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IBM Netvista not booting

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thecowboy007

Technical User
Jul 1, 2005
6
US
Recently got this computer and i can't get it to boot. I'll turn it on and it'll say "copyright 1981, 2000 IBM Corperation - All rights reserved" And it just sits there. Doesn't continue and give me a prompt or anything. Im not hearing any beeps of the POST either. Any tips on this?
 
You might try clearing the CMOS and see if it will process POST with the default settings.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
 
In addtion, check all the connections very well. Also, since its very old, check the connections and switches at the back, there may be an on\off button in a weird place as well as on the front panel. Also make sure its set to 115 volts.

If no go then take out all the is\pci cards that you dont need to get the computer to boot. Unhook the secondary ide channel if the primary has your main boot drive.
Disable and unhook all you dont need to boot up.
Sometimes a bad floppy drive or a bad cdrom can prevent a computer from booting, even a bad mouse, so try with different keyboard and mouse if you can.
There is a recent thread here where the person did everything to get the computer to boot, when he replaced the mouse the computer booted to windows.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips
 
Ok it's been a couple days but still no luck with the tips you gave me. Think it could be the cmos battery? Think a new one would work?
 
At that age it could very well be the cmos battery. Is it a coin battery or is it another type, like a barrel battery? Is it soldered in?
Either way you could check the voltage that it is providing.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips
 
yeah it's like one of those nickel sized ones the cr something. the one you can get at radio shack.
 
A battery would not hold CMOS up so it would try to boot with the default settings. So you would process to some sort of failure. But trying a new one won't hurt anything and the shelf life is long enough that you'll have a spare for your next computer.
Are all your attempts made with a cold boot? My systems process a memory test with results top left and top right before giving a 3 line splash screen at the bottom including a [F1] for setup line.
If it isn't processing that far I would suspect that the BIOS is failing and I've found no way to get around that.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
 
In that case its 3 volts, so if you have a battery tester then you can check and make sure its giving off around 3 volts.
Standard is CR2032 but there is CR2016, CR2025 and a few others, the number will be on the battery if you need to get a new one. But they are all 3 volts.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips
 
It's a bummer tho. Guess i'll be getting in touch with the seller and hopefully get my money back. Thanks for everything you guys. I appreciate it.
 
the 2016 and 2025 are reduced life batteries in comparison to the 2032. So the 2032 would be the battery of choice.
 
I wouldnt want to go against Edfair, but i dont think it would hurt to get a new battery anyway. I suppose you could even bring it back in the end.

Also, its time to give us more info on the hardware. Is this an AT or ATX system. make and model of motherboard, hard drive, video card, ram, os? If you cant boot up you may not be able to tell us the os but maybe the rest of the info.
Does it take sdram?



Good advice + great people = tek-tips
 
It's got 256 of sdram and there shouldn't be any OS on it. Can't find out much about it being an older IBM.
 
A model and type would be helpful. This is information is usually found on a sticker located on the bottom of the front or side of the cover, above the serial number. It is 4 digits followed by a hypen follow by 3 alphanumerics.
 
This is one of the models effected by the bad caps. bad system board is most likely the problem.
 
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