• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

supermicro PII system won't boot.

S

shootinyou

Senior member
I'm a newbie so be nice please. Building new system for kids with parts. Supermicro P6SLA board PC100 kingston 64mb, clean quantum HD
SB 16bit sound,4meg compaq nitro 64v vid card, PII 266 cpu. Problem is I can't get it to load win 98, goes through start up disk fine, type setup at a: and I get error messages, I've gotten so many different ones I can't remember any of them. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
When you say "type setup at a:" do you mean your just typing "a:\setup"?

Once you boot off the floppy you need to insert the CD-ROM and then switch to that drive. For example, if your CD-ROM is "D" then type "d:" at the a:\ prompt to switch to the d drive, then type setup.
 
Hmmm - I second Ben. If I read your description correctly and you did a:\>setup then (as an explanation) you tried to run setup from the floppy (the current "drive" selected).

You need to change over to your CD-ROM once the drivers are loaded. As Ben, said, if your CD-ROM is D:, then simply enter d: and then setup.

It probably throws a "File or program not found" error, as there is not setup-file on the floppy.

That should be it, really 🙂.
 
Also, make sure you have a bootdisk with CD ROM support. You can easily create one if you have another win98 machine around. Goto control panel, add/remove programs, Windows 98 setup (tabs across top).

Make sure, too, that your HDD is partioned and formatted correctly.
 
Thanks I just got in and will give it a try. Can't remeber if I switched drive letters or not. Probably not. If this works I'll be one big dumb a$$ cause I've been trying to get this up for oooh a month or so off and on.😱
 
Well I tried switching drive letters and this is what happened. Power on memory test ok serching for boot sequence drive a, start w/ cdrom support hit enter loads cdrom driver, dos managers, preparing to start comp all tests ok system hangs, alt cntrl delete, nothing hit restart button goes through every thing ok till sys test and hangs again. What could this be, I'm clueless 🙁 🙁 🙁
 
Ya, one beep is good.

What if you load the boot disk without CD-ROM support? Does it still hang?
 
Hmmmm...

When you boot to the A:\ prompt can you switch to the C drive? (type "C:&quot😉

Once your on the C drive can you get a directory listing of the contents? (type "dir&quot😉

What kind of CD-ROM are you using?

What's your setup for the IDE devices, like what drive is connected to what cable and connected to what on the motherboard?

Have you set up the master/slave jumpers on your CD-ROM and hard drive?
 
Ok Ben I'm back. started without cd rom support @ a: typed c: and then dir. Here is what it says Volume in drive C has no label Volume Serial number is 3533-0f0a Directory of drive C:\ File not found 4,125.80 mb free and back to C:\> So does this mean that my boot disk is not happy?? Or do I need to reformat the HD yet again?? Thank all of you again.
😕:disgust: I have a Mitsumi 40x Both cd rom and HD are on primary IDE on MB cd rom jumper=master HD I think is set to slave but can't say for sure cd rom is first on cable HD last.
 
Hey! Sorry I was at a party.

<< started without cd rom support @ a: typed c: and then dir. Here is what it says Volume in drive C has no label Volume Serial number is 3533-0f0a Directory of drive C:\ File not found 4,125.80 mb free and back to C:\> So does this mean that my boot disk is not happy?? Or do I need to reformat the HD yet again?? >>

Yep, type in the old A:\format C: and you should be all good. Once the drive is formatted switch to the CD-ROM (usually &quot;E&quot; for the Win98 setup disk) and type setup.

To summarize: (I'll assume your CD-ROM is &quot;E&quot😉

Boot with CD-ROM support from floppy.
Type: format c: at the A: prompt.
Type: Y (to agree to the format)
Type in a name for the drive when it's finished.
Type: E:
Type: setup

Or if you want the computer to not need the Windows98 CD-ROM after setup do this:

Boot with CD-ROM support from floppy.
Type: format c: at the A: prompt.
Type: Y (to agree to the format)
Type in a name for the drive when it's finished.
Type: C:
Type: md win98
Type: E:
Type: cd win98
Type: copy *.* C:\win98
(Once it's done copying, you may take the Windows 98 CD-ROM out of the drive)
Type: C:
Type: cd win98
Type: setup

If you do it this way you'll never need the CD-ROM again later. You know how when you add or remove hardware or change Windows setup and it asks for the CD? Well, now it won't do that. It will just install the needed parts from the hard drive automatically. Of course, this takes up ~100-150MB or so on the hard drive.

<< I have a Mitsumi 40x Both cd rom and HD are on primary IDE on MB cd rom jumper=master HD I think is set to slave but can't say for sure cd rom is first on cable HD last. >>

Your set up sounds OK. In the old days you used to have to set up the boot drive as the primary master. For that reason I still do it from habit. It's not so important any more. I just read the manual for your motherboard and it says that it will boot off that drive no matter how you have it set up. I think as long as you have one as the master and the other as the slave you will be OK.
 
Ben I just Formated type in per your info went through scandisk and this came up: Standard mode: Fault outside of MS-DOS Extender. EC=0000 CS=037F IP=AF67 AX=0FEE BX=0206 CX=0053 DX=1AB1 SI=0004 DI=0000 BP=0FEA DS=0397 ES=035F SS=02DF SP=0FEA
Invalid COMMAND.COM
Enter correct name of command interpreter (eg, C:\COMMAND.COM)








 
WHOA!

That's a new one.

Let me look into that and I'll get back to you.

Do you have the hard drive setup set to &quot;auto&quot; in the BIOS?
 
Hi Ben, Yes it is set to auto, I also switched HD to primary master and cd rom to primary slave, they show up in bios that way also, so jumpers must be right.
 
I just found this link.

That's the best I could do for ya. I'd say try your best to eliminate some of those errors on the list as possible causes.

I noticed they mentioned a memory error as a possible cause. That's one of two things I thought of when I first saw your post. The other was a bad CD-ROM drive. That's just an experienced guess though.

Either way it looks like you might be swapping out some parts one by one until you find the culprit. I'd start with a new start up disk and I'd reset your BIOS to default settings. Then make sure your RAM timings are OK in the BIOS for the RAM your using. Try auto first.
 
Ben THANK YOU for all your help. Sounds like I'll be busy for a while.



Oh yea I remember know, I like building computers. 😀 😀 😀
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top