BIOS sees devices but won't read them

[WonderWoman]

Hi all,

I built a new system with an intel D850EMV2 motherboard, 3/4 gig of RAM and a intel 2 gig (2a) processor.

When I boot up I see the screen detailing the graphics card (GeoForce 3), then I just get a blinking cursor for a screen.

In the bios I've specified that the CD should boot first, then the floppy, then the hard drive.

I have a new hard drive in it that I'm going to install Windows XP Professional to when this works.

Once I get the blinking cursor, I can see and hear the CD rom being read, then the floppy being read. In the CD Rom is my XP Professional CD, in the floppy is a utility to facilitate installing XP if the machine doesn't recognize the CD Rom. Once it reads these two devices, the blinking cursor just stays and stays...

A look at the bios shows that the machine recognizes the cd rom, hard drive and floppy (even showing the model of the cd rom and hard drive). I know there's valid data on the cd rom and floppy so I don't understand why I don't get a windows xp boot screen.

I tried the CD Rom and floppy devices in another machine and they work just great.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

[CPU Trubble]

Are you sure that your hard disk is plugged in properly? Check all 3 connecitons: power and both ends of the grey cable.

[joea64]

You left out something there, WonderWoman - or maybe that _is_ the very thing that is missing. After your video card is identified, the version number of the BIOS ought to flash onto the screen, followed by the memory self-test (if you're starting from power down), then the various devices attached to your IDE channels ought to be enumerated, then (depending on what make of BIOS you have in your system) a panel should flash by showing things like the number of ports in your system, the amount of system RAM, etc., and _then_ the Windows XP boot screen should appear.

If _nothing_ is showing up after the video card is identified except a blinking cursor, then that _might_ indicate a problem with the BIOS chip itself. Even if the BIOS can't see any drives on the IDE channels or the floppy, it ought to at least flash a message informing you of that fact.

If you know what the key is that you need to press to access your CMOS screen, I would suggest you do that immediately the video card information appears on your screen. Maybe that will take you to the CMOS.

-Joe-

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Alternate email: joea64@yahoo.com

[Whyzman]

Hello WonderWoman,

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Forums!

I would select the boot order to be floppy first. This would allow you to gain entrance to your computer with a Bootdisk in an emergency, without needing CD ROM support.


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May all your dealings in life be win/win!


Whyzman
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Reserved for Punishing Humor...A Pessimist's blood is always B-negative!

[WonderWoman]

I have tried several hard drives and they are all properly recognized by the bios (displays the model #). I get the same error if I don't even have a hard drive connected, just the cd rom and floppy.

So here's what's happening,

I turn the machine on.
I get the screen showing graphics information.
The RAM gets enumerated (properly).
I get the blinking cursor for quite a while. Whatever devices I have set in bios for the startup order (I've tried all combos) run and are accessed.
A screen flashes so fast I can't really see it, has info on the keyboard/mouse being seen properly, etc.
Then I have the error Boot failure: System halted.

I have tried my RAM in a different machine and tried it in different configs. It is seen properly in the enumeration and in the bios.

How can I access the CMOS? I can't find anything on Intel's support site telling me how.

So still, whether the floppy, cd rom, or both are set to be booted from, they are accessed but I never get the boot screen.

Thanks a lot!

WW

[joea64]

Are you sure you didn't look at this site?
http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/mv2/mv2_prdoc.htm

That site contains the technical specification documents on the motherboard in question, including how to change your configuration with the BIOS Setup Utility. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to review those documents, though.

-Joe-



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Alternate email: joea64@yahoo.com

[WonderWoman]

I have looked at the site and scoured the pdf.

I don't see the point of changing the jumper of the bios. i copied from the pdf below. It's on 1 now. I don't need 2 because I can push F2 myself. 3 won't help because it won't read from a cd rom or floppy.

1 Normal
(default)
The BIOS uses the current configuration and
passwords for booting.

2. Configure After the Power-On Self-Test (POST) runs, the
BIOS displays the Maintenance Menu. Use this
menu to clear passwords.

3. Recovery The BIOS recovers data from a recovery diskette in
the event of a failed BIOS update. Instructions to
update or recover the BIOS are in the Intel Desktop
Boards D850EMD2 and D850EMV2 Product Guide
on the Intel Express Installer CD-ROM.

Thanks,

WW

[Whyzman]

I don't personally use XP, but I seem to remember that they use a bootable CD.

What I would suggest is to use a Bootdisk, say a Win98 Startup disk...and see if it will take you to an A: prompt

Oh, BIOS and CMOS are quite often used interchangeably. Set the boot sequence to floppy first. Usually the bootdisk will contain generic CD-ROM drivers...

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!


Whyzman
----------------------
Reserved for Punishing Humor...A Pessimist's blood is always B-negative!

[WonderWoman]

Originally posted by Whyzman:
I don't personally use XP, but I seem to remember that they use a bootable CD.

What I would suggest is to use a Bootdisk, say a Win98 Startup disk...and see if it will take you to an A: prompt

Oh, BIOS and CMOS are quite often used interchangeably. Set the boot sequence to floppy first. Usually the bootdisk will contain generic CD-ROM drivers...




I would LOVE to use a boot disk, but the machine won't use it. I have a boot disk in the drive, I set the BIOS to use it to boot, the computer accesses the floppy but doesn't use the information from the floppy. The same thing with XP. It is a bootable CD, the machine reads the CD but doesn't present any information from it.

Thanks for the clarification on BIOS/CMOS. I have been setting the floppy/cd rom to boot in varying combinations with the same results every time...

WW

[joea64]

If the drives _are_ being seen by the BIOS/CMOS, the next couple of things to look at would be to make sure that every drive is properly connected at both ends of the cable (to the drive end and the motherboard end), and then to check that each drive is properly jumpered. If you have one hard drive and one CD-ROM drive, for example, the hard drive should be the master drive on the primary IDE channel and the CD-ROM should be master on the secondary channel. If the jumpers are not properly set, this would cause the system to misread the status of the drive and therefore not pick up information from it even though it "sees" it. Your drives should have labels on them showing how the jumpers are supposed to be set.

If the above don't work, we might have to look at the possibility that you have a dud motherboard - specificially, that the drive controllers, for whatever reason, are just plain nonfunctional. If that's the case, the only practical solution is to get a new motherboard. How long ago did you purchase your present mobo? Is it under warranty?

-Joe-

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Alternate email: joea64@yahoo.com

[WonderWoman]

I just bought this motherboard yesterday.

The hard drive is the master on the primary and the cd rom is the master on the secondary. I believe that everything is properly jumpered (by seeing the computer access them and by what I see in the BIOS.

You suggest the motherboard may be bad because of bad drive controllers. Would this problem still allow it to do as much as it's doing? Could the processor be faulty in any of this? I see it recognized properly on a start up screen and in BIOS but there aren't many parts to blame :-)

WW

[Whyzman]

For sure as joea64 stated, be sure they are in the correct locations on the IDE cables. If only one device on each IDE be sure to "terminate" (always attach to the end of the cable).

Most are keyed now-a-days so that the red edge of the IDE and the #1 pin are matched up.

Same with the floppy if it has a center connector...always terminate! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

Also, would you explain what you mean by the
accesses the floppy but doesn't use the information from the floppy. Are there any error messages that show up?

Oops, also you want the BIOS to auto detect the IDE devices!


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May all your dealings in life be win/win!


Whyzman
----------------------
Reserved for Punishing Humor...A Pessimist's blood is always B-negative!

[This message has been edited by Whyzman (edited 06-08-2002).]

[joea64]

I personally think that this is the single biggest improvement of the ATX specification over the AT/Baby AT specification, that everything is now color-coded and made to fit only one way where possible (which is to say, if you try to plug in something the wrong way in most places on an ATX board, it just won't go in.) I remember all the trouble I had trying to sort out what should go where on Baby AT motherboards.

I have here a spare UDMA cable which I am currently looking at. You should be sure that the _blue_ connector is plugged into the primary IDE connector on the motherboard. The _black_ connector on the other end is to be plugged into the master drive (or the sole drive). The _gray_ connector in the middle is intended for use with a slave drive. Each of the three connectors has a notch on the upper side which ensures that the connector will only fit in one way when plugged in, that is, with the red stripe facing toward Pin 1.

-Joe-

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Alternate email: joea64@yahoo.com

[mjc]

Also just because you bought it yesterday does not mean that it isn't broken....many "new" items are not properly working when bought.

Also try booting with only one device at a time...try the floppy, then the Cd then hard drive.....if you boot with each alone then try adding them in combination....and if you can make the pairs work go back to trying all three.

You may also want to pull the motherboard and try it on a piece of cardboard (this elimnates the chance of a short with the case).

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mjc
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.

[WonderWoman]

What I mean by:

"accesses the floppy but doesn't use the information from the floppy."

is this (it's the same for the floppy and cd rom) -

If I set the floppy to be the first booted device, the computer will access the floppy at the appropriate time (it will light up and the sound tells me that the computer is accessing it). Normally some kind of screen would pop up after it is accessed launching the appropriate program. Nothing happens. Just the continued blinking cursor. In the case of the CD ROM, after the cd rom is read, I would expect to see the XP Professional boot screen. Nothing. Just the continued blinking cursor. It just eventually goes to the boot failure.

I have set the BIOS to:

Only boot from the floppy
Only boot from the cd rom
Boot from the floppy then the cd rom
vice versa :-)

All with the same results.

I have verified that everything is terminated properly and that the cables are inserted correctly and are tight.

The only error message I get through the whole process is Boot failure: System halted.

I have tried different a different hard drive, a different floppy, a different video card and a different cd rom all with the same results. The floppy light does not stay on so I believe it's hooked up properly.

WW

[WonderWoman]

If this helps....

If I put the C: drive in from my other machine, it will boot up. Because it's XP, I'm asked to immediately re-register it over the internet or call Microsoft to get a new license number.

I thought you couldn't take a c: drive from another machine unless it was to the same motherboard.

WW

[kayofcircles]

No, it's possible to do that, and has been necessary for us a couple of times. It's not recommended because you could easily run into driver conflicts and such. Much better to wipe the HDD and start over with a new mobo. The fact that the other HDD works, though, blows my conclusion right out of the water. After you saying above that you had tried different parts, I thought sure that your new mobo was defective. That too is possible..we had to return one not too long back. When you can boot up with other HDD, can you "use" floppy and CDRom then? That would confirm proper installation/plug in and that the connections themselves are working.

Sorry, not familar with XP. You're saying that you can't get past the XP registration gizmo on other HDD after XP loads? Did you try what mjc suggested above...removing mobo from case and installing one thing at a time?

[This message has been edited by kayofcircles (edited 06-09-2002).]

[joea64]

Well, that seems to indicate that the motherboard _is_, in fact, working. Have you tried a floppy boot with the hard drive from the other system installed? If you have, and if the system _can_ access the data on the floppy with that other hard drive in the system, then I would tentatively say that the problem you have is this:

The hard drive that you are trying to set up on that computer (not the _other_ hard drive with WinXP) is bad/corrupt/DOA.

What you ought to do is to take that hard drive and put it into your _other_ system, and try to boot it up from there. If you get the same error ("System Halted") that you've been getting all along, then it's probably time to look for a new hard drive, because the one you have there is basically good for only a doorstop.

-Joe-

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Alternate email: joea64@yahoo.com

[rond36]

I think you may need to go to BIOS settup at least once even if it is just to save and exit. This is done so the DMI Pool Data can be updated with the correct information. After you press the power button to turn the PC on, start tapping the delete key. Once you get to BIOS settup hit the F7 key to load optimized defaults hit the F10 key and hit enter to save and exit settup and reboot.

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How to Use Fdisk and Format to Partition or Repartition a Hard Disk (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q255867)
How to multi-boot Windows XP (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/gettingstarted/multiboot.asp)
Microsoft Expert Zone Multi-booting made easy (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/columns/russel/september10.asp)
MSKB How to multi-boot Windows XP (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q306559)