All right - I have a brand new P4B266C with a 1.6 Ghz Pentium 4 and 256 MB of RAM. Whenever the system goes through POST and gets to the computer info and IRQ device page (the black one with white letters) it hangs. I have tried to run the computer with a blank HD, an HD with WinXP on it, and no HD. It hangs there everyt time. It will run off of a boot up disk, but I can't get in to Windows at all. It just gets stuck everytime. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks

Does this machine have an onboard network card? is it disabled? connected to a network?

If it does is "network boot" enabled in BIOS?


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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Hello Wheaties180

I'm using Diagnostic charts.
It appears your system is unable to Boot from your HDD.
From what you say you can Boot from a floppy.

1. Run Diagnostic software from a floppy and check your HDD.
If no error is reported Email me about the "System Test".
If an error is reported is it software or hardware related?
2. If software related use software diagnostics to check your files and configuration. [I'm not sure what's involved in that myself]
3. If it is hardware related, is the signal cable ok?
4. If it isn't ok replace it and re-test.
5. If the cable is good replace the drive with a known good drive and re-test.
6. Does the new drive test ok?
7. If it does the original drive is faulty.
8. If it doesn't the system board or adaptor is faulty.

SOME QUESTIONS
a. Are the parameters for your HDD correctly specified in the "BIOS Setup".
These must be correct or your drive cannot be correctly controlled by your BIOS.
If your BIOS has the ability you should set [all] your drives to "Auto" so that they will be detected and correctly configured and the results displayed on screen at every Boot. This allows you to check at every Boot that all is well.
b. Did the system work ok before and had you made no changes to the hardware or software? In other words could this be a configuration problem and could it involve something other than the hard drive parameters?
If it is; Check out your BIOS configuration settings in the "BIOS Setup".
If you have not previously kept a record [in pencil in your Motherboard Manual?]of the correct settings then as soon as your system is working do it for future use.

If the system is brand new, then have the supplier fix it for you.
No sense in beating your brains out.