no operating system

[jimmyj68]

Typing from the Mrs's machine.

Was attempting to setup a wireless ethernet bridge(linksys wet54g) and went online to the bridge ID 192-168-1-266, and started setup as the drivers could not be loaded to a Vista 64 machine. Got to the part where my network security info is input and the screen went blank - couldn't get any response - rebooted and got NO OPERATING SYSTEM!!!! nothing worked after that - tried to boot from the Vista DVD and got the same response after initial boot operations - NO OPERATING SYSTEM!!!!

My gut tells me that somehow I picked up a destroying virus during the setup procedure when my machine lost its wireless/network security. Tell me i'm wrong please????? tell me how to fix this please.........

I have to go for a hour or so but will be back then......thanks a million in advance:shocked:

 

[lxskllr]

Is your HD shown in BIOS? Start by checking your cables. Maybe one of them came loose, or failed.

 

[jimmyj68]

Holy Hannah - all is well - I had a USB Flash drive plugged in with the bridge driver on it. For some reason (did the linksys page go looking for the drivers)? the machine hooked it self to the flashdrive - totally ignoring "C" and that is why I got "no operating system"

In trouble shooting by unplugging stuff I still had the problem and now just a black screen with no message about the operating system. While pondering the black screen I noticed the flash drive and unplugged it - boom - everthing back to normal. With all my reboots and recycles the machine insisted on booting from the flash drive which had - guess what ---no operating system.

Thanks to all that pondered this glitch - but the problem is the operator. I'll check bios to see if maybe boot from USB is on.

 

[lxskllr]

Glad you got it worked out :^)

 

[MovingTarget]

Heh, you should put a copy of Damn Small Linux or some other small OS to boot on your drive. That way you will at least boot *something* and not panic.

 

[degibson]

A similar thing happened to me once. I didn't realize my ipod was plugged in at boot-time... suddenly the bios freezes halfway through printing 'Press F5 to enter setu...'
Unplug: Gone.

 

[C1]

Check in your BIOS to disable the capability to boot from USB. I forget what the option setting normally is called but someone on this forum hopefully will jump in & specify it.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: degibson
A similar thing happened to me once. I didn't realize my ipod was plugged in at boot-time... suddenly the bios freezes halfway through printing 'Press F5 to enter setu...'
Unplug: Gone.

I have had similiar iPod issues on my motherboard. It was very annoying since I was trying to actually boot off of the iPod.

 

[jimmyj68]

Went to bios on my DP35M Intel board where I had left "boot from USB" enabled for some reason. Think I simply ignored it thinking I wouold never boot from USB - ha! gotcha- said motherboard.

Thanks all for your interest ----