Okay...I put together a new setup and it is the following:
Intel D815EEA Motherboard
P3 733 Socket 370 chip
PC133 256MB RAM
20GB HD 7200 RPM
52x CDROM
8x/8x/12x cd-rw
TNT Vanta LT 8MB AGP Video

okay here is the deal...
When i boot up, I get the mem check, boot sequence but then nothing happens, I get lights, and the floppy light stays on...I tried to "recover" the bios by taking out the jumper and putting in a disk with bios files in it, but it still does the same...Please help, how can i clear the bios or cmos?

I'm confused...you wrote, "I put together a new setup"...does that mean this is the 1st time this parts came together as a whole unit? If so, ya gotta setup your BIOS 1st...even if ya start off running with default settings, you still gotta make sure your HDD is recognized properly. There should be a jumper on your mobo to CLEAR CMOS. Look in your manual for where it is & how to do it if you don't already know. NOW...get your rig going with the bare minimum hardware & then add things later. You should Start with mobo, memory, hard drive & video...no sound card, no modem, no floppy, no cd drives. Fire it up, get into your BIOS & set it up according to your hardware...save/reboot/shutdown. Now you can ad your floppy & CD drives...don't throw everything in all at once cuz if there's a prob, it'll take you a while to sort thru everything to find out what went wrong. It's a little time consuming this way, but it'll save ya some aggravation in the long run.

BTW, did you check the ribbon cable on your floppy to make sure it's not flipped the wrong way?

read the last line of the above post, it makes since as you stated that the floppy light "stays on".....it should not stay on.

JUST A THOUGHT, WHY DON'T YOU JUST PUT YOUR WINDOWS that has the boot.ini in it(ASSUMING THAT YOU ARE INSTALLING WINDOWS) to the CD and let your CD-ROM be the first to be read. Then use it to install and format, partition your HD.

Almost definately just a case of the ide setup being incorrect, either through cable connected wrong way, master/slave jumpers set wrong.

Your floppy cable plug is probably inverted as mentioned above.

I dont think its the cables cuz i used the same cables on the old setup. And the floppy works on the old setup as well. It all worked before on the new setup until i was stupid and tried to update the bios. And thats where I am now. I formatted my C, but i need to clear the BIOS and CMOS somehow. There is a jumper but it just has Normal,Maintenance,and Recovery Settings...Maintenance doesnt have jack, and the Recovery isnt working.
Please HELP!

It is real easy to plug a FDD cable “inverted” or “upside down” on the MOBO or on the FDD. I’ve done it plenty. The most common symptoms are “light on FDD stays on” and FDD doesn’t work.

Well lets say that its not that, then what????

Good luck.

Then pull the CMOS battery from the MOBO...wait a minute or 2, then put it back in...CMOS should be cleared...

Aren't you the same guy that put his case fan in backwards? Check that floppy cable! I think I detect a pattern!

The floppy cable is fine...i checked it like a zillion times and i changed it around just to see if other ways work...and its all the same,.

It's all the same? How can it be all the same? One way the floppy will work & the other way it won't! Red stripe on cable goes to #1 pin.

And if you screwed your BIOS & can't boot, how'd ya manage to format your C: drive? Why did you format in the first place?

Did you try your system with just the videocard installed & nothing else, like I suggested yesterday?

When you flashed your BIOS, did you save the original BIOS for restoration purposes? If you can't find the right jumper, pull your CMOS battery to clear it.

Two minutes without a battery will NOT clear a BIOS. More like two HOURS will.

Two hours? Where the hell did you get that info? LOL!!! TWO HOURS?!?!?!? That's funny! LMAO!! Benq, you're such a kidder.

Okay guys.....first of all i know how to intstall cables, i know where the red stripe goes thats how i know that the cables are fine...i formatted when i put the hard drive and floppy onto my old system and then back onto the new setup...

Getting back to an earlier question, you can usually restore the BIOS to default by removing the MOBO battery for a few minutes.

I few minutes? Don't you mean a few hours??? LOL!

Try inserting the other connector on the floppy cable in the drive. My bios only recognizes the floppy if it's connected to the end connetor.

u have any boot disk in drive? floppy boot disk or bootable cd-rom or bootable HD?