HowToFixComputers.com

Don Crano · Guest

Have a strange boot problem I can not figure out, thought may be some of you
might have or had the same problem or offer some advice.

I added a Seagate 300 gig external USB 2.0 drive, and it has worked fine
till recently. For some reason unknown to be, in the last week or so things
have changed.

Now when I cold boot the computer, if the drive is on, I get the BIOS
screen, then the screen goes black, and hangs there, no WinXP screen,
nothing, have to power down, reboot with the drive off. Now the computer
boots normal as usual, and I can turn the Seagate on after Windows boots.
Originally it would boot fine with the drive ON, do not know what changed
where, any ideas?

Do not know if any of this helps, but playing around trying to figure out
what might have caused this change, I did come up with some more info.

1) If I power down the computer normally, Win Shutdown, but leave the
Seagate drive powered, the computer will boot normally. Turn off the Seagate
and no boot as above.

2) When the computer is hung at the black screen, if I reboot in to BIOS,
make no changes, then hit F10 to save and exit, the computer will boot
properly. If I exit without changes, even though non were made, it will
again hang at the black screen after BIOS post, as above.

3) After playing around find this out, I have noticed on rare occasion,
maybe once out of 6 or 8 times, even with the drive turned on the computer
will boot normally as it has in the past, but the other times I have to turn
the drive off. Does not seem to be a detectable pattern to it all.

Thanks for any help or advice!
Don

DawgFan1785 · Forum Regular Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 10

Its possible the USB ports may be bad. I say its possible. Is it a intel board? Or is it AMD? My friend has a plain Intel board not OEM just plain Intel. His printer and things connected to USB stoped working. We found out the USB was dead. We had someone check the USB ports. But it sounds like it may be going bad. I hope that system is under warranty.
Ive had no problems with Gateway support. Gateway is about the best. Ive had harddrives replaced and 1 motherboard they are great.

Don Crano · Guest

DawgFan, I have had only good support from Gateway, DVD burrner, Video card,
etc all replaced. But this computer is about 2 years out of it's 3 year
warranty.

It is an OEM ver of the Intel D859MV AAA57887-301 board.
Bios id of MV85010A.15A.0086.P15.0212021343 12/02/2002.

Anything is possible, but I doubt my problem is bad USB ports, everything
else functions just fine, Scanner, Card Reader, etc. Even the Seagate
External USB drive, other then the strange boot problem as described. I have
run about every test I can find or think of on the USB ports and drivers, as
well as the drive it's self, have defragged the drive with no problems as
well. The system backs up to the drive everynight and no problems, always
passes the Verify after back up. I would think if it was hardware or the
USB ports persay there would be more of a usage problem not a system boot
problem.

Thank You,
Don
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"DawgFan1785" <no@spam.invalid> wrote in message
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DawgFan1785 · Forum Regular Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 10

Have you tried Segate support? Ive noticed alot of the Segate drives come with 5 year warrenty. Gateway may even suggest something. Ive had good support also with Gateway. I wasn't fully thinking when i mentioned about the USB.

Don Crano · Guest

Ben,

Should have mentioned it but forgot, first thing I did when it started to
happen was replace the CR2032, and actually I changed the battery last
year.<g>

I did check BIOS, USB is the last, I did try disable on it when I checked
it, but still no go. The only thing I could find in the BIOS that was
strange, at least to mem was under the Boot Menu, not the Boot order under
the Advanced Menu, where the selection is Harddrives, it lists both my
Internal Harddrives in the proper order with proper ID, but the 3rd drive,
the external USB Seagate, is not always listed. As an example, if I leave
the drive ON when I reboot, the 3 drive is listed as [ST330083], same as Win
IDs it. But if I turn off the computer and the external drive, like the
described problem, then when I boot and look at BIOS it is shown as ID [],
nothing between the bracketts.

I have tried changing these with no effect. The only options I have are when
it is ID'ed properly as [ST330083], I can select it or either of the other
two harddrives, or disable. If it shows as [], there is no other option,
except to disable. Have tried both the proper ID or disable, not
difference., Even when I disable it, if I leave the drive on when I reboot
it shows back up as [ST330083].

Thanks!

Don

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"Ben Myers" <ben_myers_spam_me_not@charter.net> wrote in message
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Don Crano · Guest

No I have not will do that ASAP.

Thanks!
Don

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"DawgFan1785" <no@spam.invalid> wrote in message
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Ben Myers · Guest

Because you've changed out the battery sort of recently and experimented with
the boot order, I can only surmise that there is an unanticipated (by Intel)
defect in the BIOS. If Gateway has a BIOS update for the D875PBZ motherboard,
it is worth a try. This is a relatively recent board with full USB 2.0
capabilities, but there were issues in the generic D875PBZ BIOS with mixing of
SATA and PATA drives... Ben Myers

On Wed, 8 Nov 2006 18:25:13 -0500, "Don Crano" <dcrano@neo.rr.com> wrote:

Don Crano · Guest

Ben,

My system config:

It is an OEM ver of the Intel D859MV AAA57887-301 board.
Bios id of MV85010A.15A.0086.P15.0212021343 12/02/2002.

Do I understand correctly that I might try a Gateway D875PBZ BIOS update?

Don
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"Ben Myers" <ben_myers_spam_me_not@charter.net> wrote in message
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Ben Myers · Guest

If the BIOS displays a Gateway splash screen, update the BIOS with what might be
available from Gateway. You can only update the BIOS with one that matches the
motherboard model.

But wait! The BIOS ID of MV85010A.15A.0086.P15.0212021343 12/02/2002 is for
the D850EMV2, not a D875-series board. According to the specs for the D850EMV2
on the Intel web site, the board may or may not have USB 2.0 support, a
manufacturing OPTION... Ben Myers

On Sat, 11 Nov 2006 01:42:39 -0500, "Don Crano" <dcrano@neo.rr.com> wrote:

Don Crano · Guest

The BIOS ID of MV85010A.15A.0086.P15.0212021343 12/02/2002 is the newest
and only one I can find on Gateway's site.

My board, D850MV AAA57887-301, AKA Intel (Lexington) Motherboard 2.2 GHz P4
R1 [Part #2516081]

Intel(r) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442
Intel(r) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442
Intel(r) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2444
NEC PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller B1
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
USB 2.0 Root Hub
USB Mass Storage Device
USB Root Hub

Appears to support USB 2.0, four 2.0 ports and two 1.1 ports

Don
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"Ben Myers" <ben_myers_spam_me_not@charter.net> wrote in message
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