Problem with BIOS on PA-2013

[Catachan]

OK, here's the trouble I'm having:

Recently I built a machine out of spare parts to act as an internet server, but there is something wrong with the BIOS I think.

Basically, it POSTs fine, but once it gets to the point to start looking for a boot device (ie. Bootable OS on HDD, or boot disk), it just hangs at a black screen with a blinking cursor.

Am I right in thinking this is the BIOS that's causing the problem? I've got a boot disk with the BIOS flash I'd like to replace it with to fix the problem, but when I try the Boot Block recovery idea, it doesn't load the floppy disc :/

Any ideas?
This is the motherboard:
http://www.fica.com/products/mother...ket7/PA2013.stm

Thanks in advance for any help.

Chris

[BipolarBill]

I don't think that it's the BIOS per se. Is the drive used? Has it been formatted? You could slave it on another system and scan/format it.

Make sure that the drive is not set up as a logical partition. It needs to be primary. Partition Magic is dumb in that it defaults to logical when formatting a new drive.

I have seen this problem before and it was never the BIOS at fault.

[Catachan]

Well at the moment, I'm just trying to get it to boot the floppy, so I've disconnected the CD-ROM and HDD. Should I reconnect them?

[Catachan]

Oh, and the floppy is a boot disk. Formatted, yes.

[BipolarBill]

Try another floppy. I had this problem last night and the floppy was bad.

[Catachan]

Done that.

What's the bare minimum I need in the machine to get it to go past the POST etc?

You see, it's not that it says anything like "NonSystem Disk - Please Insert a System Disk" or anything like that. It doesn't say or do anything. period

[userserver]

minimum system for successful POST:

CPU
memory (one stick)
video card
keyboard

it may be necessary to clear NVRAM before the system will POST

once you get into BIOS to restore BIOS defaults (the minimal performance default rather than the optimized default)

[Catachan]

I've tried it like that, it still has the same problem :/

What is NVRAM, and how do I clear it? I can actually get into the BIOS, it just won't find a bootable drive when there is one.