New Comp - Serious Boot Problems!

[Earendil]

Just like the subject says, the new computer I'm building is not allowing me to continue on with the boot process past the BIOS Startup Screen. I have all the components installed already, but when I tried to put my boot disk in the floppy to start working on the software, the computer just freezes/stops on that screen.

I've tried different cables for the floppy drive, and a different drive altogether but nothing seems to work. One of my friends mentioned that maybe the disk I'm using isn't bootable, but I'm positive it is. I've tried the Startup Disk which came with my other working computer, and I've also made a new boot disk off the working comp. Neither seems to work.

It gets to that the end of that first screen, and the floppy drive begins reading the disk but it never goes beyond that. Oh, and the problem isn't that the ribbon cable is upside down. That happened to me right away, but I fixed that immediately. This problem is a little different.

And my system is as follows:
Athlon 1.4 GHz (266MHz)
Asus A7M266
512mb Kingston DDR
Leadtek GeForce2 Pro 64mb
IBM Deskstar 40gb 60gxp
Plextor 16/10/40 CD-RW

Please help me! I've been working on this for three days straight! I've read just about every word of text on your entire site. It's been extremely helpful, but it doesn't help me with my specific problem. Although after implementing some of the suggestions the BIOS no longer just "freezes" after it checks the IDE slots, and now a cursor blinks at the bottom of the screen.

Thanks in advance for any help.

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"I find the most erotic part of a woman is the boobies..."

[Earendil]

bump...

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"I find the most erotic part of a woman is the boobies..."

[mussels]

Earendil, I kind of had the same problem. It drove me nuts for about 2 weeks. I finally found the problem. The boot disk had a boot sector virus. This made it freeze on boot up. I scanned the boot disk and found the Stone Empire Monkey virus on it. I cleaned the disk and everything was fine again. Maybe this would help you, I dont know. But give it a shot.

[kenja]

I might as well say it before Paleo Pete does...I don't think your signature is in compliance with the agreement (http://www.pcguide.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi?action=agree).

[Earendil]

The line is from Futurama, it's a joke that has never been offensive to anyone on HTF or any where else where it's been read. Sorry, but I didn't think it would be a problem here http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif But I'll take it off if you guys feel it's too "erotic". And yes I did read the agreement http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

Even when I don't use a boot disk, the BIOS still freezes at that point. I took it to my buddy's, who's a professional tech, he worked on it for about 3-4 hours straight, and finally came to the conclusion that something is wrong with the CPU. It is not a big enough problem to cause a fatal error at startup, but it is big enough to not allow me to continue with the bootup process. I'm going to go and make the 2 hour drive to Mwave.com's headquarters to try and get a replacement tomorrow. Hopefully this will solve the problem...

Thanks to everyone who has helped me out so far.

[kenja]

I'm not familiar with Futurama, so the sig just seemed juvenile to me. Our moderator recently asked a guy to change his sig that used similar slang in reference to breasts. Glad I don't seem to have offended you. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif