Can't Get A DOS Prompt!!

[coug36]

Hey there, I'm 16 and just finished building a new computer from scratch (first one). After powering up, it seems to work fine, and POST seems to be doing its job; it detects the Floppy, Hard Drive, and CDRom fine, and then displays the PCI settings table. On my main machine, this is followed by a boot from the floppy/ hard drive: not on the new one! It just sits there with a blinking cursor happily laughing at me. It doesn't seem like the motherboard is attempting to boot off of anything: it just stops. Any ideas? This is what I'm running:

ASUS A7V-133 MB
AMD Duron 1.0 Ghz Processor
128MB SDRAM 133mhz
eVGA Nvidia TNT2 Video Card
Floppy Drive pulled from working system
Quantum Fireball 3.2 GB HDD
--->(yes, three point two, I plan to upgrade soon)
Creative 4x Quad Speed CDRom Drive
--->(also planning to upgrade that)
300W Power Supply on a Codegen Case

Help?

[Rick]

As your system is booting After the video adapter displays and the post begins
The message Press Delete to enter Bios will show.
Press the delete key at this time and check the Bios settings.
Under the Main menu set your Hard drives to Auto
Check the floppy settings.
Then go to the boot tab
you will see 4 boot options
enable the first 3 in order.
Legacy floppy
your hard drive
your cd-rom
and disable number 4 Other(int18 ) network

then move down on that screen to the Load Onboard ATA Bios
Disable this option

Then go to exit and save

It is also a good idea to double all your cable connection for your drives.
Especially the IDE cables.
that board as 4 IDE connectors on the Mother board.
You should have your drives connected to the 3 that are grouped together.
(Floppy,, IDE master Ide secondary)
the other two IDE connectors are for the ATA100/raid.

[ski]

Partition and format the hard drive?
Make the primary partition active(bootable)?
Install Windows?

[coug36]

I disabled the network startup and double checked all the ide cables, but still nothing. I don't think control is ever trying to leave the motherboard.

By the way, I reformatting the HDD and installing Windows is my goal here, you kind of need a prompt for that... hence my problem. Thanks.

[Rick]

While you were in the Bios after setting your drive selection to Auto.
When you entered the Boot menu did it list your drives? ( selection 2 )
The hard drive Must be on the Primary connector as Master.

If not then you have a drive recognition problem .
If you have two drives installed on the same cable make sure they are set to master and slave.

Also watch the floppy drive light. If it comes on and stays on then the cable is backwards .
Pin1 (red strip) needs to connected to Pin1 on the floppy. ( Closest to power plug)
Place a floppy boot disk in the drive while booting.

I have one of these boards and have seen this same problem at one other time.

When I installed 2 hard drives one new (set as master and active) and one old . ( set as slave)
But the old drive was formatted and set as master in a previous system .
Setting it to slave and still having the active marker set caused this exact same problem.
The cure was to get the floppy working first then run fdisk and set the number 1 drive active.

[ski]

coug36,

We are not mind readers. You have to help us to help you.
Nowhere in your initial post did you state that the hard drive is not partitioned and formatted, and that Windows is not installed.
If that's the situation, and you did not insert a boot floppy or CD(which YOU also did not mention doing in your initial post), then it's no wonder that the system will not boot or go to a prompt. It has nothing to boot or prompt from!
If you had inserted a boot floppy or CD, then say so! If you did not, then try either one. You may be surprised as to what each can do to help you get your O/S installed.

[coug36]

Well I did have a boot floppy in the FDD, and Windows installed on the HDD, and I just got another board on warranty, so we'll see if it was just a lame BIOS on the board... I'll keep you posted.

[coug36]

No, no.. it's not the board. I don't know what the heck it is now. It's the same thing. Lame....

[mjc]

If I were you I would think about upgrading that drive sooner than later...you could very well have a failing drive. Try disconnecting the HD and setting The BIOS to boot to the floppy, put in a boot disk and see if it will boot to the floppy.


Also check to make sure that your BIOS on the new one does not have a "Boot from Network" setting, if it does disable it.....
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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.


[This message has been edited by mjc (edited 05-10-2002).]

[coug36]

I do have it running off the floppy drive, and there's a boot disk in the drive. This is so weird... Network is disabled.

[mjc]

Your board isn't the RAID version by any chance?

If it is are you sure that the RAID is also disabled and that the hard drive is connected to the main onboard IDE ports...

If it is set/connected correctly is the hard drive jumpered properly...set it to master unless it has a setting for "single drive" and connect to the end connector of the IDE cable...

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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.