PC stuck on ASUS splash screen

[fantomlord]

When I start my pc it gets stuck on the ASUS mobo splash screen. I cant even get into my BIOS. I cleared the CMOS. POST is one beep which should be good. I even went as far as connecting the hd from the bad system as a 2nd hd on a working system and it wouldnt boot as well. Wont even boot to Windows XP System disk.
Here's are list of components on my system:

ASUS A7N8X mobo
Samsung 1gb PC2700 RAM
ATI Radeon 9800 graphics card
WD HD WD1200BB
AMD Athlon XP +3500 CPU
OS: Windows XP

any help would be greatly appreciated
Fäntom

 

[franklin97355]

Have you taken it apart and tried it with minimum components?

The answer has always been 42

 

[fantomlord]

no..not yet

 

[edfair]

If you are sure that the drive is selected correctly in both cases it is time for the manufacturer's diagnostics and/or zero fill.
It will require that you pull the drive and select no drive installed in the CMOS then reinstall the drive. This gets around the BIOS test that is hanging you up.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[paparazi]

fantomlord
I agree, you need to download Westerndigital's hard drive utilities (free from their site) and carry out diagnostics and possible zero fill as said.

I am a little confused by your specifications, you appear to have a socket A 462 motherboard but list your CPU as a 3500+ which would be socket 939.

Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[fantomlord]

sorry Martin the CPU is a Athlon XP +3200 NOT a +3500..that was a type-o.

 

[fantomlord]

Edfair,

How do I select no drive installed in the CMOS?

 

[fantomlord]

Took all the components out of the case. Looked for any shorts /metal touching. Installed the mobo, memory and sound card along with the cdr and hd. Still get the same problem.
One system beep and ASUS mobo splash screen freeze.

 

[franklin97355]

Try it without the cd or hdrive.

The answer has always been 42

 

[fantomlord]

Tried it w/o cdr and hd and now i get the CMOS checksum error - defaults loaded.

Now What?

 

[fantomlord]

I tried connecting the hd alone and thats when the splash screen still freezes. That seems to be the culprit. Now what?

 

[tlcscousin]

If you cannot get into Bios check the keyboard its possible the keyboard is shot.The stuck at splash screen can be caused by halt on keyboard error and of course if keyboard is shot the del key wont work.

 

[edfair]

Suspicion that the CMOS checksum problem is underlying all your problems. If the CMOS is munged there is no telling what it is looking for when it tries to check the hard drive.
First step is to attempt to reset the CMOS to default with the "clear CMOS" jumper.
If that fails, then pull the battery overnight.

Once you get past the checksum error you reload defaults then at next opportunity you reset values to what you need.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[fantomlord]

EdFair,

Initially i cleared the CMOS with the CMOS jumpers on the mobo and took the CMOS battery out for a few minutes. Then I placed the jumpers back on the default jumper settings. Then I disconnected the hd and cdr respectively and recieved the CMOS checksum error. When i rebooted i got into the BIOS and set the CMOS to default. Then I set the boot order to cdr first so i could get into the Western Digital Diagnostics cd. ASUS screen was still frozen. A tried 2 keyboards. The 2nd one is brand new and never used. I doubt its a keyboard issue.
Should i try a different hd or do something else?

 

[satrow]

If you've tried 2 PS2 keyboards, try a USB one; the keyboard controller may be shot.

Have you tried using new IDE cables?

 

[edfair]

What happens if you tell the CMOS that there are no hard drives?
That should stop any attempt to access the hard drive. If it still hangs after that you could try hotplugging the drive after the system was up with a floppy, assuming that you can get to DOS with a boot floppy.
If you can get it up hotplugging probable best thing is fdisk /mbr , understanding that you lose the OS for the duration. Then you are faced with a repair installlation.
And you are at severe risk of losing the entire contents of the drive if you follow my suggestion.


Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[fantomlord]

Satrow,
The keyboard works fine without the hd connected to the mobo.
I can get into the BIOS by holding the del key.

EdFair,
I can get into the BIOS with no HD or CDR connected.
At that point you want me to set the boot order to not have any hd devices? What im trying to accomplish is to get the data off the hd to backup or for that matter I dont think i can even get to reformat the hd for a new OS install.

 

[fantomlord]

im guessing the hd is damaged since i cant even see it as a 2nd hd on a good system.

 

[edfair]

Yes, I want you to have the HD powered but not connected to the IDE channel.
Power up with a bootable diskette that has fdisk available, then connect the IDE up and run fdisk /mbr. I don't know if it will force the issue or not. If it takes it, fine. If not, pop the manufacturer's diagnostic disk in and see if it will find it.
And one other option, somewhere here there is another zero fill that runs from debug. This zero fill clears the first 1024 cylinders or so. If none of these get access I would suspect that the drive is history.
If it was important enough I might be tempted to boot with one drive, then under power swap the failing drive in. Not recommended in real life but I've done it before.
If I recall correctly there is a virus out in the wild that does this by writing some stuff in the boot sector, or possibly in the partition table. It has been a long time since I've heard of it happening so the memory is almost greyed out.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[fantomlord]

EdFair,

Nothing worked..i guess this hd is history. Thx for your help.