"Operating System Not Found" Hardware Error

[mantis296]

Recently my computer started randomly shutting off while I was away and would leave it on. I'd come back to a black screen which said "operating system not found". After reformatting my entire hard drive to attempt to fix the problem the problem still remained. Every once in awhile I'll also get the blue screen of death saying:
"STOP C000007b unknown hard error"
Also, when I play music or video on my computer it sounds distorted now. Is this a problem with my RAM or my hard drive? I just want to figure it out so I know what to replace.

Thanks for your help,
Matt

[ECA]

WELL, we need to know what you got...
System:
CPU
Mobo,
DELL, COMPAQ, HP..
RAM
Video card and ram
How much room LEFt on the HD..
Which windows, are you running

[mantis296]

My system is a VPR matrix 200A5 laptop with a 2.0 gig pentium 4 processor and 512 mb of ram. The video card is an Nvidia geforce4 420 go 32 mb. The HD is a 40 gig and I just reformatted it so theres plenty of space left on it right now (about 36 gigs). Im running windows XP Pro...if ya need any other information lemme know.

Thanks,
Matt

[ECA]

Put your CD into the drive abd boot to it...Then do a REPAIR..
I HOPE you only LOST your boot block..

[mantis296]

I did that and I tried a full format and reinstall and i still have the problem. I think it may be that my RAM is bad because when I try to say listen to music and do other things on my comp the sound is distorted and the mouse drags slowly.

Matt

[Ioman]

It is probably overheating, try running the system with the case door open to see if that helps. If it does, then you will need to add more fans to it.

Otherwise, bad memory is most likely the problem.

[senoryoshio]

It's a laptop.

[Ioman]

hmm well...I still say its overheating or the memory went bad. That makes it even harder to fix on a laptop. What do you think it is Yoshio?

[ECA]

I think his HD is failing..
Or the system BIOS reset..

[mantis296]

it seems to run okay if i only run limited tasks at a time...like I can't listen to music, write a paper, and talk on aim all at the same time or it crashes, but I can do them one at a time...overheating sounds like a possible problem, but I don't know how to fix that with a laptop...do you know of this happening with other models of the vpr matrix?

thanks,
Matt

[senoryoshio]

I wouldn't discount heat all together (apologies for that short reply earlier), but there are different problems before and after the format. Possibly the stop code stems from problems with the IDE drive controller or driver of said controller...dunno

[spankers]

Try finding a Windows utility to read/monitor CPU temperature. I am running Linux on my VPR widescreen (185A5) and the CPU temp under load will reach 86 degrees Celsius. Unfortunately the heat pipe/cooler does not do a good job venting the case and heat will accumulate, causing the hard drive temp to rise. For the Pentium4-M, if the temp goes too high (> 90deg C)it will attempt to throttle itself and if this does not help then it will shut down at 100deg C.

Another thing to try is to disable any quick boot options in BIOS. This should force the BIOS to conduct more in depth testing of RAM and controllers prior to boot.

[ECA]

OPEN it and BLOW it out, esp the pipes that direct HEAT out the back...
DUST DUST DUST...

[mantis296]

Alright, I replaced my RAM with a gig of brand new ram so I know that's not the problem now...I downloaded mobile meter and it says my temp is usually around 50-60 degrees but sometimes itll spike to 80-85. Will a laptop cooling pad help? I'm gonna attempt opening it up and cleaning it and ill see if that helps. The main problem is still that the mouse is lagging and the music sounds choppy.

thanks,
Matt

[mantis296]

Everything I've been doing has been helping, but the system is still far from perfect...since ive replaced the RAM and reformatted I haven't received a stop error message, or the operating system not found error message. Also, my computer doesn't randomly shut off anymore, but the lag on music, video, and mouse dragging is still annoying

[ECA]

WELL,
Thats abit interesting, as music should be sent to ram to be played...What you are suggesting is that its using the HD cache.
How much space left on the HD??
I would set at least 2gigs of HD cacheing for the system. this is NON-USABLE space...except by windows when it wants MORE ram.
IF you HD gets below about 7-10gig DONT install anything more..with less you WILL start to have problems.
TRY having windows DEFRAG itself..Sounds like theres ALOT of fragmented programs and files..

[mantis296]

How do I set up the hard drive caching?

[ECA]

RIGHT CLICK,
My computer..
PROPERTIES
TAB, advanced..
PERFORMANCE OPTIONS...should be lister there...
BUTTON CHANGE..

[mantis296]

Alright I did the hard drive caching thing and defragged everthing twice...I also opened up my computer and noticed the processor fan wasn't running. After cleaning out the heat pipe and removing the fan I went and bought a laptop cooling pad and things are running much better now. I am however still having a problem with spikes in the CPU. I'm using Xeblite instead of the normal os of windows xp pro. This altercation of windows allows for you to have a desktop running which doesn't run the explorer.exe. process. In order to browse files I still have to open a search window through explorer though, but when I do that the processor spikes until I can finally get into task manager to end the explorer.exe process. Any ideas how to fix this or it's still a hardware problem?

Thanks a bunch for all your help,
Matt

[ECA]

1. do you have a HEAT monitor program??
2. Any failures so far??

[mantis296]

it says my temperature is about 50-60 degrees, and the only time things don't run smoothly on my machine is when I have explorer.exe running in the background

[ECA]

Xeblite instead of the normal os of windows xp pro

WELL it sounds like a configuration problem..
I dont know the prog you mention, and cant find it on the net.
I DO KNOW, that Windows, dont like NOT being the #1 control.. Even NORTON bothers it. Should see what happened when Win 95/98 was just out after Norton was installed.

I would be talking to the Xeblite PPL.

[mantis296]

yea I typed an e instead of an o last time the actual alter windows os im running is xoblite the website is:

http://xoblite.net/

if you get any ideas why explorer is crashing I'd love to hear em...I'll talk to the xoblite people and see what they have to say as well.

Thanks for your help,
Matt

[ECA]

STOP C000007b unknown hard error
Are you still getting this ERROR...?

Did you know that there are 2 ways to view "My computer"..
1 is to Double click "my computer"
2, is to RIght CLICK and Explore..which brings up the side bar.

OK,
Question...
IS this SHELL, the primary, or is windows the primary OS...If windows is STILL running, but the shell is just OVEr it...

IF the SHELL is the primary, then should be ok...
But if windows is STILL the primary OS, windows is doing something in the back..

GOTO Sysinternals.com, UTILITIES, get a program called Process EXPLORER..
TRY IT... 2things to check out...
RIGHT click the Process, PROPERTIES..
CLICK on the graph BAR on top..
Watch them and the process's as you bring up EXPLORER(if you need it). SEE what ELSE comes up, watch the CPU and RAM taken up(may need a ram test), and ALSO with the(RIGHT CLICK, PROCESS) you can see what PROGRAM STARTED WHAT..