Happy New Year all, but not for my wife. Her computer has been 'off' for a week now, Xmas you know, they work too hard! On switching back on for the first time (after a normal shutdown) she is getting the message "A disk read error has occurred Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart" There was no indication before the 'Big switch off' that there was a problem, no crashes, noises etc. The only thing I can think of is its location, an outside studio that is not too warm, could the cold have caused this problem? Heating back on now. I'm going back now to have a go at 're-seating' all the connections, just in case. My wife is not very happy as you can imagine, she thinks she will be without her computer for quite a while, she uses it quite a lot. Any help/suggestions would be gratefully received, John It's not that I can't remember things as I get older, it's just that my hard drive's full.

Re-seating is a great start. Watch the BIOS POST to see that ALL drives are correctly set. If not, while you're in BIOS setup check the date/time; if it's way off, you may have a dead battery. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

Mechanix2Go, thanks for the reply. I've just re-seated all connections - made no difference. What I did not say before though, there is NO BIOS POST screen, it just goes from 'Off' to 'Splash screen' to "A disk read error has occurred Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart". I guess the HD has died without warning, unless someone knows different ...... John It's not that I can't remember things as I get older, it's just that my hard drive's full.

Hi John, Some 'big name' brands hide the POST. Search the web for your model and find the key combo to un-hide POST and/or get into setup. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

Mechanix2G, thanks for your help. I did what you suggested and found how to enable the POST screen (I've got the book)!! Everything there to my untrained eye seems ok other than "ERROR: System CMOS checksum bad - Default configuration used" Now I'm guessing here, does that point to CMOS battery failure? I hope it is something as easy as that, will save my pocket. Thanks for your help in pointing me in the correct fault finding direction, John It's not that I can't remember things as I get older, it's just that my hard drive's full.

"Now I'm guessing here, does that point to CMOS battery failure?" Very likely. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

Mechanix2Go, again thanks a lot. So, it's off to Maplin this afternoon to get a new battery, I'll post again in 2/3hrs to let you know the result, all the best for the New Year, John It's not that I can't remember things as I get older, it's just that my hard drive's full.