Paleo Pete's Help Needed RE: M/B Install

[markjj]

Sorry to bug you again Pete but seeing as your wealth of knowledge surpasses the best......! Or, if anyone else is up for the challenge on this one.....
I have just upgraded my system FROM an AMD Athlon (not Thunderbird)550 with MSI K7 Pro board running Ami Bios, TO an AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1Ghz with MSI KT7 Pro2A Socket A Board running Award Bios.
During boot up the procedure hangs repeatedly. This prevents me from gaining access to the BIOS to make appropriate changes. the Vendor says this is because of having Win ME on my existing 20gb Seagate Barracuda HD and the HD needs to be formatted to continue. Other local Vendors say this is crap.
The CPU is suitably cooled and I have the correct ram (SD 128mb - 133HZ).
Is there a chance the M/B is faulty? This is the second M/B I have got from the Vendor in view of this problem and I cannot see that I am that unlucky that 2 M/B's are faulty.
Any help would, as usual, be most appreciated.
Many thanks.
Mark.
PS. On you recent psoting re: parallel cable CD ROM to a laptop, I finally managed to get the CD ROM working by typing in "load CD" or "loadCD" at the C: prompt.
PPS If you did have everything would life not be meaningless?

[Reid]

While waiting for Pete to show up, I have a question. Are you seeing any of the system initialization? You need to enter the BIOS well before your operating system loads. Are you seeing the video card ID and the memory check? This is the point that you need to press a key (usually DELETE) to enter the BIOS setup.

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rdrummond@thesimpsons.com

[De R Man]

Or F1 to enter bios...
Pull all cards expect Video card(ensure this is properly seated)
Reboot to safe mOde
Remove all com ports etc in dev mgr
Disable Com 2, set PnP os to NO
Enable Reset config data
Reboot and let machine detect all hardware

[markjj]

Guys. If I could do this I would be very happy. Unfortunately, it is as thought the entire system freezes up. I try keeping my finger on Del as soon as I power up, leaving it a few seconds etc etc but to no avail.
Sometimes the boot will allow me into the first screen of BIOS but then freezes within a second or two.
Mark.

[Reid]

Do you have another video card you can try?

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rdrummond@thesimpsons.com

[This message has been edited by Reid (edited 11-29-2000).]

[markjj]

Thanks for reply Reid. I'll give that a blast and post the result on the Board later.
Mark.

[Paleo Pete]

Not much I can add, but a couple things do come to mind.

Do you hear any beeps? That would tell a lot...

Are you sure you have the CPU settings correct on the motherboard? Voltages must be correct. Memory voltage could be suspect as well. Is the CPU oriented correctly, and fully seated? Is the memory fully seated, and not installed backward?

If you are getting no further than POST, I wouldn't think the OS has anything to do with it, but try unplugging the hard drive and booting with only the floppy, and as suggested above, with only the video card, RAM, CPU and keyboard.

I'm thinking most likely either CPU settings or memory problem. Wrong type memory, wrong density, or too fast...and it could have been damaged by ESD during the rebuild process. Take the memory to a computer shop and have it checked.



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Soon as I come up with all the answers...they change the questions!!

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