Won't boot to bios

[I hate pop ups]

Ok so heres the story, was trying to upgrade my fathers old pentium II with more ram and a bigger harddrive cuz he uses it just for work and doesn't need much but the 2 gig harddrive was full and had little ram. Well the 4.51 Bios wouldn't accept the harddrive because of the size and setting the cylinder limitation jumpers on the harddrive didn't work. So I was going to be risky and update the bios which is what maxtor recommended I do to get it to work. I didn't get to even make the disk to reboot the new bios due to the fact that the disks protective slide cover came off and was inside the floppy drive, so I unplugged it and took it out and held it upside down and it fell out, so far so good. Well when I went to plug in the floppy drive I wasn't thinking, cuz I was in a hurry and it was late, I plugged the plug in the wrong way and the computer died and when restarted won't even boot to bios. So my question is, did I fry the motherboard or the cpu and can I check them? I tried to reset the cmos by removing the battery and waiting, and also tried to jump the clrtc after reading similar problems on the web, but still no go. I also tried different ram. My computer I am on is also a slot1 but with a pent III chip, can I exchange the cpu's just to see if its the chip or is this risking my other computer cuz the aren't sync'd right? Can I replace the bios chip? I know this is an old system but as my father already ordered a new one I would like to fix this one and give it to a friend, and I just hate to scrap this thing. I think these old Mobo's are cheap and I have see that a new bios chip is under 30$.+ the puller. I have never built one myself and would like to ask the gurus here what they think. Please help. Thanks everyone!

[Thong_Ispector]

You can replace the motherboard as cheaply as you can replace the bios chip and replacing just the bios will probably not fix the problem.

Check Ebay and Pricewatch for slot 1

[Thong_Ispector]

I just checked Ebay and they are all over the place from 99cents to $20 with shipping about $12...

You can probably go to any PC store and dig one out of scrap parts and pieces bins for less than shipping costs...

[sob 1850]

I have an IBM thinkpad and cant get it booted The screen comes up and says ibm and goes blank... Can you help me?

[joytech22]

I have an IBM thinkpad and cant get it booted The screen comes up and says ibm and goes blank... Can you help me?

i had the same problem with my laptop but it was from aspire,
same problem different hardware.

maybe if you have internet acces and a floppy drive on your thinkpad, look up the manufacturers website and download the BIOS for your laptop, copy the CAB or whichever file format it's in onto the floppy with a seperate pc and create a boot disk.

or if you cant, contact IBM and have the computer shipped over. its worth the wait.

[joytech22]

Ok so heres the story, was trying to upgrade my fathers old pentium II with more ram and a bigger harddrive cuz he uses it just for work and doesn't need much but the 2 gig harddrive was full and had little ram. Well the 4.51 Bios wouldn't accept the harddrive because of the size and setting the cylinder limitation jumpers on the harddrive didn't work. So I was going to be risky and update the bios which is what maxtor recommended I do to get it to work. I didn't get to even make the disk to reboot the new bios due to the fact that the disks protective slide cover came off and was inside the floppy drive, so I unplugged it and took it out and held it upside down and it fell out, so far so good. Well when I went to plug in the floppy drive I wasn't thinking, cuz I was in a hurry and it was late, I plugged the plug in the wrong way and the computer died and when restarted won't even boot to bios. So my question is, did I fry the motherboard or the cpu and can I check them? I tried to reset the cmos by removing the battery and waiting, and also tried to jump the clrtc after reading similar problems on the web, but still no go. I also tried different ram. My computer I am on is also a slot1 but with a pent III chip, can I exchange the cpu's just to see if its the chip or is this risking my other computer cuz the aren't sync'd right? Can I replace the bios chip? I know this is an old system but as my father already ordered a new one I would like to fix this one and give it to a friend, and I just hate to scrap this thing. I think these old Mobo's are cheap and I have see that a new bios chip is under 30$.+ the puller. I have never built one myself and would like to ask the gurus here what they think. Please help. Thanks everyone!

can you tell us if the computer does anything when you turn it on? or if the fans spin, any sign of life?

a flashing light, spinning hard drive or spinning fans? these can mean the pc is getting power, just not the motherboard.

happened to me except my mobo is dying, not dead so i think i could help you with a few things.