I have found a handful of posts with similar issues as mine. I've tried to fix my computer problem using the suggestions from those posts but my head is spinning trying to fit it all together. Sooooooo... When I Boot my computer, it goes through the CPU and memory tests and before it attempts to locate the primary and secondary slave, it just sits there. No error message, computer is not beeping, no sign or warning to give me a clue about the problem.
I attempted to add a second hard drive just before this all started. It didn't work and I took it back out. When I put the other hard drive in, it would begin to boot up and all kinds of bells and whistles were going off. Honestly, I never got to figure out too much about it because I got a "check signal cable" on my monitor and began dealing with that issue. I reseated the video card which corrected that problem and now I am back to seeing that I still have another problem.
Fixing problems with the hardware is not one of my strongest talents but I have a working knowledge... Ok, my computer stuff:


Windows XP

Award Modular Bios V4.51PG

Tyan Trinity 371 V1.08.01 090399

Pentium III CPU@ 500 mhz DRAM CLK 66 mhz
Memory Test 196608K OK

Award plug and play bios extension V1.0A

09/04/1999 - 693A-596B-W97-2A6LGTSEC-00


I have read about flashing bios and clearing the CMOS jumper, which I had never heard of. I've read about the CPU clock setting, Bus Speed, CPU Speed, multipliers, motherboards and jumpers...... grrrrrrr.

I look forward to reader (me!) friendly answers! Thanks a bunch.

Make sure that your HD is hooked up correctly IE: IDE/SATA and Power. When you get to the BIOS Option, enter the BIOS and go in and make sure you see the HD in the BIOS. Maybe even let it do the Autodetect HD, and it should also verify that its hooked up correctly IE: Primary Master.

What happens if you let the computer sit with the black screen for long lengths of time? Does it eventually give you a message or are you impatient like myself and re-boot?

Hello and thank you for the help. Let me tell you more of that I have done.

I found what I believe is the jumper. I can't find any markings around it but it is up by the battery. It is the only one that could be that specific jumper. I moved it to the clear position, waited a couple of minutes, and put it back, booted up the computer and it was doing the same thing.

Oh, I forgot to mention that when I put the battery back in and started the computer, it started to boot up, as I said, and hung on detecting the primary IDE and it never continued on to the error message "cmos checksum error".

The last thing I tried was removing the battery for 10-15 minutes again and this time when it began to boot, I went into setup. I did not load the BIOS defaults but I did load the setup defaults for each page and I enabled the configuration... can't remember exactly what it says. I read an article that reccommended doing that. I saved and exited, it restarted, and again, gets to the CPU and memory test page and as of now, is still sitting there.

I have not tried to boot it with all cards and stuff unplugged. (all except the VGA card, keyboard, mouse and hard drive) Also, I have not tried only one memory card at a time but at the memory test, it shows the amount of memory correctly.

I'm so frustrated. If I didn't have stuff on the hard drive that I really needed, the computer would probably be sitting out at the curb and I would be washing my hands of the whole thing.

What about putting this hard drive into another computer? These settings I am attempting to manipulate, do they affect the motherboard or the hard drive?

Again, thanks.