Is it dead?

CPU: AQXDA 2500+
MEM: K-Byte 2700
VID: ATI RADEON 32MB
BRD: A78NX DELX VER 2.0
FAN: STOCK
CASE: RAIDMAX w/ CODEGEN 400W ps

I need some help determining if my board is dead or not.

Initial build went relatively smooth...able to boot and access BIOS menu first time around.

When I tried to add my new Maxtor 160GB drive and install XP I kept receiving "NLTDR is missing". I then attempted to install Me, with no luck.

I wasn't sure if this was a BIOS issue so I flashed 1.05. I was still unsuccessful so I gave up and pulled one of my 40GB drives from my existing system PIII system.

I installed XP on the drive using my old system and even downloaded SP1. I then pulled the 160GB and tried again with the new system and hit a brick wall.

The system locks and I cannot even enter the BIOS setup screens.

The system either locks on the splash screen, or after I press [TAB] locks and has message about scanning IDE devices. Floppy drive activity light is on steady.

I verified all cables were seated properly, reset the CMOS, tried booting to floppy all with no success.

Can anyone offer any suggestions? Am I doing something wrong or did my board pick a bad time to die?

First of all, Welcome to the forums!
Second, in order to verify that your board is still working, disconnect everything except your cpu, ram, video card and keyboard. Then see if you can get into the bios. If so, start adding back each component until they are all reconnected or until one of them causes errors. Then you can begin troubleshooting that particular piece of hardware. Good luck and report back.

If they can install a OS using something other then the 160GC HD then it is a working board...the problem seems to lie on the 160G HD...a lot of MB's will not work right when using past 130G HD...and with you being able to install a working OS on a 40G HD, then odds are it has a issue when using over a 130G HD...

But before jumping into that issue...are you positive you have the 160G HD set for master...and if so, then try this...get a 98se bootup disk and let the system boot into DOS...run FDisk and re-partition the 160G HD into either 2 or 3 partitions...this might help it over come its HD size limit...

... and if it is a Western Digital drive, jumper it to master if a slave drive is present on that channel. If it is a single drive on that particular channel, then remove the jumper all together. WDs are funny that way.

I done a search on the phrase "NTLDR is missing" and found some good stuff. Here is one link from Microsoft:http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=255220.
Hope it helps.

usp8riot said:

I done a search on the phrase "NTLDR is missing" and found some good stuff. Here is one link from Microsoft:http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=255220.
Hope it helps.

Click to expand...

Link does't work..."The page you were looking for is currently not available. The address may not be correct, or there may be a temporary problem with this site."

It wouldn't work for me either but I could google that phrase and it would work at Microsoft.com. Sorry to do it this way, but anyways it says:

"NTLDR Is Missing" Error Message When You Upgrade or Install Windows 2000 Over Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows Millennium Edition
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional

This article was previously published under Q255220
For a Microsoft Windows XP version of this article, see 314057.

SYMPTOMS
When you attempt to install Windows 2000, or to upgrade a Microsoft Windows 95-based, Microsoft Windows 98-based, or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me)-based computer to Windows 2000, you may receive the following error message after the first reboot:

NTLDR is missing
Press any key to restart
This behavior occurs only if Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me is installed on a large-capacity drive that uses the FAT32 file system.
CAUSE
This behavior occurs because the Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me installation was improperly cloned on a different-geometry drive and the following conditions also exist:
The system/boot partition is formatted with the FAT32 file system.
The computer boots using INT-13 extensions (a partition larger than 7.8 gigabytes with a System-ID type of 0C in the partition table).
The Heads (sides) value in the FAT32 BIOS Parameter Block (BPB) is inaccurate. This must match the geometry of the physical drive.
The Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me boot code ignores the head value in the BPB and boots even when it is invalid. The Windows 2000 boot code uses this value and causes the boot process not to succeed if it is inaccurate.
RESOLUTION
To resolve this behavior, correct the invalid Heads (sides) value in the FAT32 BPB to enable the Windows 2000 boot process to continue. The easiest way to update the field is to rewrite the Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me boot code by using the following procedure:
Restart the computer with a Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me Startup disk that contains the Sys.com file (this file is included by default).
At a command prompt, type sys c:. This command rewrites the Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me boot code with accurate BPB information. If this is successful, skip to step 3.

If you are using a Windows Me startup disk and receive an error, indicating that the command "Cannot find the system file in the standard locations on drive C:", this indicates that one or more files in the Windows Me installation have been removed. Use the following steps to place the correct files on the drive so that the sys command can access them:
Change to the c:\Windows prompt using the following commands:
c:
cd\windows

NOTE: If Windows is installed to a different directory, you will need to adjust the above commands accordingly.
Try to change to the Command directory by using the following command:
cd command

If you receive an error indicating that the path is not found, use the following command to create the folder and then repeat the command above:
md command

Change to the EBD folder using the following command:
cd ebd

If you receive an error indicating that the path is not found, use the following command to create the folder and then repeat the command above:
md ebd

In the EBD folder, use the following commands to copy the io.sys file from the root of the hard drive and rename it to winboot.sys, which is the file sys.com needs to transfer the system:
attrib -s -h -r c:\io.sys
copy c:\io.sys winboot.sys

Then change back to the A drive and sys the drive using the following commands:
a:
sys c:

Restart the computer to Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me, and then attempt the Windows 2000 installation or upgrade procedure again.

NOTE: Alternately, after you run the sys c: command you can boot to the Recovery Console, and then use the fixboot command to rewrite the Windows 2000 boot code. This procedure enables the original installation to proceed typically.
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.
Last Reviewed: 5/28/2003
Keywords: kbenv kberrmsg kbprb kbsetup w2000setup KB255220".

The link had a period at the end.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=255220