help me ressurect old work computer

[Ardric]

It's maybe hung on IDE drive detection. Try unplugging the IDE cables from the MB completely, then let it sit there like 5+ minutes at the DEL prompt. There's a slim chance it'll finish it's timeout and carry on into the BIOS setup.

[KaptCrunch]

Originally Posted by quikgp

Thanks Charlie! I found the jumper, used one of the little plastic+metal thingy's on the board to jump the first 2 pins, pulled the power cord as per instructions and no difference.

Still frozen when trying to access BIOS

sounds to me that cmos battery is dead for its not keeping boot info and hanging

[Dzzope]

not really... if the battery was dead the settings would just go to default and still allow him to get in the bios.. If anything it may be a corrupt bios.


Have you got a speaker connected to the motherboard for post beeps? This would be helpful information at this point.

[quikgp]

OK, so absolutely nothing is connected at the moment, my sata hard drive is disconnected as is my sata cd. There is no IDE in the system. Still nothing

Weird thing is, it shows part of the POST code, and then just "hangs". the system isnt frozen, but wont do anything (I can still cycle caps lock, num lock, scroll lock on the keyboard). The system does not beep. Does not show any error post codes. All I can guess is the motherboard is toast?

[KaptCrunch]

try another keyboard

[Dzzope]

try a ps/2 keyboard... USB may not be supported at that stage of the boot...

Is there a speaker connected to the motherboard for the beeps?

My best guess is corrupt BIOS if nothing above changes anything.

[quikgp]

The USB keyboard im using at the moment works though - well it allows me to press DEL to enter setup and the computer shows that it's tryin to enter setup. It just never gets there.

There is a speaker built right into the motherboard

Can I flash the bios without getting into the setup menu?

[zoob]

Visual inspection for bad caps?