Boot Problems - Please help!!!

[TechieChick]

Ok guys, I'm at my wits end! Here's the story... FIC 503+ mobo, AMD K6/2-500, 128MB PC100 RAM, 8MB AGP Video card.
The machine was working great. I swapped out the internal components to a new case (more bays) and the thing will not fully boot! It will post, give video, recognize the CPU, count the memory, and show the hardware installed screen. Right when you would normally see "Starting Windows 95" it goes to a black screen and beeps constantly! I am able to enter the BIOS settings, make any changes I want, no problems. I can leave it running in the BIOS setup screens for any leangth of time and all is ok so it doesn't appear to be related to time on. It will not boot to the hard drive or floppy. The very last thing I see on the screen is "Verifying DMI pool data".. then off to black screen and beep hell!
I've removed all cards except video, no help. I've removed all drives from system and BIOS, no help. I've even removed the mobo battery overnight, no help.

Any ideas??? Please???

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TechieChick
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Byte Me!

[BAD.IRON]

Microsoft has a patch for AMD prosessors over 350 mhz. For Windows 95. Or you can upgrade to win 98.

[pipeman043]

I might be wrong but it would seem that since you are using an AGP video card and Win95 you might also have a USB issue so I'd try using a pci video card and see what happens. Win95 OSR2 has usb support but you have to do the patch install yourself

[TechieChick]

Thanks for the ideas, but I've already done all that long ago. The machine was working just fine (with Win95, USB support and the AMD patch) for over 9 months. The problem just appeared when I tried to move the "guts" from one case to another. I was switching to a new case to get more bays for a new CDR. No, the problem isn't CDR related, I havent even installed it yet!
I've even tried taking the board out of the case, just mobo, processor (reseated), RAM (reseated), video (reseated) and power.
Same symptoms.
What am I forgetting?!?!

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TechieChick
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Byte Me!

[Tech Head]

If the only thing that is new is the case and you've just swapped the "guts" (ouch messy !). Could it be possible that the PSU is faulty ?
Only way to try is to take the PSU from the 'old working case', and see if it works.
Just an idea. I have seen 'glitchy PSU's' give funny results.

Good Luck

Martin



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Do you have trouble deciding - Please press Yes or No.

[Nighthand]

I agree with Tech Head. You may want to pull out everything from new case and just try booting with new power supply. If this does not work try the old p/s.

[Jallentino]

Power supply or maybe you cranked a screw too hard on the mainboard and caused a short.
Maybe something is touching bare metal....
All those beeps usually mean a hardware conflict of sorts....

[sprkymrk]

Maybe check for a bent pin on the floppy or IDE controller, also try leaving the com and printer ports off if they are attached from the board to backplate by a cable. I just fixed a computer that had all sorts of funny problems (including non-working mouse) due to a bent pin on a com port. Sounds like all the other good suggestions have been taken. Bad power supply or a shorted motherboard, etc. Maybe a little static electricity got to the DIMM? Try a different DIMM if you have a spare.

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Sparky Mark
If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you.

[This message has been edited by sprkymrk (edited October 19, 2000).]

[TechieChick]

You guys might be right about the motherboard. I spoke to a tech on another forum that said it sounded to him like my hardware was ok, but that a portion of the programming in my BIOS was shot. (makes sense since everything except the very last part of boot sequence checks out ok) I then called tech support at a company that sells "upgrade" bios chips and he told me the same thing. (how convenient) But here's the catch, my bios is soldered onto the board! Could this get any worse??? The machine will not boot to floppy so that I can flash the bios, and since it is soldered onto the board, I can't swap chips and flash.
What do I do at this point?


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TechieChick
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Byte Me!

[PitaBred]

Buy a new motherboard? A new Super Socket7 shouldn't be too expensive... those soldered BIOS's are a real pain when they go out...

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Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of

[DocPC]

Maybe try to set the bios to default or remove the battery for a short length of time.

Or maybe one of the jumpers fell off during the transfer?

[commander]

I would try the original power supply for your previous case & see if that cures the problem. I've seen a couple of pwr. supplies weird & wonderfull things to systems.

[Jallentino]

Have you tried to clear CMOS by moving the jumper? Sounds like you may need to buy a new MoBo....

[Rejection Man]

The situation you discrobe looks like a OS error rather than hardware. After BIOs rums the DMI data pool stuff, control is handed over to the MBR or the hard disk. If BIOS is reporting no errors, then your hardware to this point is boot, but your boot strap is damaged. Check connections to HDD, master slave settings. If no help, check the hard disk on a known good system, yto see if it is bootable.

[TechieChick]

I did that. The system will not let me boot to any of four different, known-good hard drives or a floppy. It's acting like the problem is just before the hand-off to the OS. It's like the DMI thing is my problem. Here's the catch, My motherboard came with a DMI editing utility, but to use it you have to able to boot to floppy!!! I feel like a dog chasing it's tail!

Or like I'm the guest star on "Candid Camera"!! <Does anyone else remember that show, or am I showing my age?>

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TechieChick
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Byte Me!