Can it be saved? Changed Drives...now not booting 1

[Ngolem]

Hi

I have an older P90 compatible that has 2 Hard drives....one original .8 gig and the other added 2 years later 1.2 gig. I don't play games on it and this machine has been fine running under Win95 for the last 7-8 years...

The Original HD started to fail so I found a used 1.6 gig Western Digital (the original was a Quantum on IDE1 and the second is a Western Digital on IDE2 with the CD ROM being slave to it.

I disconnected the Second HD and copied the files of the Quantum over to the "new" Drive with no problems at all using Xcopy32 and appropriate command parameters to make it a system disk

I had a hard time getting the original Drive out (I am definately not a hardware person) as one screw was hidden.

When I accomplished it and put it back together and ran itI see the following:

*****************************************************
American Megatrends AMIBIOS (c) 1994 (Energy Logo)
American Megatrends Inc
TAC951023B

{middle of the screen empty}

(c)American Megatrends Inc
51-0000-001223-0011111/-101094-triton-F
*****************************************************

- There is "ticking" as though it is checking the ram but nothing is counted on the screen (I have 32 meg)
- Then there is a single "Beep"

then Nothing happens

I have checked all connections and they are tight and in proper place....both drives are set to master as before

I replaced the old drive and sort of the same thing happens except I got "wild colors" at the end of it all.

If I put a boot disk into the A drive...the drive lites up as it goes through the above but the drive isn't recognized....I put a non-system disk in and same light but no error as to it not being a system disk.

All keyboard and video ligths work...I can move the CDRom tray in and out...the lights come on but nothing happens.

I disconnected the 2 hard drives....the same thing happens so it is not the problem of the disks themselves....I am being locked somewhere in the BIOS ..... I cannot run setup because....well it doesn't even display the RAM.

I have done something wrong obviously.....but what is it?...

Can this be saved? I know I could get another machine....but that isn't the point...Any direction and help is appreciated Jim Broadbent

 

[edfair]

You might try reseating the ram and the processor. Multiple times on both of them. Evidently a bios type error, either from ram or an address line not working. You might also check the video card for being fully seated. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[mainegeek]

If you can get into the cmos try to re-detect the drives. Also make sure the data cables are not backwards on the board. Some of the older boards are not keyed at the controllers so it is easy enough to do.

 

[DorothyDix]

Erm I notice in your 2nd post you say that BOTH drives are set to master. Do I assume you are using BOTH IDE channels or do you have both drives an one cable,BOTH set to MASTER???? If this is the case then you need to set the 2nd drive to SLAVE.

Hope it helps

PAUL

 

[Ngolem]

Dorothy - Yes I use both IDE's

IDE1 has the "D" drive as master with CDROM as a slave
IDE2 Has the "C" drive by itself

This was the selections before I made the change...the old Quantum drive was on IDE2

EdFair - Will try this and let you know

Mainegeek - I believe the data cables are not the problem....I installed them in the same direction based on the red stripe on the cable and also disconnection of power and data cables for both HD's has no effect....

Since I am not getting passed the Ram check and the RAM isn't displaying, perhaps I did jar one loose.

I'll get back to you Jim Broadbent

 

[Skark166]

If that doesn't work...

There should be a jumper on your motherboard that will let you erase your settings in your bios and restore them to default. What kind of board is it?

Scarecrow

 

[2ndtonunn]

Still stuck?

Try disconnecting Both the IDE leads and floppy drive lead from the motherboard then boot the machine.

If you still don't get any further suspect the Ram, its interesting though that you seem to be getting a post beep.

You could also remove any boards which you don't need at boot i.e modem, sound etc. and boot without them.

 

[Ngolem]

Hmmm...I removed and replaced the RAM and no change....the 2 HD's are disconnected as well (data and Power).

I will strip it down to just the video card and floppy and see what happens. You want me to disconnect the floppy too?

Well then I should get some kind of error then I suppose.

ScareCrow... I will look for the jumper you talk about but won't do anything yet...sorry I don't have the name of the board I am bouncing between my place and a friend's and cannot bother him too much. Jim Broadbent

 

[Ngolem]

2ndtonunn - It was the RAM....the more I thought about it the more it had to be that, since I wasn't getting past displaying available RAM to the screen. Turns out one of the slots had a clip that had to be "just so" or the RAM stick didn't mesh with the pins completely.

When I first removed/resat the RAM I didn't pay enough attention to the seating and just duplicated the problem....but I did it again and saw it wasn't right.

Also this stick of RAM is next to a ribbon cable that must have nudged it when I moved the Motherboard to get access to that hidden screw to install/remove the hard drives.

Everything is fine now...thanks to all for your patience and suggestions. This is a marvelous site for friendly helpful people.

If you ever have a Crystal Report Problem look me up in the Crystal Reports Forums 1 (formulas) and 4 (other)....you can find me there....THANKS AGAIN TO ALL! Jim Broadbent