Computer won't boot from Floppy, HD or CD

[PoaCat]

My computer boots through BIOS screen detecting HD, CD ROM and Floppy then hangs. Have disabled floppy and CD and it hangs after detecting the HD. Have disabled HD and CD and enabled floppy and it hangs after detecting the floppy. Help?
PoaCat

[pcompere]

Usually when this occurs, there's some sort of conflict in your Bios settings or you need to change your jumper settings. First make sure you have formatted your hardrive and have an OS installed on you hard drive. If so enable all devices. Then set your hard drive as master making sure the jumper is located right next to the ide cable connector. Set your cd as slave (even though in most cases this shouldn't matter). And leave your floppy the way it is. Go into your Bios and select fixed Disk setting (or whereever your ide preferences are located). Check to make sure that your hard drive is defined under these settings. In older pc models (486 and pentiu(m) class) you have to choose user defined setting in order for the pc to recognize your hard drive. Also in older pcs you might not have your hard drive connected to the mother board but on a ide controller card. If so then you'll have to change the jumpers on the card. And that's a whole different other story . Hope this helps.

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If it aint broke...don't fix it...

[PoaCat]

Thanks for replying!!
The system I have is a Pentium 100; AMIBIOS BIOS version 1.00.11.BSOT. A ZAPPA Motherboard.
The hard drive is a Western Digital 1.2 Gb has been in machine since day one. Have been having problems, but always able to boot from floppy with bootable floppy. Got new HD, set as slave to orginal HD. Installed (put in computer) with bootable floppy with software in Floppy Drive. Set Primary slave to autodetect in BIOS, Rebooted, recognized original HD, new HD, CD ROM and when it went to detect the Floppy it gave an error message about controller error. Since that time I have not been able to boot from HD, CD ROM or Floppy regardless of any order of disabling/enabling them them in the BIOS. The BIOS screen reads out that any of the storage devices are detected as long as they are enabled and attached, but them just hangs. Could the controller for both HD and Floppy be out at the same time? I have cross swapped floppies with another computer and there is no problem on the other computer with the floppy drive or bootable disks I'm using. I have not tried a new controller card.
Any other ideas would be appreciated.
PoaCat

[ReddDogg]

i am gathering then that you have removed the new hard drive and set things back to the way they were originally? If so, and you are having this hanging problem, my first thing would be to go into bios and restore defaults and try that, if that doesn't work, I would pull the battery on the motherboard and then reseat, which resets your bios.

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Joe Redd
MCP

[Paleo Pete]

I'll go with Redd on this one, I think it's a BIOS issue, but it could be something in autoexec.bat, config.sys or other files Windows tries to load. Check the BIOS first... From the way it looks, it might be getting through the BIOS and we can't tell it so far...I'm still leaning toward BIOS though.

Look into BIOS for an option to reset BIOS defaults, as Redd said, then you'll have to reset your hard drive and floppy settings, and check the boot sequence. Set it to A;C and disable the Swap Floppy setting if it's enabled. Leave the Floppy Seek at Boot for now, after you get it working you can disable it, the boot sequence tries to find it again, so it's redundant.

Let us know how it comes out and we'll take it from there.

Also check my site below, look for the AMI BIOS Survival Guide, it and a couple of the other BIOS links have some very good info. Should help you find your way through the BIOS with a lot less trouble.

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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

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[PoaCat]

I have pulled the battery, set boot sequence to A:-C: and still will not go beyond BIOS it goes through the Boot Sequence as follows:POST, apparently reads CMOS settings, displays CPU info, checks RAM, detects Mouse and Keyboard, detects and indicated Hard Disk installed and CD ROM installed and Floppy A installed, then there is a clicking sound with the dsisplay disappearing and reappearing with the cursor shifted to the bottom of the screen and just blinking. No error messages, just plain nothing.
Help
PoaCat

[Paleo Pete]

Where is the clicking sound coming from? Will it boot to a floppy? If so, does it see the hard drive by way of a DOS command? (C: [Enter] should change the A:\>_ prompt to C:\>_ dir [Enter] should bring up a directory listing.) What is the operating system? Win 95? Win98?

The clicking sound worries me. Is it loud, or a typical hard drive access sound?

I think it's getting past the BIOS and choking on something in autoexec.bat or config.sys. Or maybe the hard drive is failing. The blinking picture and clicking indicates it's trying to boot, which means it's past the BIOS. Normally this would be the next screen, the rectangle with system info. config.sys is the file that is processed at this time, I think...See if you can boot to a floppy and open the autoexec.bat and config.sys files and post their contents here.

Commands are in bold, keys to press in brackets.
At the A:\> prompt type:
C: [Enter]
edit autoexec.bat [Enter]
[Alt] [F] [X] will close the edit screen. ([Alt] activates the menu selection, [F] opens the File menu, [X] activates the Exit command.)

the same for config.sys:
edit config.sys [Enter]
[Alt] [F] [X] closes the edit window. Write down the contents of both and post it here.

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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

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[PoaCat]

I definitely think my system is successfully getting through the BIOS sequence and is trying to boot. The clicking sound occurs at the end of the BIOS sequence, right after Floppy A is detected and shown as installed (or which ever device is installed and enabled at that point). Immediately after Floppy A is indicated as installed the cursor dropps down the screen and the screen flashes blank with the clicking sound occuring simulataneously (it is not loud and I do believe it is the disk accessing sound). Immediately after the screen flashes blank the BIOS screen reappears with the cursor moved lower on the screen. But this is as far as it gets. Won't boot from the floppy either. I do think the Hard Drive is going out, that is why I was trying to install a new hard drive.
Could the Floppy Drive Controller be out?
Thanks for your help!!!!!!
PoaCat

[Paleo Pete]

Is the clicking sound coming from the hard drive?

Post the autoexec.bat and config.sys files if the machine will boot to a floppy. Need to see those if possible. Open bootlog.txt and post it too. Should be in C:\ or C:\Windows, can't remember.

Might need to see system.ini and win.ini too, I think the edit command will open them. I'll do some checking and see if I can find out what to look for.

The system is hanging while trying to either access command.com or process one of the start up files, the bootlog.txt file might be the best bet. If it will boot to a floppy we need to see it, and autoexec.bat and config.sys.

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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links

[PoaCat]

Won't Boot from a floppy, which is THE problem.
PoaCat

[Paleo Pete]

OK, now we're getting somewhere, guess I neglected to ask what the specific error message was, sorry about that...BIG mistake...

Since you say the floppy works on another machine, I'd say try another floppy cable, if that's not it, try another controller card.

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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links

[PoaCat]

Tried switching floppy cables, no luck. Ordered controller card, but only works with hard drives. Will have to order controller for floppy drive. Sure is frustrating having the computer get through the BIOS sequence and detect the hard drive and floppy drive then hang!!!!!
PoaCat

[Bmcdanold]

Hmm are you using a floppy controller card or an onboard (motherboard) floppy controller? I guess its possible that the onboard ide and floppy connectors have gone bad, that happens on occation.

[Paleo Pete]

I'm starting to wonder about memory...reseat all the memory chips, and maybe even swap them around and see if you get better results with only half of it, or a certain pair, etc. That's about the right time for memory to make it hang up...While himem.sys is checking it...

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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links

[Matt]

What do you have each of the hard drives set to? Are they correctly configured as one being a master and the other being a slave drive or are they both set on cable select? Also are you sure that you have the cables in correctly (ie. the red line on the IDE ribbon lined up with pin 1 on both of the hard drives.

[fazeelahmed]

Originally posted by PoaCat:
My computer boots through BIOS screen detecting HD, CD ROM and Floppy then hangs. Have disabled floppy and CD and it hangs after detecting the HD. Have disabled HD and CD and enabled floppy and it hangs after detecting the floppy. Help?
PoaCat

I would like you to try Floppy Drive first. Disconnect HDD and CDROM cables from Motherboard and check he floppy drive first. REseat the Floppy drive cable and restart with boot diskette and concentrate on making fdd to work. Then we will go from there.



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[PoaCat]

I disconnected HD and CD cables. Only Floppy cable attached to motherboard. Normal POST sequence. Detects and indicates Floppy is installed, Floppy clicks about the time that it should be booting from the floppy then there is just a light hum from the floppy. It is a good floppy and a good boot disk. Can't get passed this point. CMOS is set to boot from Floppy first. Could there be a power supply problem? Sometimes the monitor won't wake upo when power on. Have to shut off then power on again or until it wakes up. On one of these occasions I got the message Floppy Drive Controller Failure. Any more ideas would be appreciated.
PoaCat