CPU unworkable

[Wicket20519]

Ok, so about 3 years ago I built my own computer. About 6 months after I built it, I fried the motherboard and memory -- both were replaced under warranty.

Fastforward to this year. I had two harddrives set up: the master on IDE1 being a 30GB Maxtor, and the slave being some extra Fujitsi (whatever it's called) 15GB drive I picked up somewhere, which only had music on it.

Well, Windows XP starts mysteriously crashing for no obvious reason. I'd just be doing something on my computer, and then *POOF* it reboots.

As soon as it rebooted and posted the POST info, it'd list my harddrive like !!!!!!!!!!!!Mactop!!!!!!!!!!! (yes, it was spelled wrong too), but the other one would be listed as normal. After it got down through that, it'd get the part where it'd look for a bootable CD, and if it didn't find one it'd load Windows XP.

It didn't want to load Windows XP. Instead, it said "NTLDR missing" and would ask for me to load/check my system disk.

I figured out that if I disconnected my slave harddrive, and connected the master harddrive to the second IDE connector on the cable (not the one on the very end, I'm talking about the connector in the middle) and turn my computer on, it'd work just fine and load into Windows XP.

I've had that setup for the past month or so now -- with just the one master drive on IDE1. Well, last night I wanted to get some of the music off the Fujitsi harddrive, so I set it up as a slave and put it on IDE1.

Now whenever I boot my computer, it says "CPU unworkable -- settings have been changed -- check CPU Soft Menu."

What is that supposed to mean? Here's my setup:

ABIT IS7-E Motherboard

Intel Pentium IV 2.4B Ghz

Kingston 512MB DDR400 (2x = 1GB, Dual Channel)

Maxtor 30GB HDD

Fujitsi 15GB HDD

ATI Radeon 9200 128MB DDR AGP 8X

Windows XP Pro

I hope I explained this well enough -- let me know if you need anymore information!

[Scubar]

firstly id go and get a new ide cable and try it how it used to be, if not that then check your bios settings to make sure that they are correct. as for when it said missing NTLDR that can easily be fixed using your xp cd and using recovery console.

hope that helps abit.

[Wicket20519]

firstly id go and get a new ide cable and try it how it used to be, if not that then check your bios settings to make sure that they are correct. as for when it said missing NTLDR that can easily be fixed using your xp cd and using recovery console.

hope that helps abit.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

BIOS settings look good.

I tried replacing NTLDR using the recovery console, but it said the harddrive was not there. But when I switched the harddrive to the second IDE connection on the cable, it worked just fine.

Ah yes, I keep meaning to run out to the store to buy a new cable. Thanks for reminding me!

Also, I've also flashed the BIOS with the latest version, too -- no change.