Can't get past the bios at All! Agh!

[patrickc284]

Ok, I was trying to make a floppy disk for networking today when I realized, lo and behold, my floppy drive wasn't even plugged in. So I plugged it back in (the floppy cable was attached). After that I rebooted, but my floppy was still in there. I don't know if this caused the problem or if plugging in my floppy while the computer was still on (probably not so smart) caused this, but now I get a checksum error - defaults loaded message and I can't even boot by pressing F1 or DEL as the comptuer instructs me. I can't press these because it doesn't recognize that my PS/2 keyboard is even attached! or at least i dont think it does because the NUM/CAPS lock keys don't light up when I press them.

I tried clearing the CMOS repeatedly, booting after unplugging the 3.5" drive, after removing the floppy cable, after removing the floppy disk, turning power off completely, using a USB keyboard. No luck.

My specs are:

XP Pro SP2 (all updates)
ABit AS-7
P4 Northwood 3.0 GHz HT 800 FSB (socket 478)
1 GB (2x 512 Corsair Value) PC3200
Western Digital SATA150 80GB 7200 RPM
Samsung CD-RW/DVD-ROM
Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
NVidia GeForce MX420 64MB
3.5" Floppy Drive

I think that's everything.

 

[jeremy]

how did you clear the cmos was it with the battery or the jumper? its best to use the jumper method and if thats what you used then i'd say your motherboards a toast , anyway i hope you learned from this expirence. never mess with the hardware while the pc is on

 

[patrickc284]

yeah, i used the jumper. i didn't realize you could fry the board that way! but if that turns out to be the case then i think i'll learn from that one alright.

 

[patrickc284]

Clarification

The cable that I plugged in was the power supply cable for the floppy drive, not the cable that connects the floppy drive to the motherboard. I'm surprised that that would carry power through to the board, but so far it looks like it's quite capable

 

[jeremy]

my guess is that it didnt fried the board just cuz you plugged it in while it was powered on , i have a feeling you have some cheap psu i somewhat doubt a quality psu will make such a thing happen even if you plug a device while its powered on

 

[patrickc284]

Well, it definitely wasnt an expensive psu It's just a Rosewill 450W that I got off newegg.

 

[Nubius]

bah! I just dont understand why people would do this. Not picking on you dude, but man it terrifies me when I get NEAR my computer to look at something inside while it's on. I had to hotflash my BIOS once....that means you put in a BIOS chip that'll just get the computer to POST.....then while the thing is STILL ON, you REMOVE that old BIOS chip, put in the corrupted one, then you can flash it.......that freakin scared the crap out of me doing it.

There are so many cases of people plugging in power while the computer is on........WHY!? I have to ask why.......takes 2 seconds to shut down the computer, why would you think it's OK?


HOWEVER, I will tell you that SATA drives are hot-swappable......this means you can switch them out when the computer is on. Those would of course need power, but they have the option of your normal 4pin molex OR a SATA power connector (for WD SATA's anyway)

Anywho, sorry, like I said, I'm not trying to pick on you, obviously you feel bad enough, I can just never figure out why people try that.....you aren't the first though. I've seen this thing happen many many times.

Oh well, anywho, let me get this straight though.

You plugged in the power to the floppy, and the computer was still on correct? So it didn't just like shut down as if something happened when you plugged it in? And you were able to reboot as normal right?

Well......in that case lets try some extreme CMOS resetting

Put the jumper to the reset position (MEANWHILE MAKING SURE YOU HAVE ALREADY TURNED OFF THE PSU)

Now flick the PSU back on. Some people choose to even hit the power button at this point, which will cause power to go to the computer but not boot.....personally I wouldn't suggest it...I've got a friend who swears by it though.

wait about 5 seconds after you've turned the PSU on then turn it back off. Hit the power switch. This should drain any energy of the capacitors. Move the CMOS jumper back to it's normal position, power on the PSU and try out the computer.

If that doesn't work, try all the aforementioned things, but then instead of putting the jumper back to it's normal position and powering up, pull out the battery and leave it like that for a few hours.

Come back, replace the battery, put jumper back in normal position and power on

(PLEASE, remember to turn OFF the PSU when moving the jumper and removing the battery)

Good luck. When it's something like checksum error, theres no way your board should be completely messed up.

Also........make sure the keyboard is thoroughly plugged in

PM me or something if it doesn't work as I rarely visit these threads so more than likely yours will get pushed down and I wont see it again.

 

[patrickc284]

There are so many cases of people plugging in power while the computer is on........WHY!? I have to ask why.......takes 2 seconds to shut down the computer, why would you think it's OK?

Mostly because I'm too lazy. I probably need to work on that.

[SATA drives] would of course need power, but they have the option of your normal 4pin molex...

Are "4pin molex" connectors the same ones that plug in floppy drives? Because that is real tiny and only has four pins, or do you mean the larger 4 wire connector for things like CD/DVD drives? I wasn't sure what to call my power supply cord other than a "cable," which isn't very descriptive.

You plugged in the power to the floppy, and the computer was still on correct? So it didn't just like shut down as if something happened when you plugged it in? And you were able to reboot as normal right?

The computer did not reboot on its own, I shut down and restarted through Windows normally. The problem occurred during that reboot.

wait about 5 seconds after you've turned the PSU on then turn it back off. Hit the power switch. This should drain any energy of the capacitors. Move the CMOS jumper back to it's normal position, power on the PSU and try out the computer.

No luck with that - I'm leaving the CMOS battery out with the PSU turned off for a half hour. I'll try rebooting again after that.

 

[jeremy]

i think its time to give it up and do rma

 

[patrickc284]

Yep, that solved it - all is well again with the BIOS. Thank you to everyone for their help! A good lesson to learn at least