New sys can't boot from ANY HDDs, CD's or Floppy...

All,

newbie to the forum.... couldn't find this anywhere...


this is kicking my but...

built 2 systems... totally identical... 1 is great.. this one however......

MOBO - 2.8 P4 titan - GA-8vm800
VIA 8237R chipset
768MB DDR 400MHz 2700
32 shared video

NOT top of the line of course but should suffice....


I have tried VARIOUS HDs.... none will boot up.. formatted, unformated, tried to boot from CD... no go... installed a floppy.... can't/won't install from floopy... (was going to try and bring up XP using the floppies...) also tried booting up into a 98 boot disk... nothing. sits on the PCI Device listing..

took 2 drives on another box.... installed XP Pro.. works great... but NONE boot up on this one... all are picked up on other boxes


i've changed memory.. swapped chips 256/ 512 (identical maker, and speeds)

swapped IDE cables... tried 2 notebook HDD, didn't work... tried a Hitatchi 40 GB notebook, Seagate 13GB, Seagate 4, Maxtor 10, Maxtor 20 some where LBA's, manually configured, AUTO, CHS... nothing

swapped jumpers around... the main HDD is an IBM Desktar IC35L040AVV 40GB

i'm starting to think the MOBO may be bad......

thoughts?????? opinions????? what's the obvious thing i've missed? (I'm sure there is something really simple I have missed....

help?!?!?!?!?!?!?! ha, ha, ha

 

u can't boot an HD w/o installing it for that HW mostly. so ... not sure what u'r idea is here by booting hds.

what is boot order in bios?

 

true...[SIZE= "2"][SIZE= "1"]

however, I have found often that XP.. is somewhat 'swappable'. [/SIZE][/SIZE]


BUT, in this case, I am trying to install a HD on this sys... none of the blank HDs will install. The ones that HAVE XP... I get the blue screen....

I can't boot from my XP Pro CD.... (as you normally would)

I tried a 98 floppy to load DOS.. that doesn't work

 

also,


boot order
I have switched back and forth...


CD/ HDD/ (when there wasn;t a floppy)

HDD/ CD/

Floppy/ CD/ HDD

CD/ Floppy/ HDD

HDD/ Floppy/ CD

 

set CD as first. disable all the rest. boot a legit xp installer. does this fail to boot? if so, check u'r HW setup. it's either wrong or broken

and in this case, i'd opt to isolate the CD as master on ide chain. eg remove the other devices - if they exist - and make ONE drive avail.

 

thanks guys,

had a conf call..


Arie, thanks... that's been my headache... I can't get the box to 'read' the XP cd..... never can get to xp to repair.... or install


haven't tried to disable everything yet... i'll try that now..

thanks!

 

Hi.

If that new motherboard is hanging at the PCI screen it feels like the BIOS is bad. If you're familiar with doing this, you might swap out the bios chips between the motherboards IF the motherboards are exactly the same. If you've never swapped bios chips then I would suggest you don't try it. It is very easy to mess up the bios chips, particular the square ones with the outside pins. If you do, pay attention to pin-1.

Also, I would go into the bios and try each of the "restore" items for the bios. You might have a bad write in there somewhere and the restore might get it working again.

If all the storage devices, hdds, cds, etc, are not working then the bios should still come up with "BAD BOOT DISK" etc. If it doesn't then it's a sign that the bios is hanging up and I would forget about getting the storage devices working. They are probably fine.

If the bios is hanging then you can't download a new bios file and write it because the bios never gets to the floppy. Also, be sure the devices are turned on in the bios, IDE, floppy, etc. They may just be turned off but you still should be able to get past the PCI screen even if they are. If you're not in a position to do an RMA you can order a bios chip if the bios is in fact bad. They are usually about $10.00 plus shipping.

Consider an RMA if you have that option. Stuff happens.

Giles