Subject: BIOS wont detect hard drive and CD-Rom Body of Message: Hi, I recently came home after a week vacation to find my computer not turning on. After replacing the power supply and buying a new Tyan S1598 motherboard, it turned out that the chip was fried. AMD replaced it for me, and I started to try to put the system back together. However, when I boot up, BIOS will not detect the hard drive, or the CD-ROM. It also displays a message of floppy disk(s) error 40. which I already know means that the cable could be on backwards, but i've spent hours trying all 3 IDE cables that I have flipping and turning, so it's not a cable. In addition, the CD-ROM light is always on. I know that this is a supposed indication that the cable is on backwards, but once again, i've tried so many combinations that it can't be on backwards. Also, the A drive will not boot. It either says something like "boot failure please replace disk and hit any key" or "I/0 failure" or something to that extent when I put in a startup disk. It reads the disk, but it just spits that stuff onto the screen. So I'm guessing that my old stuff just doesn't like this new motherboard. Does this sound about right? I have not tried my old motherboard because it is currently 300 miles away at home, and I havent had a chance to go home yet. Does anyone have any suggestions, or have they had a similar experience?

Besides under "standard" settings, floppy and IDE are often enabled in obscure locations elsewhere in BIOS. Also, try the "setup defaults" in there.

SOunds like it was hit by lightning/surge and is now almost totally bad. Look for scorch marks, or excess flux that may have flowed out of an overly hot solder joint. Corry Lazarowitz