Not turning on properly

[Alex47]

Hey guys, I 'acquired' a hard drive from my school, put it inside my comp, and it won't turn on properly. It boots up fine and then randomly between 1-5 minutes it shuts down. I've tried with and without the new hard drive and so I'm guessing it's a problem with the motherboard or cables or something, considering I took it apart a few weeks ago and didn't test. Heres a pic of the computer, ive tried to get as much stuff in as possible, just ask if you need another pic of a certain part:









It's an Acer power f5 if that helps

[Apetrick]

Did you get the entire computer or did you just get the hard drive and install it on your computer?

[grinch]

Yeah need more information. The only "harddrives" I see in the pictures are hard to tell if they are plugged in

Drives need both the thinner SATA connector connected to it and the motherboard, as well as the wider power connector, from the power supply to the drive

There are two drives shown in one of the pics. Will the system boot with just the original drive plugged in? Will it work with just the new drive plugged in?

[Alex47]

Ok, sorry about not enough info I just got the harddrive and already had this computer, the original hard drive that's been confirmed working has been tested, plugged in properly, and doesn't work anymore.(both cables)

Neither boot successfully, the one I had before has backtrack on it, and doesn't even get to the login part of booting, and the new one asks me if I want to boot into windows safe mode or start normally, ie tried both options and it powers off just then

[grinch]

Why your old drive that was working before is not working now, may be a big part of your issue. What happened? It was confirmed working, then stopped? Or it only stops booting when you have 2nd drive plugged in?

The "new" drive, being a windows install, and crashing on boot is normal. Different HAL. Best bet there is to reload windows.

EDIT: Here is a page that shows the steps to move a hard drive to new hardware, and eliminate the BSOD you get. This is NOT a recommendation to use this, it is more to show how much work it is, and that it is just easier to reload windows
http://www.raymond.cc/blog/move-windows-xp-hard-drive-or-change-motherboard-without-getting-blue-screen-of-death/

[Godman777]

You changed your BIOS settings right?

[grinch]

You changed your BIOS settings right?

To what?
These are SATA drives

[Alex47]

Yep SATA, I can get a few more pics tomorrow, and @grinch, yep the original hard drive was tested working. I took the motherboard out so it might be ESD, but that doesn't seem like what it would do.

[Godman777]

Ahhh, didn't catch that part. Sorry.

[LankAsif]

It was confirmed working, then stopped? Or it only stops booting when you have 2nd drive plugged in?

I didn't see a reply to grinch's question.
Have you swapped boot order between the drives?
if you install win on a dualboot setup (it will remove/overwrite the other OS's loader. So did you attempt a windows install with both drives connected?

[ENIAC]

Im not saying its this , but in your motherboard there is a little battery try getting a new one of those

[[null]]

@Darth I thought that battery was just to keep the system date and settings up to date?

[Alex47]

I didn't see a reply to grinch's question.
Have you swapped boot order between the drives?
if you install win on a dualboot setup (it will remove/overwrite the other OS's loader. So did you attempt a windows install with both drives connected?

Nope, I had it workin last week, got a school hard drive, plugged it in and it wouldnt work. If I try with just mine, it shuts down. If I try just schools, it shuts down, if I try both, it shuts down. I didn't modify any settings. This computer has run fine with two hard drives before (not dual booted) so I don't see why it won't work now. I'm not tryin to dual boot, just wanna look through files :/

[LankAsif]

check your original drive is connected to the original cable as it was when it worked. I had an issue where my PC wouldnt boot cuz the HD was reconnected to a diff cable.

[Alex47]

Ok I'll try tonight