Can boot and get to the BIOS, but not beyond it.

[birdwax]

Can boot and get to the BIOS, but not beyond it.

Unable to boot from CD or HD.

I am a fairly advanced user as far as hardware is concerned. I've been building computers since the days of Computer Shopper, so I can manage most problems. But this new build has me stumped. The computer boots. I can see the startup screen and enter the BIOS. But after that, all I see is a blank screen save a blinking underslash in the top-left corner. I can't go beyond that and boot off either a CD or a hard drive.

The motherboard is a Biostar TF7050-M2 - integrated video and sound. The CPU is an AMD X2 4800+. I've tried three optical drives (two IDE, one SATA), two hard drives (SATA and IDE, with an OS pre-loaded on one of them), and lots of RAM. It's worth adding that I have another motherboard of the same model.

The HDs, optical drives, and RAM all work with it, so they're not the problem. (Changing the boot order makes no difference; the computer seems unable to get to the point where it can boot off either a CD drive or hard drive.)

I've messed around quite a bit in the BIOS. Tried the default settings, tried turning off sound, LAN, and everything else that can be turned off. Tried clearing the BIOS. Tried the memory test - it can't get past the BIOS screen, so nothing doing.

If the problem is hardware related, then it can only be one of three things: the CPU, motherboard, or power supply. But if it is the power supply, it probably shouldn't boot at all. Overloading doesn't seem likely when there's nothing attached to it except an integrated MicroATX board and one hard drive or optical drive. I've never had a bad CPU before, so I don't know if it can cause this type of problem. The motherboard seems the most likely source, but I really can't figure out what would cause it to work only up to the point described.

Thanks for listening. I would appreciate any thoughts.

 

[robisbell]

we will need full exact system specs.

 

[Laputa]

Maybe a bad cable or the cable is reverse?...but I doubt that if you have been building systems that long...a not fully connected cable could also possibly cause that issue. Or possibly try all the basic defaults for BIOS settings. Or maybe a shorted cable; probably have to check all the connections.

 

[birdwax]

Originally posted by: Laputa
Maybe a bad cable or the cable is reverse?...but I doubt that if you have been building systems that long...a not fully connected cable could also possibly cause that issue. Or possibly try all the basic defaults for BIOS settings. Or maybe a shorted cable; probably have to check all the connections.

Well, neither SATA nor IDE works, and I did try another IDE cable with the same result. Three IDE drives and two SATA drives all failed to boot that worked with the other TF7050 I have (same model). So unless the IDE and SATA channels are both dead - unlikely - the problem is something else.

Oh, and I did try the default BIOS settings, and cleared the CMOS several times. The RAM shouldn't be an issue either because I tried two DIMMs that run perfectly at the default setting on the other motherboard. Thanks for responding.

 

[jackschmittusa]

Do the drives show up in the bios?

 

[birdwax]

Originally posted by: robisbell
we will need full exact system specs.

It's just the motherboard (Biostar TF7050-M2) and the CPU (X2 4800+). The RAM, hard drives, and optical drives can't be the problem unless they're all faulty. (And they worked on the other 7050 I have.)

I also tried removing all the headers on the motherboard. Nothing works, and at this point I don't know what else I can try. I even tried another keyboard.

 

[birdwax]

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
Do the drives show up in the bios?

They do. I am pretty convinced that the failure occurs before the drives can be accessed. So it may be less a "can't boot from CD / hard drive" situation than a "computer poops out after the BIOS screen" situation.