[RESOLVED] [XP] GateWay Performance 550 Mhz PC boot problem

This Rig was sold by me, to a friend of mine in good working order it has WinXP Pro sp2 (clean install) on a new 40 gb WD hdd, I also updated the mem to 512 mb etc etc!
The 200W PSU is good (I tested it)it's Gateway original equipment.
The next day he goes on and install a 300GB Hdd,he "say" that he set it to slave correctly,
but now this Rig won't boot with or without his 300GB drive period!
I took a look at it and here is what's happening upon powering up this infernal Rig with only my original 40 gb WD drive with WXP pro in it:
The Gateway logo start,
the BIOS (POST) count the mem and see the floppy,
the WD 40 gb drive, the CD rom, keyboard and mouse then one short all is OK beep, then! Nothing just nothing but a black dead screen sit there.
No Windows logo or scroll bar no windows the hard drive is in park I can barely feel it's vibe,
plus it won't boot to a w98 bootdisk or from a bootable CD
the bios is fully accessible and be set up
the CPU is cool, clean and the fan is spinning nicely
All of the hardware are recognized and loaded
the memory count display the correct amount now is 256mb
the BIOS has been set to default and see ALL the hardware
of course the hdd is set as master
I tried to install the old hdd which has w2k it's a 9gigs drive and it's good at least it was before I installed the 40gb WD but I couldn't boot it to windows (same problem)
I swapped the PSU with a known and good working one from the same manufacturer GateWay and same 200w and it's a identical to the original one
I can't use one off the shelf cause is a proprietary thing
all the cables hdd, floppy, and optical have been checked and swapped for known good ones
the BIOS report no errors!
there is the normal one short beep (before it's supposed to boot to windows)
and a normal short grinding floppy sound and next I should see the windows logo a the scrolling green bar in fact I see none of that just a black screen no sounds nothing when I touch the hdd is luke worm and seem to be in park (or slow spin)
I've done lot's of computers repairs and rebuilding but I can't figure this one out :(

thx a Billion

Sounds to me like your friend messed with the BIOS trying to install the 400 GB harddrive. Have you booted into the BIOS to check the setting? If not, try resetting your BIOS to the defaut setting and see what happens. Here's a link with some repair stuff. Note the one about "How to access the last known good configuration".

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm

Hope this helps.

jmtjet I've noted the fact that I did a BIOS reset and that didn't work, plus F8 key won't work as well safe mode is out of the question too, in other words, nothing happens past POST. Only setup key do (F1).

It could be that the IDE controller has packed up. Try the hard drive on the other IDE port and see if it will boot OK with that one.

the memory count display the correct amount now is 256mb

Bad memory stick?

plus F8 key won't work as well safe mode is out of the question

Try holding down CTRL key, which should bring you to a menu (which would include SAFE MODE or COMMAND PROMPT).

HTH

OK here is the what has happened since you guys got me thinking again about this rig,
I went back to setup and found that the BIOS setting was still in custom mode (I did not held the BIOS clear pin long enough the first time, to set it to default) so I did that and re-checked, it's on default now.
I booted the rig again but this time I got "operating system not found"
this was GOOD news, I powered it down,
then I unplugged every thing and unmounted the casing that hold the hdd and re -checked the jumper setting ,
and found that it was set to cable select,
so I set it to master put back together and powered the sucker up,
and voilÃ*! that did it got me to windows.
I think this issue is resolved :) :)
Thx
I'll mail you a billion for this :D