Very vague problem. Machine not starting

[Jeff Long]

Hello,
A very wierd problem. I had to upgrade from my Linux 6.2 to 7.1.
My machine is a dedicated Linux machine,no other OS running on it.
I inserted the Linux 7.1 CD and did a reboot hoping that the machine would start from cd drive.
It started from the hard disk and did not recognize the cd rom disk i had put in.
I did a reboot again, and pressed 'del' to get into setup. Out there I saw a BOOT option on top of the menu,
I chose that, and I saw three options, one of which was a CD drive option. I chose that and pressed enter key.
It came from position 3 to position 1. So, I thought I had changed the boot sequence to CD.
I went ahead and rebooted again hoping this time it would start from the cd. When it started
I saw lights glowing on the CD drive, but nothing happened. With 10 seconds, my monitor light went from green
to yellow, as though the monitor was shut off. After that nothing happened. I did a reboot again,
pressed 'del' again, but it wont respond. Pressed lot of other keys to see if it would recognize any input, but nothing.
In short, I'm not able to start the machine. The monitor kinda goes OFF, if you will.
It doesnt accept any keystrokes.
I was thinking maybe I should boot with a floppy drive.Right now I dont have a boot disk. But even if I manage to get one,
I'm doubting it will start from the floppy drive. Because, right now I have the red hat 7.2 on the cd drive
and it doest seem to recognize that, so I wonder how a boot disk will help.
I have not done this before. This is the first time. I think I screwed badly. I need help very badly.
Please help me. Even a small suggestion would be highly appreciatedd.
Jeff

[Frank Carver]

Looks like you didn't get any good answers! Most systems will bypass a boot-test if you physically disconnect the drive, so you should be able to unplug the CD and boot from either the HD or the Floppy.
You should also be able to get yourself into the BIOS by unplugging the drives - most BIOSes these days offer you an option to go into the BIOs if they detect changes or unreasonable settings.
If all else fails, you should be able to reset the BIOS to its default values using a motherboard link. Check the motherboard manual if you have it, but please remember to completely power-off and unplug the PSU before you do it I trashed a motherboard once by attempting to reset the BIOS while power was applied.
Can you tell us a little more about what sort of system, motherboard, and CD-ROM drive you have ?

[Tim Holloway]

Actually, I kinda worry that the Hardware Gods have sensed a moment of weakness and attacked. It's that little hint that NOTHING appears on the monitor now that does it. No BIOS I know of can be clobbered THAT hard without a hardware fault somewhere behind it.
I have the impression that you're not a harwdare guru, Jeff. I recommend you find one, because if you don't know what you're doing, you may compound the damage.
In cases like this, the first thing I check is the external cables, just in case something's in sideways and shorting out or malfunctioning. If you are VERY lucky, the monitor cable's loose and that's why you now have no video.
Just because it's fairly painless, at about this point I try and boot from a floppy - either my Win/98 panic disk or the Linux "tomsbtrt" floppy. It probably won't help, but it can't hurt, and if it works, you may be able to recover without attacking the internal hardware.
When that doesn't work, it's time to open the box, check internal cables and make sure all the cards are seated securely.
When THAT doesn't work, I start yanking out all the cards and cables and building the system back up from scratch, starting with the most essential stuff until I either have found a defective component or the stupid thing's all back together and I get the BIOS setup program to work again. At this point, you should be working with a hardware expert for sure.
If that doesn't work, then I tear it back down and jumper the BIOS reset on the motherboard. That may seem like a lot of trouble, but I prefer to keep the BIOS settings for as long as possible, and almost NEVER is it necessary to get this desperate unless you've been locked out by a BIOS password.
Somewhere about now, I start to suspect the video card and try it in a known good box. Most of the other stuff is on the motherboard these days - for that matter, so might be the video. So unless the RAM's gone bad, at this point you may just have a toasted motherboard Or a bad power supply - which if you're REALLY unlucky, toasted the motherboard.