PC won't boot ..... can't get to bios screen .....

[Ring]

... haven't seen this one before. On boot up ......getting lock-up when bios is auto detecting ide drives. I can't access the bios ...... unable to do anything but re-boot with ctrl-alt-del keys or case button.
Have not been able to boot to floppy or cd.
Any suggestions before I pull it apart and try another hd. The current one is a 40 gb Maxtor ...... not sure if it's 5400 or 7200.
Thx.

 

[darktubbly]

This has happened to me before when I was futzing around with an ATA100 controller card. If you have one, try reseating into another slot. Also make sure your cables are okay, try booting with just the hard drive plugged in (no CD/floppy), etc..

 

[lobadobadingdong]

open your case, and unplug your ide cables from the drives, as well as their power cables. do the same to your floppy drive. then try rebooting into the bios. if it works, one at a time starting with floppy(then cd-roms, then hdds) add your drives one at a time w/power and ribbon cable. if you come to one that halts the boot it's possible it's a dead drive, move on until your done. if you do come to one that halts the boot, try it all by itself, and on different chains, if still no go you got a bad drive.

 

[Ring]

Appreciate the help you guys. Seems like a well thought out plan there, lobadobadingdong, I'll give it shot later and post the results here.

Ring