Pentium 3 problem

I have a motherboard with a processor P3 but when i start it , it says ` deteing floppy drive A media .... `
and then ` insert system disk and press enter ` what is that suppose to mean how can i fix that problem ?

 

nope it doesnt !

 

They are all fine i tried them but it still doesnt recognise any thing i cant even go to the bios settings any other ideas ?

 

Whats preventing you from getting into BIOS? If you are unable to get in (for some oddball reason), find the jumper on the board to clear the CMOS. Once the CMOS is cleared, you should be back at factory defaults. Both your IDE channels will be turned on, so the mobo should see the HDD.

Give that a shot, and post the results.

~Rich

 

Well i dont know how to clear the CMOS i dont which jumpers to move and where to put them couse i do not have the user guide for the mother board any ideas of how to do it ?

 

The jumper for the CMOS is usually near the battery. It should be marked as CMOS. It is usually a 3-pin. For normal operation, pins 1-2 are jumped. To clear the CMOS, pins 2-3 are jumped (just an example, your board may be different). Get a decent flashlight and search the board. If you cant find it, then just pull the power cord and pull out the battery on the mobo for about 10 minutes. Should do pretty much the same thing as using the CMOS jumper.

~Rich

 

I tried clearing the cmos but when i fitted the jumpers to 1-2 which is to clear the cmos it just didn`t start when i moved the jumper back to 2-3 which is normal i started but this time it showed ` Detecting floppy drive A ...... and then Drive A error . System halt ` what is that suppose to mean ? Any ideas ?

 

This means your computer can not find your Operating System on your hard drive. It wants you to reload your OS. But it seems more likely that your hard drive crapped out, if you tried everyones suggestions and it still will not boot, or load. You can`t load an OS onto a dead drive...

 

Well i think that even if the hd is dead i could still go in bios and change settings , cant i ?

 

Disconnect all drives, including the floppy. You dont need any of them for the pc to POST. Try to get into BIOS when the drives are all disconnected. If so, reconnect one peice at a time until you cant get into BIOS anymore. The one that stops it is most likely the culprit.

Did you, or anyone else, attempt a BIOS update on this machine recently? Sounds like it may have been bricked. Get a BIOS update for it (downloadable onto a bootable floppy) and see if you can re-flash teh BIOS with a new/good version.

~Rich

 

well i tried with the disconnecting of all drives but still the same thing . I was thinking the samething of updating the bios but someone told me that the motherboard can get dameged if i do something wrong ! And the other problem is that i do not know how to flash the bios and update it can anybody help me of how to flash it and update it ?

 

Best bet is to hit the website for the mobo manufacturer. There should be step by step instructions on how to flash a BIOS. Not all mobos are the same, but here is a general procedure.

Download Bootdisk image from mobo site.
Download BIOS image from mobo site.
Create boot disk from image.
Copy BIOS file to bootdisk.
Boot PC with bootdisk.
Follow onscreen instructions.
Done.

Some older mobos make you manually type the commands to flash the BIOS similar to this

A:\>aflash A2105022006.BIN

Being that it is a P3, you may have to do it this may, but its no big deal. Just print out the directions from the website and read them at least twice so you know what you are getting into.

Good luck and keep us posted.

~Rich

 

Can you send me one of those sites ?

 

We need your motherboard model # and manufacturer. The BIOS is built specifically for each model typically. You cant use a generic BIOS on all motherboards.

~Rich

 

Well the motherboard model is ga-60xet and the motherboard manufacturer is gigabyte !

 

Heres the link to your bios >http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ProductID=1383

@DoubleDwn,Hope you don't mind me lending a hand...I was just passing through.lol!

 

Thanx i download the files but i do not know how to put them in the other computer can give me some details ?

 

@iani: There should be specific directions on the page that you downloaded from that tell you how to install the new BIOS. Like I said earlier, each one is abit different.

@boxwrench: No prob man....thats what this forum is all about, right?

~Rich

Edit: @iani: You need to first make a bootable floppy disk. For Win 98, from a command prompt, type "format A: /s" (without quotes) to format a floppy and transfer system files. Then copy the three files that you extracted from the downloaded file to the floppy. Boot the PC with the floppy in the drive, and the autoexec.bat file will automatically run the flash utility. (I downlaoded the BIOS file to take a look at it.....this should be all you need to do).

If you dont have a win98 machine, go to bootdisk.com and download a win98 OEM bootdisk. Run the file, and it will create a boot disk for you. Copy the three downloaded files, and when prompted, overwrite the existing autoexec.bat file. Also, delete the config.sys file from the floppy. The rest can stay. Then boot with the disk and you should be good to go.

~Rich