Medion 5100 Constantly Rebooting

[Frowniesniffler]

I haven't been able to get into my computer for four days, luckily I have another with internet access so that I can research this.

I used my "Application and Support disk" which came with my computer to reload the original drivers onto my system.

A program which I liked to use (Power Producer Gold) had stopped working, so I thought I'd try to re-load the original drivers to try and get it working again. I used "Option 2" after I accessed the "Application and Support" disk. I wasn't trying to wipe everying out and start from scratch, which that was what "Option 3" would have done.

Reloading the drivers went very, very slowly. It took probably 45 minutes. When it finally finished, the computer tried to boot itself up. It could not get to the desk top.

Now, when I turn on the computer, it continuously reboots until I turn it off.

By pushing "pause" at bootup I can see that the system knows my hard drive exists. I keep changing the BIOS settings hoping to get lucky. At one pont the bootup screen said:

Pri Master DVD-RW, ATA 33
Pri Slave DVD, ATA 33

Sec Master None
Sec Slave None

IDE Channel 2 Master Disk: LBA, ATA 100, 200GB

I changed a few of the BIOS settins and now it says this:

Pri Master DVD-RW PIO 4
Pri Slave DVD PIO 4

Sec Master None
Sec Slave None

IDE Channel 2 Master Disk: LBA, ATA 100, 200GB


The manual for my MS-7046 mobo is located at:

http://217.110.237.67/Manuals/7046-e...%20MS-7046.pdf

I've spent around 20 hours on this project so far. Several of these hours were spent reasearching what the manual says. So many little abbreviatons for mysterious terms. I fail to see how any of it might relate to my problem. BIOS wants to consider my SATA drive IDE, but I see no options for correcting this. Apparently RAID does not apply to me since I have only one HD.

At one pont in the manual it says that if you hit F11, you will be able to select which drive to boot with. I tapped F11 after turning on the computer, and it asked me for a password. It said nothing about needing a password in the manual.

I went into BIOS and established a "supervisor password." Tried the F11 route again, and it did not work. Odd to think of it, someone was paid alot of money to design this thing.

I've read alot about adding drivers to update BIOS versions. Unfortunately, my model of motherboard isn't listed at the site of the manufacturer. I'm not even sure if I could update the BIOS since I can't get to my desk top anyway.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. I'm about to get a huge piece of paper, make a chart and to begin systematically testing all combinations of the BIOS settings.

[Disk_Contented]

Hmmm. Why would it be the bios when you were updating the drivers from the desktop?
Your optical drives are now set in PIO mode. incorrect. Set all the drives as auto.
Actually, It may be better to select "optimal settings" in the bios and go from there.
remove the password. Unless you specifically need it, forgetting later may cost you dearly.

I suggest the drivers are corrupted.

When the computer passes the initial screens and actually starts to load from the drive, hit F8 and try safe mode, or step by step and see which driver might be causing the trouble.

Even in safe mode you can uninstall the drivers you tried that went slow and take it from there.

[Frowniesniffler]

I started messing with the BIOs because I thought that the system wasn't detecting my HD at all. I think now that it was, I just didn't understand that it was.

The phrase "IDE Channel 2 Master Disk:...." implied to me that my SATA HD was not being detected.

Anyway, I went into BIOS and selected "Optimal Defaults." Saved and exited. Here's what the bootup screen says now:

Pri Master Disk: DVD-RW, ATA 33
Pri Slave Disk: DVD, ATA 33

Sec Master Disk: None
Sec Slave Disk: None

No HD is listed. At the bottom of the screen it says "Disk Boot Failure, insert System Disk and press enter."

That's good advice about the password, and there is a password option in the BIOS, which says at the bottom of the screen "create/change/remove." When I click on the option, it will ONLY alow me to create the password. There's no way to either change it or remove it! Anyhow, I've written it down on something which will never be thrown away.

For tonight, I'm working with something called Data Lifeguard to see if I can get my current HD recognized.

[Frowniesniffler]

The HD is now recognized on the bootup screen. The cable was not connected before!

[Frowniesniffler]

Data Lifeguard can see my HD. It lists the MBR Partition Table, number of cylinders and heads.

There is an option in Data Lifeguard to "Update Master Boot Record Code." Any idea if this might help me get to my desk top?

Pressing F8 did not do the trick. I got to the list where I could choose to boot up in safe mode. After that, my computer behaved exactly as before: just before the desk top would have appeared, I hear a small "click" and it re-boots.

I also hit "F8" and chose an option "Last known configuration." My computer behaved as before.

[Frowniesniffler]

I will be using something called "Ultimate Boot CD" I have written this freeware app to a DVD and will be trying to diagnose the problem tomorrow.