and sometimes it works ok...sometimes have to press reset 2 times. Once in while starts up on first time. Very weird. Once it boots up no problem...any idea what problem is?

[Bovon]

Originally posted by billniceguy
i got similar problem. p4/2.4 gig/win98se/60gig hd...when i turn on i usually get zip. Then i press reset, and sometimes it works ok...sometimes have to press reset 2 times. Once in while starts up on first time. Very weird. Once it boots up no problem...any idea what problem is?

Yes.. You may have the bad motherboard capacitor syndrome. Many motherboards have been marketed in the last 2 ~ 3 years with faulty capacitors that affect the cpu voltage, and sometimes you must reboot several times to catch the voltage just right, and then it will boot. I have repaired two boards with that problem, and have read of quite a few other instances of the same. There may be other reasons for a board to not boot properly, but this defect is very prevalent these days.

Please read:
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY...eb03/ncap.html
http://www.ttiinc.com/MarketEye/zogb...s_20021014.asp