Son's Compaq won't boot up/error messages

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inline4

New Member
Please be patient with the old guy here.:D
My dilemma: I bought my son a used Compaq EVO D300 from an ebay seller. Here is the link to the sale and system:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8732785160&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWN:IT&rd=1
The system will not boot up and keeps displaying this error message: Non SYSTEM DISK OR DISK ERROR. Replace and strike any key when ready.
Part of our problem lies in the fact that he lives in the Houston area and I'm in the Memphis area. My son also has a form of autism called Aspberger Syndrome. He is very intelligent, it is just difficult for him to relate to anyone socially.
Anyway, I Googled the error message and tried the suggestions I found to no avail. There was no floppy in the drive; no disk in a drive; all the connections were checked and none were found to be loose.
I have contacted the seller about the problem (I believe he is on the up-and-up, btw) and here was his response..........
"Do you think he can re-load windows if I send him a disk??My wife can walk him through it if need be..Your recovery disk will not help him any sorry to say..The only thing I could do is make a copy of my disk and send it to him with the Code,this would be a "duplicate" so he does not want to pass it around to anyone else so we can avoid any unwanted copyright issues..Not sure why he is having problems,the machine was 100% ready when it left the house.Let me know what you want to do."
Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated.
Jim
 
inline4 said:
"Do you think he can re-load windows if I send him a disk??My wife can walk him through it if need be..Your recovery disk will not help him any sorry to say..The only thing I could do is make a copy of my disk and send it to him with the Code,this would be a "duplicate" so he does not want to pass it around to anyone else so we can avoid any unwanted copyright issues..Not sure why he is having problems,the machine was 100% ready when it left the house.Let me know what you want to do."
Click to expand...
That sounds like a great idea. however, I am assuming that he is refering to the Windows XP CD? If so, there might be some certain issues. However if he meant a start up disk. It might probably be the same as your recovery disk.

My guess is that it was bumped or something happened during the shipping to cause that problem. When it arrived, was it properly packaged?

The seller didn't list any returns and exchange policy because I am guessing that is the only one. So there isn't probably anyway he will let. I can say that its best if you contact him/her for a return if the case is that it was bumped someway in the shipping. However, if you have any previous Windows OS cd's, you can try using those to see if the problem is something with the OS, or something else.
 
First, did you pay with a credit card / pay pal ... or something close to these.
I would FIRST contact what you used to pay .... ie your credit card company.
Notify them to the situation and tell them that the issue is trying to be resolved between you and the seller... till it is resolved to YOUR satisfaction you would like the charge placed as a disputed transaction, also tell the seller, if he gets mad tell him he can have the whole thing back, have HIM send UPS there with return shipment paid by the seller.

ok when the pc boots up there should be an option to get into the bios, in the bios you can see if the HD is at least being detected.
Having the seller send you a copy of his xp cd will not work. You may be able to install xp , unless it is a Volume lisence copy of xp, you will not be able to activate xp. The seller more than likely has already activated the xp already.
What I would do is try to find out the make and model of the HD. All the manufacturers of modern HDs have FREE floppy based bootable diag tools ( on their website) that will diagnose your HD. Here are some things to check

1. make sure the cable is connected at the mainboard, not one end sticking up
2. if the HD is cable with another device like a cdrom/dvd drive, make sure the cable is connected securely at each device.

3. make sure the IDE channel is not turned off in the bios. also see if the drive is being detected ... or any drives ... cdrom ...zip ...etc

4 If the hd is cabled with another device and the other device goes bad or a power connector drops off , the hd will not work , even if it has a power connector and a data cable, it will always wait for the other device. If the HD is connected with another device you may want to disconnect and just cable the HD by itself ... you may have to change the jumpers on the HD.

5. Make sure they all have power, sometimes power cable extenders are used and they come apart not at the drive but in the middle connection.

6. More than likely, if you detrmine that the hd is ok and the pc boots up you are ok, if the hd is ok, but needs an OS ... you have to ask yourself the question, what happened to the OS, shipping does not remove an OS. You will have to buy an os, depending on home or porof , ranges $70 - $ 100.
 
clean out the floppy drive it might be dirty on the inside and it probaly thinks that there is a disk in it
 
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