new MB & won't boot from floppy

[storm]

this one has me stuck and i'm open to suggestions..

just installed a new FIC VA-503+ MB and the system won't boot from the floppy. it turns on does the ram check auto detects the primary and secondary master with no problems then goes straight into a blinking cursor on the screen.

here's what i've done so far:

in setup boot sequence is set to A,C; floppy seek on boot is enabled and floppy shows up in the bios, which is an Award by the way. and the FDC is enabled.

changed floppy drive and data cable and double checked the cable is on correctly.

during the troubleshooting i've had the following things happen:

on occasion i get a "CMOS check sum error" and the bios settings get reset to the default settings.

the boot sequence in setup likes to change itself to other then what i set it for.

no post beep codes(yes the speaker wires on right)

if i insert the data cable on backwards i.e. red stripe on pin 40 the cmos picks that up and gives the appropriate error of a failed floppy but if i correct it it acts like it's not even there and jumps to the blinking cursor on a blank screen.

this is a clean system, new HD, RAM the works.

that about covers it, thanks,

storm...

[Delta_Computers]

With the BIOS resetting to default that tips me off to a possible short to the case(?).

With The FIC 2011 MB I had SAME symptoms and had to flash BIOS from update on web.
L8R

[storm]

Delta, thanks for the info but my first question would be how were you able to flash the bios if the machines not booting from the floppy?

at a minimum if it can't find a bootable floppy it should then go to the HD and report a "missing operating system" message and its not even doing that. although i will take a look at you second suggestion, thanks..
------------------------------------------
ok folks it seems that we have a cure...MEMORY..the MB and the flavor of memory i put in didn't want to co-exist, popped in a different brand and it worked like a charm. many thanks to those who replied.

[This message has been edited by storm (edited July 28, 1999).]