Bootup stops at floppy

[ArtvanD]

W98SE, 686AMIBIOS AT74,1998, AMD800Mghzcpu.  Has onboard video, sound, ethernet and usb. Ampron brand board.
During bootup the pc stops at the floppy drive. No disk in drive. Keeps checking it. No display on monitor. Not able to get into BIOS setup. Nothing.  Already tried different floppy drive, different floppy cable, no floppy drive (get 8 beeps when I do this).  I can't get past the FD check.  Any possible solutions?  Or is the board shot?  It was working fine when I first got it from a friend. I added an AGP video card, but it worked fine with this card. At first I could hit the reset button and get it going, then that stopped working.  So now it sits, checking and rechecking the FD.  Any suggestions?

[patio]

Travel to bootdisk.com and DLoad a Win98SE bootdisk...with CDRom support is the one you want.
Unzip that file to a clean floppy to create a bootable floppy.
Re-boot and let it run thru things.
On the second re-boot see if the system will let you into the BIOS.
If not replace the CMOS battery...part #CR 2032 about the size of a dime located on the MBoard.
AS always when working inside the case make sure all power sources are removed and take anti-static precautions.
If this doesn't work let us know...

[contrex]

what about disabling "floppy seek on boot" in the BIOS? I guess that wouldn't work if the CMOS battery was shot? Did you mean "Amptron" motherboard? 9 years old? Uh-oh! Could well be the board.

[ArtvanD]

I tried a W98SE emergency boot disk.  Could not get into to anything.  With this disk I get 2 beeps.  And yes, you're right, I meant Amptron.

[patio]

Re-boot and let it run thru things.
On the second re-boot see if the system will let you into the BIOS.
If not replace the CMOS battery...part #CR 2032 about the size of a dime located on the MBoard.
AS always when working inside the case make sure all power sources are removed and take anti-static precautions.
If this doesn't work let us know...