Biostar MB Hangs

[John P.]

I'm lost on what to try next on this problem.

System starts up, hangs on the Biostar logo screen for about 2.5 minutes
- no drive activity or anything, it just sits there - then starts up and
runs fine.

This is my second M7VIT Pro board in this system. The first one was
doing this almost immediately, then eventually wouldn't boot at all. I
returned it, put this board in, did a clean install and everything
worked fine for 3 days. Booted yesterday afternoon just fine. Turned the
PC on last night & it started this hang thing again.

AMD Athlon 2000+
Biostar M7VIT Pro
Power supply is a Premier 300W (came with the case)
512 MB DDR ram
Maxtor Diamondmax 60 GB HD
GeForce MX100 PCI Video Card (that another story)
HP CDRW
HP DVD
HP Floppy

I started with an HP 8860 system. I wanted to upgrade the power supply
to 300W so I could upgrade to a better AGP video card. I bought a new
case, MB, CPU & Ram. All the other components (drives, video card) came
out of the HP system. I'm wondering if I have some drive issues or
something. I bought a Sony 1.44 Floppy that won't work in this system
(but works in others), but the HP floppy works fine (but looks ugly).

Since it used to work and then quit, I suspect something is getting
corrupted or trashed on the MB somehow.

Any ideas?

 

[rAD]

Are you using Win98? That will hang looking for a network if there isn't
one.

I had a boot problem with a Biostar that was cured by setting System BIOS
Cashable to Enable.

BTW, I noticed that Biostars will not boot if they cannot find the floppy
drive, but there's an error message. Do you have the cable connected the
right way? If the light stays on, then it's backwards.

 

[John P.]

Are you using Win98? That will hang looking for a network if there isn't
one.

I knew I was going to forget some critical piece of info. I'm using
Windows ME. I *am* using the network connection (goes to a router, cable
modem, 4 other systems in the house). The network connection (and
everything else) works fine once the system eventually starts.

I had a boot problem with a Biostar that was cured by setting System BIOS
Cashable to Enable.

I'll try that.

BTW, I noticed that Biostars will not boot if they cannot find the floppy
drive, but there's an error message. Do you have the cable connected the
right way? If the light stays on, then it's backwards.

Cable on the floppy is OK. No idea why the HP floppy works OK, but the
Sony doesn't.

 

[John P.]

I'll try that.

Tried it, no dice.

 

[rAD]

I knew I was going to forget some critical piece of info. I'm using
Windows ME. I *am* using the network connection (goes to a router, cable
modem, 4 other systems in the house). The network connection (and
everything else) works fine once the system eventually starts.


I'll try that.


Cable on the floppy is OK. No idea why the HP floppy works OK, but the
Sony doesn't.

That's suspicious tho... I'd try another floppy cable.

Also, did you check your voltages? Check for any corrosion on the memory
contacts too....are all you IDE cables shoved all the way in?

Did you clear the CMOS?

 

[John P.]

That's suspicious tho... I'd try another floppy cable.

Done that. Very strange. It seems this board just doesn't like my stuff.
I had given up on the floppy and video card issue and was content to
have everything else working... then, with no changes to anything, it
goes from booting fine, to this hang issue. I might even be content to
live with that except when you go to install something and need to
reboot 2 or 3 times... then it gets pretty annoying.

Also, did you check your voltages? Check for any corrosion on the memory
contacts too....are all you IDE cables shoved all the way in?

Yup, yup, yup... all cool.

Did you clear the CMOS?

Yup. It's all rather confusing. Seems like it should work, but it
doesn't. I think I'm gonna give up on this board and try a different brand.

 

[rAD]

That's suspicious tho... I'd try another floppy cable.

Also, did you check your voltages? Check for any corrosion on the memory
contacts too....are all you IDE cables shoved all the way in?

Did you clear the CMOS?

BTW, why not dump WinME? It's notorious for being crappy. You can easily
find Win98SE if you don't want WinXP

 

[John P.]

BTW, why not dump WinME? It's notorious for being crappy. You can easily
find Win98SE if you don't want WinXP

I've got one system on XP, 2 on 98 and just this one on ME. All things
considered, I like ME the best... it seems to recognize everything I
plug in without bitching, it doesn't have that "Cartoon Network" look of
XP. I use this system the most. I use one of the Win 98 systems for
recording & editing music. I've had some USB issues there and am
considering going to ME on that system as well. I wish MS would spend
more time perfecting ANY version of Win rather than continually coming
out with new versions that don't work. :-S

 

[ToolPackinMama]

I've got one system on XP, 2 on 98 and just this one on ME. All things
considered, I like ME the best...

FWIW, I agree about ME. Easy to navigate, fast, intuitive, and great
hardware and software compatibility. Too bad it crashes all the time,
but then, what Windows OS doesn't?

 

[John Anon]

Done that. Very strange. It seems this board just doesn't like my stuff.
I had given up on the floppy and video card issue and was content to
have everything else working... then, with no changes to anything, it
goes from booting fine, to this hang issue. I might even be content to
live with that except when you go to install something and need to
reboot 2 or 3 times... then it gets pretty annoying.




Yup, yup, yup... all cool.



Yup. It's all rather confusing. Seems like it should work, but it
doesn't. I think I'm gonna give up on this board and try a different brand.

Tried using one of your other power supplies with your new setup?

 

[John P.]

FWIW, I agree about ME. Easy to navigate, fast, intuitive, and great
hardware and software compatibility. Too bad it crashes all the time,
but then, what Windows OS doesn't?

My ME system was running great and almost never crashed... that's why I
had to trash it and shove a new MB down its throat! It seemed almost
sacreligious to have a system run so well. :-D

If it ain't fixed, don't broke it!

 

[rAD]

My ME system was running great and almost never crashed... that's why I
had to trash it and shove a new MB down its throat! It seemed almost
sacreligious to have a system run so well. :-D

If it ain't fixed, don't broke it!

XP is nice if you turn off the gimmicks... System Properties | Advanced |
Performance

But I like the pretty blue style so I usually leave that on...plus I like
the happy yellow duckie

 

[John P.]

---- Original Message -----

XP is nice if you turn off the gimmicks... System Properties |
Advanced | > Performance
But I like the pretty blue style so I usually leave that on...plus I like
the happy yellow duckie

Yer a sick sick puppy rAD. I've got everything possible turned off on XP and
it STILL feels like a trip to Disney World every time I turn it on. I keep
expecting to see a sign that says "Your wait from this point is 30 minutes".
The whole thing just looks too damn GOOFY to me! :-D

 

[rAD]

---- Original Message -----



Yer a sick sick puppy rAD. I've got everything possible turned off on XP and
it STILL feels like a trip to Disney World every time I turn it on. I keep
expecting to see a sign that says "Your wait from this point is 30 minutes".
The whole thing just looks too damn GOOFY to me! :-D

Don't be silly


BTW, the pics are in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\Default Pictures