20 Most Recent HP Pavilion a706n PC Desktop Questions & Answers

old, old, HP Alpha series, why mess with this old PC? even has floppy drive, yah that OLD. do not flash the BIOS, as this can brick it. too late........ no drive stated, of the vast classes. below. IDE (your mOBO only does this.) what does your label say.? SATA ,1.,2,3. SAS SCSI. 1,2,3 and more,, my wild guess, is you have and old PC with the HDD missing that it>? tell the story so we can be on the same page? no? and then found a HDD from somewhere else and cant fit it up. what sizes HDD? IDE my guess small so that is not an issue ever small like below 300 GB yours came with 160GB IDE new. so>?.... the drive must be good, it IS NOT possible to fix PC lacking known good spare HDD, not ever. ! a small spare good IDE drive is like $4 on ebay. keep one on hand for 10x better testing... if the Drive shows up in bios that is not any proof at all its ok. it only MEANS the Drive responds to BIOS scans, called PnP scans the drive then tells the BIOS the drive name, type and size and other key parameters to make the PC operate it correctly next the motor must spin does it? heard? or felt , of you hold a HDD in your hand you move said hand and you feel it fight you, this is like Gyro, and the centrifugal forces. nest we boot a Linux disk like Ubuntu newest and free. using CD /DVD or USB stick. then you run the DIsk tests, there. and the smart tests, if those fail your HDD is DEAD, or soon. they come in good/bad and dying soon conditions. see the free test here, lacking a spare known good hdd. what else is there, (id scrap this old PC and upgrade to SATA) or buy used PC 2008 or newer, be wise.! XP is virus magnet with 700 exploits and has zero support. http://www.pcdied.com/linux.html

Test your PSU power supply unit or replace it if your power supply units fan is not working your PSU is faulty

One bad lead can cause a computer to continue on a cycle of restarting or to shutdown or fail to detect/ boot up a computer hard drive

Test all leads that attach to your hard drive power and data cables IDE SATA

the leads from your MOTHERBOARD TO YOUR HARD DRIVE make sure they have a secure dust free connections and are not faulty or just replace them they could be faulty make sure all leads that are attached to your dvd\cd floppy drives have secure connections and are not faulty or just replace them they could be faulty computers need power and data to travel through every working device to continue its cycle and have an end so any faulty leads will end up with a computer error even something as small as a faulty electrical or fan lead can cause you problems

motherboard and a hard drive any leads between them will fail before your motherboard or your hard drive if its a flat ribbon 40 pin type IDE replace it this will be the first to fail

check all electrical power input and extensions make sure they are securely seated even the cd/dvd floppy drives need to have current go through make sure these drives are working

also check the Cmos battery and computer RAM modules make sure they are securely seated with no dust built up or in the sockets on some motherboards cmos batteries are soldered in check you CPU central processing unit make sure its securely seated and has thermal paste it might be getting to hot the thermal paste will help disperse the heat Thermal compound is a sticky paste that is placed directly onto the CPU. Allowing for a more direct heat transfer between the CPU and HEAT SINK and preventing air gaps from forming between the CPU and heat sink. hope this helps

try uninstalling a few unnecessary programs then click start run type cmd then type chkdsk/r/f this should schedule to happen on reboot which will scan for and attempt to recover bad sectors and automatically fix any corrupt files on your hard drive or click startcontrol panel administrive tools,computer management ,disk management right click on your drive select properties click tools you should see click check now click start two boxes automatically fix files and scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors place then a tick in both boxes then select check now,start should schedule this task when restart defragment your hard drive will speed up your computer scroll to the bottom toolbar (bottom of screen) right click you can select task manager applications also processes you will see whats running on your computer you might have virus slowing your computer also select users you will see who is using your computer this should speed your computer up also you could increase the size of your RAM random access memory hope this helps

We had this happen in the past. If I remember correctly it was the power box inside of the computer that had went out. Ours was an old computer and the part was obsolete and we had to just buy a new one. I know that is not what you want to hear, but that was what we had to do. If yours is newer, the power box is the the metal box inside that has a fan that faces out of the back of your computer, and you may be able to find a replacement for it. Also, the power box is where you plug the power cable into the computer.

If you have cleaned out the dust with compressed air, then I suggest you look at the processor cooling. Is the fan running up to speed? Is the heat sink tightly in place on the processor? Feel the fins of the processor heat sink when you power it up and if they get hot your processor is most likely over heating and shutting down. If all is well at the processor, check the power supply fan to see if it is running and the only other suggestion is to try another power supply. Dust is your worst enemy in a computer.

You will need to find the make and model number of this DVD ROM device and then visit the makers website. See their support/downloads section.
Once there check for the latest drivers for this particular device for your version of Windows.

Make and model number can be found on the top of the DVD drive, or check Windows device manager. Right click My Computer in the Start menu and Select Properties, then click the hardware tab, then click device manager.

A driver update for this device may be all that it needs.

A last resort would be to flash the firmware of the DVD drive to the latest version. This is a last resort as a failed attempt will render the drive useless. Often though it solves the problem. If you do go for this method, you will need to download and install only the latest firmware update for this EXACT DVD ROM drive must be used.

Take care!
damnor01

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?os=228&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&sw_lang=&product=432777#N256

On this page I advise clicking on the + sign to the left of -
Driver - Original (9)

Now scroll down, and click on,

Fall 2004 Original Network Adapter Driver Collection

On this page go down to the sub-heading - Details and specifications, and click on -
sp26363.exe

When the small window comes up, click on Save File.

Another small window will come up. DO NOT close the window yet.
Look in the heading at the top of the small window.
This tells you where the file will go.
Write it down.

The heading may have Desktop, or My Documents, or Downloads IN the heading.

If it states Desktop the file will go to your desktop screen.
(sp26363.exe)
Close all windows, go back to your desktop screen.

If it states My Documents click on Start, then My Documents.

If it states Downloads, click on Start, My Documents, and Double-click on Downloads.

When you see the file name double-click on it.
Follow the Installation Wizard instructions.
(Essentially just click on Next, Next, and Finish, at the bottom of the windows)

After the file has installed shut your computer down normally.
(Start > Turn Off Computer > Turn Off)

Wait 20 seconds, turn your computer back on.

For additional questions please post in a Comment.

Regards,
joecoolvette

What fuse are you referring to? Did you try another outlet? There are no replaceable fuses in the power supply of a PC. If it is dead you have to buy a new one.

The problem could be from a failing power supply. To check for this you should unplug the computer the wall and plug in a working lamp or other piece of eclectronics. If the lamp works it may likely be the power supply. I had the same problem a month ago and needed to replace it with a new one. Also check other plugs and wires to ensure that no other wires have worked their way loose.

But once you get into windows you do get video? That is strange.. Have you upgraded the video card from the one that orig was on it?
It may be that the firmware needs to be upraded on your motherboard to support the video card.. You can look up what type of motherboard you have and then go to that companys website and download firmware. You can then flash/upgrade the firmware on the motherboard/bios and that should help fix it.

first of try checking SMPS of your PC. insufficient power from smps leads to malfunction of pc!

if its not working then its mean the operating system is damaged and you need to reinstall the operating system. But batter if you explain me more about your PC problem.

Windows Media Player 11.

Right here... http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=432777&

uninstall the upperfilter and lower filter and restart the pc.

I strongly advise you to replace your old (VERY OLD!!) PC with new one. Do not worry, you will not lose any data from your old PC if you will take hard drive off your old PC and fix to new one. Anyway, if you still want to keep your old PC (NOT RECOMMENDED) you will have to buy new Power Supply and clean up your PC inside.

If the existing graphics card works with your new monitor, there isn't need to upgrade the graphics card unless you have a specific need such as a graphics intensive games program that doesn't work with the old graphics card.

Hi, the computer is not detecting the hard drive or the hard drive is corrupt. At startup you are likely to hear a knocking sound if the hard drive is physically damaged. You can go to bios setup at startup ( could be F1 or Esc). Once there it should indicate if there is a harddrive or not. If it indicates none there the harddrive might have crashed and will need repalcing. I hope this helps.