Freeze during boot

[natpond]

so i had a HD that failed, and thanks to WDs sweet RMA policy i got one 2 days later, but only recently, due to moving to school, have i ben able to boot it up and get a chance to install linux/windows back on it.

Heres my problem, after it finishes the initial boot sequence (lists the processor speed, amount or ram, all the installed HDs, etc) then goes through the RAID boot up screen (which i am not using) it goes to the "PCI device listing" and it lists all the drives and their IRQs and all that, but it usually goes on to either boot up, or tell me an OS is nto installed. now, it just stay there, and after about 2 seconds, random squares turn black, so for instance where it said "IDE" before, now it will say "I_E" where the underscore is now, there is a blank, black space. so after the squares, or letters disapear, it just sits there with the little underscore in the bottom right corner blinking.

Any ideas?

Nat

 

[mattgyver79]

Did you try resetting the CMOS and checking the cables?

What is the boot order in the BIOS?

What kind of drive is it? SATA or parallel?
If its parallel make sure the jumpers are set correctly.

 

[natpond]

yes, i tried to reset the CMOS, nothing. it is a SATA drive, but im not sure it has to do with the drive, it gave me this error starting osmetime after i removed the old failing drive, but before i inserted the new one. i thnk i may try to borrow a floppy drive and maybe flash a new BIOS... but i cant remember whether the comp has to boot up to do this or not.

Nat