This seems to be a sporadic problem.... The bios appears to be losing both
ide chains during the post. If I unplug the ide cable from the HD, then
plug back in, then restart the system, it will post and load XP fine. It
will continue to work good for 4-5 days, then won't post again till I unplug
the ide from the HD again. I have tried two different ide cables and get
the same results. Also, unplugging the ide cable from the MB doesn't seem
to help, I have to unplug it from the HD end and plug it back in again to
make it past post. Could the HD be near failure?
The post beep code is two beeps. This is not a valid post code for this
system. This is a Dell 8100 dimension, p4-1400Mhz, 256 MB RAM, XP w/SP-1.
This one has got me baffled. I am hoping one of you "more experienced"
techs in here may have a simple solution for me.