No Boot, No BIOS

[Butch P.]

Did a bad thing. Tried to add a new HD. Put the cables in wrong. Initially had DOS window asking about BIOS or CMOS stuff. Now nothing. Put it back to original hardware configuration. Nothing. Took out the CMOS battery for a minute. Nothing...

Are both HD toast? If not, is the original one recoverable? If so, please HELP...

Thanks

[Raptor]

Check the cables to see if there are any pins missing or bended. Or other types of damages.

I suggest you replace the cables you suspect of being damaged.

[Butch P.]

Thanks for reply rapture:

What I mean when I say put cables in wrong is that, I put the master on the slave and the slave onto master. Pins are in good shape.

When I power on, I don't get beeps and nothing on the screen. Is it toast?

[Raptor]

You should test the harddisks individually. And remove any computer component not necessary to boot the computer in order to determine if another periphal is not causing problems.

[merlin_2]

disconnect your drives and boot pc ..hit the del/ctrl key for bios do you get anything....

[Butch P.]

I will try to boot with out the drives. Are you saying just booting with just a mother board? What about the floppy drive. Do I remove that too?

I'll let you know what happens...

Thanks.

[merlin_2]

disconnect all the ide cables ---for you all of the  drives  this is to demine whether you have an ide controller issue...do you get the bios--post--screen...just wondering if your bios can handle a new drive how old is it and what operating system have you got..

[Butch P.]

Have not tried to boot with just the mother board yet. As of right now, I do not get anything on the screen. I will try to boot with out the drives except the floppy in 10 minutes.

[merlin_2]

you pc will not boot properly--windows without the hard drive?..but without all  the drives it  should boot in the bios screen..does it...via the del/ctrl key..

[Butch P.]

Well, I've tried booting it without the ide drives.
With and without the floppy.
With and without holding down the cntl/del keys

Still nothing on the monitor. Blank. No DOS prompts or anything. No beeps.

Is my ma board toast?
Can I retrieve the HD data?
Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance...

[Butch P.]

I am bumping this up in the hopes of any additional tips...

[Raptor]

Connect your harddrives to another computer to see if you can save your data.

[Butch P.]

Raptor...

Thank you for that confirmation. That was what I was going to do. I've been told that the Drive should be OK.

Do you think ma board is cooked?

[Raptor]

If you are very desperate to find out, you can try installing your mainboard in a computer case with only a Power Supply Unit and perhaps, but only if you wish to see the results of your actions, RAM,  a videocard and a harddrive with Windows installed to see if it is able to boot.

However, you may damage these components, if there is still warranty on the mainboard I suggest you either see if you can get a new motherboard or have them test it for you.

[merlin_2]

i was asking you to do that because i suspect the mobo has had it ...the mobo are any of the   capacitors leaning over or do they have a blown out look is there any scorch marks on the board.... tracking lines....you would have to hold it up a light source to see this use gloves to do this<grease of your hands can damage components> and be careful..does your fans spins maybe worth a check also...