Boot Problem

[Eagle747]

Hello all,
I've just assembled a new system and have a problem. During first boot I saw the bios screen but missed the video card info so I hit reset to boot again and see it. (at least that's all I remember doing) Now the system will not boot at all, no beep codes, no video, but the fans and disks all spin up and the LED on the motherboard lights up. I've checked all the jumpers, and stripped it down to the mobo, processor and video card but still nothing. I have also replaced the video card but it uses ddr ram and a processor that I don't have a replacement to try. If anyone has any ideas I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

system specs just in case:

athlon 1 gig 266 fsb
micron 2100 ddr ram. 2x256 megs
cheap 300 watt ps
biostar motherboard
geforce 2 mx400 (also tried ATI expert 98)

[iisbob]

umm, did you try to reset the CMOS? You don't say what version of biostar mobo you have , but if it's a newer model you should have a set of jumpers that will allow you to reset the CMOS, then boot under default. If you can't find the jumpers then you can do it the old fashion way and remove the battery for about 30 seconds, then reinstall and try it again.

Luck. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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iisbob
"Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."

[Eagle747]

yeah, I tried resetting the cmos. The motherboard is an m7mia. I ran the processor for around 10 seconds without a fan. That wouldn't be enough to fry it right?

[iisbob]

OH YEH!! that puppies more than likely toast now bud!! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif At the high voltage and excessive heat athlon's put out it only takes a few sec's and they're gone! looks like you might've pinpointed your problem! ouch!! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif

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iisbob
"Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."

[Eagle747]

Yikes, didn't realize athlons would self destruct so quickly. Expensive lesson in heat dissipation. Guess I will be looking for a new processor. Thanks for the help though.

[Dinosaur]

I have an Athlon 1000MHz CPU which I tried to run on a day that my air conditioning was not working. Room temperature was close to 100F (38C).

The system died while laoding Windows and gave me a message about CPU temperature. If I had not seen the message, I would have kept trying to reboot.

I am surprised that you did not get the same message. Perhaps your CPU is not fried. Perhaps the following.

My C:\MSDOS.SYS is modified to prevent the Windows Logo screen from displaying while Windows loads. That screen can hide messages you want to see. Perhaps You did not see the overheat messge due to that screen.

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Gouverneur
Eschew Obfuscation!
If one hundred million people believe a foolish idea, it is still a foolish idea.

[Jess]

Do you set LOGO = 1 to remove the logo? Would that work the same with Win2000?

This is my MSDOS.SYS file:

[Paths]
WinDir=C:\MSDOS7
WinBootDir=C:\MSDOS7
[Options]
LOGO=0
BootGUI=0

Thanks!

[danleff]

Hi;

Boy, this sounds like the Biostar M7MKA that I had. Did you ever boot past the bios splash screen?

I notice that you note that you have a "cheap" 300 watt power supply. Biostar boards require quite a bit of power. If you invest in another processor, suggest that you check the specs for biostar (in your mobo manual) and AMD.com and invest in a quality/recommended power supply (the amd site (("recommended power supplies")) is very helpful). My Biostar would not boot with an inexpensive power supply, until I replaced it. May be worth the effort to get a recommended power supply and try it, since a new like processor will set you back much more than a good power supply. You probably need a good 350 watts for that board and config.

[Dinosaur]

logo=0 turns it off, logo=1 turns it on.

I suggest logo=0 to everybody. It is better to see whatever messages display while Windows is loading. Every once in a Blue Moon, something important is displayed.

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Gouverneur
Eschew Obfuscation!
If one hundred million people believe a foolish idea, it is still a foolish idea.

[Eagle747]

I borrowed another processor (this time an athlon 850) and the machine works fine now. I will be getting another 1gig soon so I can try that in the machine and see if it works. It it does, it would seem the problem was due to frying the processor. As for the splash screen, that wouldn't apply to me. I didn't even have a hard drive in the system at the time, so no splash screen or even OS of any kind to display or hide a message. I do usually turn that logo off when I do install windows (or use my own picture) or else I just hit escape to get rid of the screen.