Most distro installation procedures recommend that the CD drive be first in the boot sequence, which I did prior to installing RH 8.0.

Today I did some BIOS "tweaking" to enable the USB port to accomodate my new printer. Mobo is Abit KT7A-RAID.

Well, somehow I managed to "screw this up" and on boot-up my computer has power for ONLY 5 SECONDS before it goes dead !! Because my floppy drive is 3rd in the boot sequence, it never activates and I can't use my rescue/boot floppy.

I really could use help on this, but my reason for posting is the question -

Wouldn't the installation go just as well if the boot sequence was:

1) Floppy drive [with the drive empty]
2) CD drive [with the Linux inst. CD]
3) Hard drive

With this sequence the floppy drive would be available for using a rescue/boot floppy when it's really needed.

OldBob: Yes, your plan will work. If the floppy drive contains a bootable disk, your PC will boot from it; if not, it will try to boot the next device in the sequence. (Similarly, in your example, the PC will then try to boot from the CD, and if it can't, it will continue on to the hard drive)

The reason an installation procedure would recommend the CD be the first bootable device is that because if you've got a working operating system installed on your hard drive, and the hard drive is listed prior to the CD in the boot sequence, the PC will just boot up your existing OS instead of launching the install sequence. -- J.W.

You will need to provide a little more information.

Is any of the POST being displayed on the monitor?

Does the CPU fan operate? Does your motherboard have CPU fan speed detection or operating temperature limits in the BIOS? If so and an error is detected the PC will shut off.

Do you know what you changed in the BIOS? Maybe changing it back will restore PC operation. If you have no clue depending on the BIOS a restore defaults selection.

michaelk, Thanks for response.

Power is "on" for ONLY 5 SECONDS !!
CRT screen is dark, no POST display [or anything else]

Only activity, fans [3] running and hard drive and CD drive lights flashing [never gets to floppy drive before "power" cuts]

Mobo and CPU are "room temperature".

Changes were:

USB Controller = "enabled"
Virus Warning = "enabled" [This is an Abit feature for boot virus]

In the 5 SECONDS computer is "powered up" I can't change/undo anything.

Does the PC beep at all? Do you have the PC speaker hooked up?

The quickest test would be to erase the CMOS and see what happens. If you have a CMOS battery jumper swap that over to the other pins for a min or so. If not then you will need to remove the battery for a few minutes. Check the manual if you have one.

Like I said with the newer PC's if the BIOS can not detect that the CPU fan is running it will shut down the computer within a few seconds. I wasn't saying anything about actual CPU temperature just that newer BIOS do have a temp limit setting where if it thinks the CPU is above the preset limit it will automatically shut it down.

michaelk,

The sound I get is one long "beep" [I'm not even sure this could be called a beep] from the time I push the Power button until, after 5 seconds, it shuts down.

Are you saying that removing the battery will return BIOS to "default" settings ??

I suspect that the problem is that "virus detect" feature that I enabled. Either -

1) A long dormant virus in the boot section is just now being detected.

2) The feature only "thinks" it has detected a virus.

If I can't find something better, I may pull the battery.

I'll keep you posted.

Don't know what the continious beep means. Check your or the motherboard manufactures website for help.

I doubt its the virus problem

Removing the BIOS battery for about 20 - 30 minutes will cause the BIOS settings to return to their default settings. I agree 100% with michaelk that the anti-virus changes you made wouldn't have anything to do with this - it definitely sounds like you've got a hardware problem.

Long continuous beeps indicate that your PC is in a state where it just can't boot at all (as you no doubt have found.) This happened to me a long time ago while I was building my own box, and if I remember correctly, the problem was that the memory wasn't seated properly, or it was because one of the other connections was loose/poorly seated. I'd definitey check and/or reseat *all* your connections, just to confirm they are secure.

If your system was OK prior to adding the printer and changing the BIOS, you might consider first just unplugging the printer and trying to reboot. If that doesn't solve the problem, then I'd agree a logical next step would be to pull the BIOS battery, wait for 30 minutes, then put it back and reboot (without the new printer connected). The idea here would be to return your PC to its state before you made any changes. -- J.W.

Hey Guys,

Your good advice got me thinking. I completely removed and reseated the RAM strip, this was no help. I looked around for other "loose connections". Didn't really find any BUT since I have a Trios HD switcher and 3 HD's, I have a "jungle" of IDE ribbon cables. I rerouted some of these and got the RAM out in the clear.

I realized this wasn't really "fixing" anything so I yielded to that old axiom "When all else fails, READ THE MANUAL !!" I had not looked at the mobo manual in over a year when I first built this thing.

The first thing I came across was "When installing a new mobo you have to CLEAR THE CMOS". This involved moving a jumper from pins 1 & 2 to pins 2 & 3 and then back to 1 & 2 [as fast as my 73 year old fingers can move]. I fired up again and the fans were running "non-stop" !!! [I didn't have a monitor, keyboard or mouse connected at this time].

I got into the BIOS and selected optimum settings for all screens. I enabled the USB ports, but DID NOT enable "Virus Warning" this time. I can't exactly explain but I'm sure this was the original problem.

FYI - I'm not installing printer on USB port at this time [my HP612 is working fine] but I bought an HP1210 "All-in-One" as a back-up. It's in the bedroom and I use it just as a copier.

Thanks again, for your advice and interest.