No command prompt; boot disk won't boot

[Gibberish]

This is annoying. I'm building a new system. Everything is new. There is no OS on the HDD; it's right out of the box. However, I am stuck. When starting the computer, only BIOS seems to work. My RAM, FDD, HDD, and CD-ROM are checked and verified (in that order), but that's all that happens. Even if I put a boot disk in my FDD, it won't load it. It's as if it says "FDD works, alrighty then. Oh, it's a boot disk? Eh, oh well." And does nothing about it. Then what I get is the infamous blank screen with only a blinking underscore to keep me company. Swapping HDDs with one that has Win98SE on it results in the same display.

HELP!

-Kyle

 

[sohcrates]

Check the boot order in the bios, it's likely that C is before A

 

[Gibberish]

<< Check the boot order in the bios, it's likely that C is before A >>



No sirree, A is first, then C, then the CDROM.

 

[sohcrates]

allright, is the hard drive plugged in? if so, unplug it, and see what it says at boot up.

 

[lowtech1]

Check to see if your IDE controler are on (normally IRQ14:15).
Try resetting he BIOS to default setting.
Check your cables and make sure they fit snugly in it slots and pin1 to pin1 (check the floppy cable & seating).

 

[sohcrates]

yeah, clearing CMOS is definitely a good idea

 

[Gibberish]

I've cleared CMOS, unplugged the HDD, everything is lined up correctly and snugly. The only difference when I unplug the HDD is that it doesn't show up as the Primary IDE device -- obviously. So, I'm still confused. No matter what I do, it always returns to that blank (except for the blinking cursor) screen.

 

[sohcrates]

Have you tried booting off a cd-rom?

 

[Gibberish]

Nothing boots. I've tried four different FDDs, two different HDDs (one with and one without data), and one CDROM drive.

Talk about frustrating!

 

[Saltin]

I had this problem on an old box last night. Turned out I had the jumpers on the drives set up incorrectly.
Reload the BIOS defaults, and ensure that your Master/Slave relationships are set up properly.

 

[Gibberish]

*sigh* Jumpers are correctly set. Clearing CMOS doesn't do anything. Apparently, this is the way the computer is *supposed* to run.

Any other ideas anyone?

 

[OrByte]

SO:

your boot sequence is in correct order

your ide/floppy cables are in correctly and not reversed

you tried booting off of cd-rom and floppy

you tried a different hard drive


and all give you the same result??

my questions are, what kind of mobo? and what kind of powersupply?

let s get a list of system specs please, thanks

 

[Gibberish]

Sure thing.

MOBO: DFI AK76-SN Rev. A+ (AMD 761 chipset)
PS: Enermax EG351P VE (2 BB Fans; 320 Watts)
RAM: 256 MB Crucial brand 2.5 CAS
HDD: Seagate Barracuda IV 40 GB
FDD: TEAC 3.5"
GRAPHICS: 4MB STB Nitro (PCI)

I've tried using a Matrox Millennium G200 (AGP), but it didn't display anything at all.

 

[OrByte]

Are you able to enter into BIOS?

is there an option in bios to enable vga support thru a pci device...or something to that effect?

half the battle is won if you can get into BIOS.....

With the Matrox card: did you get any image at all when powered up? bios splash screen? anything?

are you able to try a different agp video card?

lots of questions....I know

😀

 

[Gibberish]

I CAN get into BIOS. That was a separate battle.

With the Matrox card, I got nothing. Not a single pixel. I don't have any other AGP cards, unfortunately. I've had no luck with messing around with any BIOS settings. It always seems to result in the same thing: a blinking cursor.🙁

I'm going to run to Best Buy and get a different AGP card to see if it works. I'll probably get a GeForce2MX. I'm unsure of what manufacturers they have, but I'll let you know.

UPDATE: I'm back from Best Buy. The new AGP card will let me access BIOS (instead of having to run my only PCI card between this computer and that one). But the new AGP card acts just like the PCI one did. Same results. And when I get to that blank screen (with only the cursor), my keyboard doesn't work (it didn't with the PCI card either). Nothing works on it. Not even Caps Lock. So... whatever that means, I may never know. Any more ideas?