My Sims Machine Died (and what I did about it) - Page 2

Greg · 02-11-2008, 12:38 AM

Progress Report:

It booted up on the first try!

Gloryosky! Gott in Himmel! It's working!

On the first page of the BIOS screen, I see that it recognizes its DVD drive and its hard drive!

Greg · 02-11-2008, 12:41 AM

It also recognizes the keyboard, which is a wireless keyboard with the receiver plugged into a USB port on the motherboard.

Greg · 02-11-2008, 01:15 AM

Omigoodness, now I have to make a decision. Do I want to install the 64-bit version of Windows Vista?

I've seen the words "32-bit" here and there, so maybe that's what I want. On the Microsoft page they say that to use the 64-bit system you need a 64-bit CPU and 64-bit peripherals, and I don't know if I have those. I do know that the motherboard manual says that Windows won't recognize more than 3 gigabytes even if you have more than that much physical RAM installed, but that might be just XP.

Greg · 02-11-2008, 01:24 AM

So far, Windows is installing from the CD! That's a good thing!

TomP · 02-11-2008, 03:30 AM

Go 32-bit Greg, 64-bit you will probably have all sorts of driver issues.

Greg · 02-11-2008, 03:39 AM

Progress Report: It's running Windows. Sound is working. Graphics card is working. I can even play music and movies.

I've found installation disks for all The Sims 2 packs* that I had installed, and Photoshop, so I can install all those tomorrow and maybe even test the machine's Internet connection.

Then I can try installing my old hard drive as a slave. If that works I can copy over all my files and I should be (mostly) back in business!

I still need to find the installation disks for Microsoft Office and see if I can find my license code for Web Drive, and then get everything configured before I can really say it's all working, but I'm getting closer!

----------
*I haven't find my original The Sims 2 disk but I have an unopened The Sims 2 Holiday Edition!

Added: And then on top of that, I did find my original The Sims 2 disk!

Greg · 02-11-2008, 03:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomP

Go 32-bit Greg, 64-bit you will probably have all sorts of driver issues.

Thanks, Tom! That's what I ended up doing. As it turned out, I didn't have a choice. Although the installation procedure warned me that I would need to decide, the 64-bit version wasn't even on the disk.

TomP · 02-11-2008, 03:46 AM

Oh yeah, forgot you have to order the 64-bit disc, phew! Glad to hear it's working. You got a sweet setup there.

Greg · 02-11-2008, 12:14 PM

Indeed! So far, it's great! And I at this very moment I am on line with it!

shorty943 · 02-11-2008, 01:22 PM

Happy puppy dances all around.

Sita · 02-11-2008, 02:00 PM

yay!

well done. That must be the most stress-free build of a PC I've ever heard of

Your bathroom roof blew away Shorty? eek. Hope you were not sitting there.

Greg · 02-11-2008, 10:53 PM

It's not quite stable yet. Oddly, it doesn't seem to want to boot without having the Windows CD in the optical drive. Once it finds that, it seems to feel less shy and comes right up recognizing the C: drive as its main machine.

I think I need to go shopping for the latest BIOS from ASUS.

shorty943 · 02-11-2008, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sita

yay!

well done. That must be the most stress-free build of a PC I've ever heard of

Your bathroom roof blew away Shorty? eek. Hope you were not sitting there.

Agreed.

And, no Sita.

The two conveniences are separate rooms, (well, converted industrial tanks actually) however, I was using the smaller facility, when I noticed a pile of corrugated iron in the paddock.

"What's that?" I thought to myself.
Then came the blinding flash of insight.

"What the hell is my bathroom roof doing in the cow paddock?:'

That happens here. Did I mention, it is a bit of a "funny" farm.

The cows chase the dog. Yep. All is normal on my farm.

Greg · 02-11-2008, 11:40 PM

Aha! No wonder the system was feeling poorly! I neglected to install all the drivers! The amazing thing is that I was able to run The Sims 2 (basic game) with no apparent problems!

I really like these ASUS guys. The driver for the audio installed and then popped with a picture of the audio panel, a plug pointing to the green jack, and politely asked, "What did you plug into the green jack?" It gave me a list of options and I chose "Front Speakers." That made it happy. It told me that my speakers are now properly installed.

Greg · 02-12-2008, 12:37 AM

Making notes here.

I just pulled two drives from my old hp m380n:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.6 160 GBytes Ultra ATA
Model St3160021A
S/N: 3JS21D4J
P/N: 9W2001-030
HDA P/N: 100275532
Config Level: 98MA1
Config Code: D1H-02
Firmware: 3.06

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160 GB ATA / 133 HD
Mfg. Date 07 Feb 2003

I'm almost certain the Seagate drive was my main C: drive and the Maxtor was K: and L:. Assuming the "2001" in the Seagate part number is the year, that would make the Maxtor the younger drive.

Now to see if this motherboard supports ATA drives. I might have to see if I can find an empty external drive case.

Greg · 02-12-2008, 12:56 AM

Aha! I see from this article in the Wikipedia that "ATA" and "IDE" mean the same thing, sort of. I think that means that the connector labeled "IDE" on my motherboard should work with these drives.

Let's see if the ribbon cable matches.

Miros1 · 02-12-2008, 01:27 AM

If you have a ribbon cable with 3 different color connectors, use that one. Not only is it prettier, but it actually has 80 wires instead of 40. The 40 extras reduce interference in the 40 carrying the data.

Greg · 02-12-2008, 01:40 AM

I only had one ribbon cable but it did have 3 different colors of connectors. That's the one I used.

I have the drives installed but now the machine keeps trying to boot from the old hp m380n system drive (I think). A message comes up that says the disk is bad, but I don't know if that means it's trying to read a BIOS from it (and really hosing up since that's from an hp machine) or whether it means that the operating system isn't what it wants, or maybe even that the disk drive is physically messed up.

mikedelaney16 · 02-12-2008, 02:00 AM

A couple of thoughts come to mind:
1. Do you have one drive set as master and the other as slave?
You should.
2. Are the main partitions on both drives set as the active partitions?
They shouldn't be. I'm not sure how to solve that problem if you can't
access the old drive either.
3. The old drive could possibly be toast.
4. Have you tried booting to Windows fake DOS from a floppy disk or
CD/DVD to see if you can access both drives. A Linux live-cd might
work, or same installed to a pen drive.

Greg · 02-12-2008, 02:17 AM

Mike, there are actually 3 drives involved:

A 760 GB SATA drive that has Windows Vista on it. That's the one I want to boot from.
The system disk from the old hp machine.
The backup disk from the old hp machine.

I removed the system disk from the old hp machine and restarted, and now Windows Vista is coming right up!
I think my challenge is to figure out how to tell the machine that I want the old hp system disk to be mounted as a slave drive.

But... now that the system is up and running, I can't get to the Maxtor drive that's still in the machine.

The Device Manager recognizes that it's there but it doesn't show any volumes on it. I'm kind of stuck now. There's an option in the device manager to "Populate" the drive but I fear that if I do that, it will just overwrite the data I already have on it.

02-11-2008, 12:38 AM	#21
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	*Progress Report:* It booted up on the first try! Gloryosky! Gott in Himmel! It's *working!* On the first page of the BIOS screen, I see that it recognizes its DVD drive and its hard drive! __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

02-11-2008, 12:41 AM	#22
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	It also recognizes the keyboard, which is a wireless keyboard with the receiver plugged into a USB port on the motherboard. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

02-11-2008, 01:15 AM	#23
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	Omigoodness, now I have to make a decision. Do I want to install the 64-bit version of Windows Vista? I've seen the words "32-bit" here and there, so maybe that's what I want. On the Microsoft page they say that to use the 64-bit system you need a 64-bit CPU and 64-bit peripherals, and I don't know if I have those. I do know that the motherboard manual says that Windows won't recognize more than 3 gigabytes even if you have more than that much physical RAM installed, but that might be just XP. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

02-11-2008, 01:24 AM	#24
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	So far, Windows is installing from the CD! That's a good thing! __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

02-11-2008, 03:30 AM	#25
TomP I'm a Computer Nut Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Indiana Posts: 34	Go 32-bit Greg, 64-bit you will probably have all sorts of driver issues. __________________ Tom My System Specs

02-11-2008, 03:39 AM	#26
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	*Progress Report:* It's running Windows. Sound is working. Graphics card is working. I can even play music and movies. I've found installation disks for all The Sims 2 packs* that I had installed, and Photoshop, so I can install all those tomorrow and maybe even test the machine's Internet connection. Then I can try installing my old hard drive as a slave. If that works I can copy over all my files and I should be (mostly) back in business! I still need to find the installation disks for Microsoft Office and see if I can find my license code for Web Drive, and then get everything configured before I can really say it's all working, but I'm getting closer! ---------- I haven't find my original The Sims 2 disk but I have an unopened The Sims 2 Holiday Edition! Added:* And then on top of that, I did find my original The Sims 2 disk! __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know? Last edited by Greg : 02-11-2008 at 03:46 AM.

02-11-2008, 03:46 AM	#28
TomP I'm a Computer Nut Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Indiana Posts: 34	Oh yeah, forgot you have to order the 64-bit disc, phew! Glad to hear it's working. You got a sweet setup there. __________________ Tom My System Specs

02-11-2008, 12:14 PM	#29
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	Indeed! So far, it's great! And I at this very moment I am on line with it! __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

02-11-2008, 01:22 PM	#30
shorty943 Banned Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 805	Happy puppy dances all around.

02-11-2008, 02:00 PM	#31
Sita Solar Max Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: England Posts: 371	yay! well done. That must be the most stress-free build of a PC I've ever heard of Your bathroom roof blew away Shorty? eek. Hope you were not sitting there.

02-11-2008, 10:53 PM	#32
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	It's not quite stable yet. Oddly, it doesn't seem to want to boot without having the Windows CD in the optical drive. Once it finds that, it seems to feel less shy and comes right up recognizing the C: drive as its main machine. I think I need to go shopping for the latest BIOS from ASUS. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

02-11-2008, 11:40 PM	#34
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	Aha! No wonder the system was feeling poorly! I neglected to install all the drivers! The amazing thing is that I was able to run The Sims 2 (basic game) with no apparent problems! I really like these ASUS guys. The driver for the audio installed and then popped with a picture of the audio panel, a plug pointing to the green jack, and politely asked, "What did you plug into the green jack?" It gave me a list of options and I chose "Front Speakers." That made it happy. It told me that my speakers are now properly installed. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

02-12-2008, 12:37 AM	#35
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	Making notes here. I just pulled two drives from my old hp m380n: Seagate Barracuda 7200.6 160 GBytes Ultra ATA Model St3160021A S/N: 3JS21D4J P/N: 9W2001-030 HDA P/N: 100275532 Config Level: 98MA1 Config Code: D1H-02 Firmware: 3.06 Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160 GB ATA / 133 HD Mfg. Date 07 Feb 2003 I'm almost certain the Seagate drive was my main C: drive and the Maxtor was K: and L:. Assuming the "2001" in the Seagate part number is the year, that would make the Maxtor the younger drive. Now to see if this motherboard supports ATA drives. I might have to see if I can find an empty external drive case. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

02-12-2008, 12:56 AM	#36
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	Aha! I see from this article in the Wikipedia that "ATA" and "IDE" mean the same thing, sort of. I think that means that the connector labeled "IDE" on my motherboard should work with these drives. Let's see if the ribbon cable matches. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

02-12-2008, 01:27 AM	#37
Miros1 Goddess for Life Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: NY State Posts: 3,303	If you have a ribbon cable with 3 different color connectors, use that one. Not only is it prettier, but it actually has 80 wires instead of 40. The 40 extras reduce interference in the 40 carrying the data.

02-12-2008, 01:40 AM	#38
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	I only had one ribbon cable but it did have 3 different colors of connectors. That's the one I used. I have the drives installed but now the machine keeps trying to boot from the old hp m380n system drive (I think). A message comes up that says the disk is bad, but I don't know if that means it's trying to read a BIOS from it (and really hosing up since that's from an hp machine) or whether it means that the operating system isn't what it wants, or maybe even that the disk drive is physically messed up. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

02-12-2008, 02:00 AM	#39
mikedelaney16 Solar Max Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 201	A couple of thoughts come to mind: 1. Do you have one drive set as master and the other as slave? You should. 2. Are the main partitions on both drives set as the active partitions? They shouldn't be. I'm not sure how to solve that problem if you can't access the old drive either. 3. The old drive could possibly be toast. 4. Have you tried booting to Windows fake DOS from a floppy disk or CD/DVD to see if you can access both drives. A Linux live-cd might work, or same installed to a pen drive. Last edited by mikedelaney16 : 02-12-2008 at 02:02 AM. Reason: removed unwanted quote

02-12-2008, 02:17 AM	#40
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	Mike, there are actually 3 drives involved: A 760 GB SATA drive that has Windows Vista on it. That's the one I want to boot from. The system disk from the old hp machine. The backup disk from the old hp machine. I removed the system disk from the old hp machine and restarted, and now Windows Vista is coming right up! I think my challenge is to figure out how to tell the machine that I want the old hp system disk to be mounted as a slave drive. But... now that the system is up and running, I can't get to the Maxtor drive that's still in the machine. The Device Manager recognizes that it's there but it doesn't show any volumes on it. I'm kind of stuck now. There's an option in the device manager to "Populate" the drive but I fear that if I do that, it will just overwrite the data I already have on it. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?