I have a Compaq Desktop model Deskpro EN that I hardly ever use. It sits
running. I only have one visual basic billing program that I
periodically use. This morning I went to boot it and got an error
message that the file windows 2000 root\system32\ntoskrnl.exe was
corrupted and needed to be reinstalled. I booted off of the Win2K CD and
tried to repair the disk with no luck. I believe and I/O error message
accompanied this. So i decided to take the pc apart to clean out all
dust, make sure all cables are seated, no dust in the contacts, etc and
then went to reboot. Well now, I get no image on the monitor and the CD
sounds like it is spinning up and getting warm but all I get is 2 beeps.
I have retraced my steps, thinking that I reassembled the cables
incorrectly but I do not think so. I am not sure. There is a separate
cable going to the HD, the CDR and the floppy drive. is this correct.
Then each gets power and the CDR gets some smaller connectors. i am
stumped. I am more of a Mac person so I do not really understand how PCs
go together as well. I do know that the cable that goes from the board
to the floppy is of a unique size and cannot have been switched by
accident. That leaves the CDR and Hard Drive. If anyone can figure out
what I may have ******* up, please let me know. BTW, I had a couple of
spare HD lying around and tried both of them with the same 2 beeps. I
just need to get it running so I can contact Western Digital and see
where I go from here. Please help if you can.
michael.roback@gmail.com wrote:
> I have a Compaq Desktop model Deskpro EN that I hardly ever use. It sits
> running. I only have one visual basic billing program that I
> periodically use. This morning I went to boot it and got an error
> message that the file windows 2000 root\system32\ntoskrnl.exe was
> corrupted and needed to be reinstalled. I booted off of the Win2K CD and
> tried to repair the disk with no luck. I believe and I/O error message
> accompanied this. So i decided to take the pc apart to clean out all
> dust, make sure all cables are seated, no dust in the contacts, etc and
> then went to reboot. Well now, I get no image on the monitor and the CD
> sounds like it is spinning up and getting warm but all I get is 2 beeps.
> I have retraced my steps, thinking that I reassembled the cables
> incorrectly but I do not think so. I am not sure. There is a separate
> cable going to the HD, the CDR and the floppy drive. is this correct.
> Then each gets power and the CDR gets some smaller connectors. i am
> stumped. I am more of a Mac person so I do not really understand how PCs
> go together as well. I do know that the cable that goes from the board
> to the floppy is of a unique size and cannot have been switched by
> accident. That leaves the CDR and Hard Drive. If anyone can figure out
> what I may have ******* up, please let me know. BTW, I had a couple of
> spare HD lying around and tried both of them with the same 2 beeps. I
> just need to get it running so I can contact Western Digital and see
> where I go from here. Please help if you can.
First, the beeps are a sign that something is causing the computer not
to boot up, and not even to display anything on screen. I would guess
that possibly a memory module is not seated properly in its socket.
Second, the root\system32\ntoskrnl.exe corrupted is most often a sign of
something seriously wrong with the hard drive HARDWARE. A software
oriented repair procedure won't ever fix it. If and when the computer
is alive and well again (as well as can be expected!), you need to run
diagnostics on the hard drive. All the drive manufacturers have free
diagnotic software that tests the hard drive and often attempts to
repair bad data sectors on the drive by replacing them with spare
sectors. Once the drive is "repaired" (and it should be considered a
very temporary repair!), you can then do a Windows repair and perhaps
get the system to boot up and run. If you can do all that, then either
replace the hard drive or replace the computer... Ben Myers
In article <h9hif3$8vd$1@news.eternal-september.org>,
Ben Myers <ben_myers@charter.net> wrote:
> michael.roback@gmail.com wrote:
> > I have a Compaq Desktop model Deskpro EN that I hardly ever use. It sits
> > running. I only have one visual basic billing program that I
> > periodically use. This morning I went to boot it and got an error
> > message that the file windows 2000 root\system32\ntoskrnl.exe was
> > corrupted and needed to be reinstalled. I booted off of the Win2K CD and
> > tried to repair the disk with no luck. I believe and I/O error message
> > accompanied this. So i decided to take the pc apart to clean out all
> > dust, make sure all cables are seated, no dust in the contacts, etc and
> > then went to reboot. Well now, I get no image on the monitor and the CD
> > sounds like it is spinning up and getting warm but all I get is 2 beeps.
> > I have retraced my steps, thinking that I reassembled the cables
> > incorrectly but I do not think so. I am not sure. There is a separate
> > cable going to the HD, the CDR and the floppy drive. is this correct.
> > Then each gets power and the CDR gets some smaller connectors. i am
> > stumped. I am more of a Mac person so I do not really understand how PCs
> > go together as well. I do know that the cable that goes from the board
> > to the floppy is of a unique size and cannot have been switched by
> > accident. That leaves the CDR and Hard Drive. If anyone can figure out
> > what I may have ******* up, please let me know. BTW, I had a couple of
> > spare HD lying around and tried both of them with the same 2 beeps. I
> > just need to get it running so I can contact Western Digital and see
> > where I go from here. Please help if you can.
>
> First, the beeps are a sign that something is causing the computer not
> to boot up, and not even to display anything on screen. I would guess
> that possibly a memory module is not seated properly in its socket.
>
> Second, the root\system32\ntoskrnl.exe corrupted is most often a sign of
> something seriously wrong with the hard drive HARDWARE. A software
> oriented repair procedure won't ever fix it. If and when the computer
> is alive and well again (as well as can be expected!), you need to run
> diagnostics on the hard drive. All the drive manufacturers have free
> diagnotic software that tests the hard drive and often attempts to
> repair bad data sectors on the drive by replacing them with spare
> sectors. Once the drive is "repaired" (and it should be considered a
> very temporary repair!), you can then do a Windows repair and perhaps
> get the system to boot up and run. If you can do all that, then either
> replace the hard drive or replace the computer... Ben Myers
I removed and reseated the memory and still get the beeps and no video.
michael.roback@gmail.com wrote:
> In article <h9hif3$8vd$1@news.eternal-september.org>,
> Ben Myers <ben_myers@charter.net> wrote:
>>
>> Second, the root\system32\ntoskrnl.exe corrupted is most often a sign of
>> something seriously wrong with the hard drive HARDWARE. A software
>> oriented repair procedure won't ever fix it. If and when the computer
>> is alive and well again (as well as can be expected!), you need to run
>> diagnostics on the hard drive. All the drive manufacturers have free
>> diagnotic software that tests the hard drive and often attempts to
>> repair bad data sectors on the drive by replacing them with spare
>> sectors. Once the drive is "repaired" (and it should be considered a
>> very temporary repair!), you can then do a Windows repair and perhaps
>> get the system to boot up and run. If you can do all that, then either
>> replace the hard drive or replace the computer... Ben Myers
>
> I removed and reseated the memory and still get the beeps and no video.
2 short beeps on Compaq BIOS indicate any error not covered by another
beep code. 1 short, 1 long indicates a BIOS checksum error, which can be
caused by a dead RTC battery or a corrupted BIOS ROM.
If you've got no video output at all, then it's possible the video card
isn't fully seated in its slot, or if the video is on the motherboard,
the cable to the video output isn't quite making a connection or the
motherboard is effectively dead. It is quite easy to disturb the card
while you're cleaning the interior.
If you can remember what the error code was last time it tried to boot,
then this list *may* help narrow it down:-
>I have a Compaq Desktop model Deskpro EN that I hardly ever use. It sits
>running. I only have one visual basic billing program that I
>periodically use. This morning I went to boot it and got an error
>message that the file windows 2000 root\system32\ntoskrnl.exe was
>corrupted and needed to be reinstalled. I booted off of the Win2K CD and
>tried to repair the disk with no luck. I believe and I/O error message
>accompanied this. So i decided to take the pc apart to clean out all
>dust, make sure all cables are seated, no dust in the contacts, etc and
>then went to reboot. Well now, I get no image on the monitor and the CD
>sounds like it is spinning up and getting warm but all I get is 2 beeps.
>I have retraced my steps, thinking that I reassembled the cables
>incorrectly but I do not think so. I am not sure. There is a separate
>cable going to the HD, the CDR and the floppy drive. is this correct.
>Then each gets power and the CDR gets some smaller connectors. i am
>stumped. I am more of a Mac person so I do not really understand how PCs
>go together as well. I do know that the cable that goes from the board
>to the floppy is of a unique size and cannot have been switched by
>accident. That leaves the CDR and Hard Drive. If anyone can figure out
>what I may have ******* up, please let me know. BTW, I had a couple of
>spare HD lying around and tried both of them with the same 2 beeps. I
>just need to get it running so I can contact Western Digital and see
>where I go from here. Please help if you can.
Michael,
Unlatch the riser unit and re-seat it. I've had this same issue with
the EN I used to have.
William H. Bowen wrote:
>
> michael.roback@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> I have a Compaq Desktop model Deskpro EN that I hardly ever use. It sits
>> running. I only have one visual basic billing program that I
>> periodically use. This morning I went to boot it and got an error
>> message that the file windows 2000 root\system32\ntoskrnl.exe was
>> corrupted and needed to be reinstalled. I booted off of the Win2K CD and
>> tried to repair the disk with no luck. I believe and I/O error message
>> accompanied this. So i decided to take the pc apart to clean out all
>> dust, make sure all cables are seated, no dust in the contacts, etc and
>> then went to reboot. Well now, I get no image on the monitor and the CD
>> sounds like it is spinning up and getting warm but all I get is 2 beeps.
>> I have retraced my steps, thinking that I reassembled the cables
>> incorrectly but I do not think so. I am not sure. There is a separate
>> cable going to the HD, the CDR and the floppy drive. is this correct.
>> Then each gets power and the CDR gets some smaller connectors. i am
>> stumped. I am more of a Mac person so I do not really understand how PCs
>> go together as well. I do know that the cable that goes from the board
>> to the floppy is of a unique size and cannot have been switched by
>> accident. That leaves the CDR and Hard Drive. If anyone can figure out
>> what I may have ******* up, please let me know. BTW, I had a couple of
>> spare HD lying around and tried both of them with the same 2 beeps. I
>> just need to get it running so I can contact Western Digital and see
>> where I go from here. Please help if you can.
>
> Michael,
>
> Unlatch the riser unit and re-seat it. I've had this same issue with
> the EN I used to have.
>
> Regards,
> Bill Bowen
> Sacramento, CA
The riser card itself can fail. Used to handle a contract with nearly
8000 Compaq DeskPro EN's. We had perhaps 1 riser card failure every
three months. Compaq replaced them under warranty, though that's no
longer an option.
Deskpro EN Hard Drive Problem I am stumped. 
Linear Mode
