Question error code clarification

[neilhodgkinson]

My PC is failing to post, stuck on code A2 which is IDE Detect in the motherboard manual. there are also leds that flash and it fails on the DIAGH_CPU. the other leds come on go off then this one flashes briefly just before the pc shuts down and tries agin.
The PC starts up, the screen shows Preparing Auto Repair then it just shuts down and tries again and so on in a loop.
I'm not a computer person so this is all new to me, I'm looking for someone to help me understand whats failing here or what needs replacing. It's stripped down to just the GPU and a stick of ram and the HD. Any help appreciated, just knowing hat the IDE is? Google is not being of much help.

 

[kerberos_20]

My PC is failing to post, stuck on code A2 which is IDE Detect in the motherboard manual. there are also leds that flash and it fails on the DIAGH_CPU. the other leds come on go off then this one flashes briefly just before the pc shuts down and tries agin.
The PC starts up, the screen shows Preparing Auto Repair then it just shuts down and tries again and so on in a loop.
I'm not a computer person so this is all new to me, I'm looking for someone to help me understand whats failing here or what needs replacing. It's stripped down to just the GPU and a stick of ram and the HD. Any help appreciated, just knowing hat the IDE is? Google is not being of much help.

A2 is your disk drive, that is IDE and SATA (IDE is obsolete now, should be just SATA)

 

[Aeacus]

just knowing hat the IDE is? Google is not being of much help.

Parallel ATA (PATA), originally AT Attachment, also known as IDE, is a standard interface designed for IBM PC-compatible computers.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_ATA

IDE is unofficial term for PATA. PATA is obsolete interface to connect HDDs. Successor of PATA is SATA. SATA is in use currently but is seeing little phasing out in favor of M.2.

In a nutshell, your MoBo can't communicate with your HDD. Most likely HDD has failed.

It's stripped down to just the GPU and a stick of ram and the HD.

Full system specs, including PSU make and model (or part number) is? Also, how old the PSU is, and was the PSU bought new or used/refurbished?

Also, if you were to remove HDD from the system, does system POST and can you access BIOS?

 

[neilhodgkinson]

joy of joys, i never even knew it could start without HD, it was the star up[ disk that was buggered after all. of all the thinks that could go. I really thought it was the motherboard or cpu. got it working now with new drive. thanks a pile to you guys for pointing this out.