NO ROM BASIC error?
AS...@asuacad.bitnet
While installing a new motherboard, I got some error messages. Here they
are:
1. When choosing A: 1.44MB, 3.5", C: (intalled, with user defined type 47 and
the drive loaded with MS DOS 5.0), then I got:
NO ROM BASIC
SYSTEM HALTED
2. When choosing A: 1.44MB,3.5", C: Not installed, then the following message
appears:
BOOT Failure
Insert BOOT disk in A:
Press any key when ready...
After I pressed a key, it displays the same error message. (The BOOT
disk is MS DOS 5.0 and it is good.)
All the choices I mentioned above are made inside AMI BIOS.
Does anyone has any idea what the problem is? If it is due to a bad mother o
board, I will still be interested to know what this message means.
Thanks in advance.
Arthur
gordon hlavenka
>While installing a new motherboard, I got some error messages.
> NO ROM BASIC
> SYSTEM HALTED
>
>2.
> Insert BOOT disk in A:
> Press any key when ready...
Way back in the good old days, when the Apple I was king of the PC
world, IBM decided to build a PC. Since the Apple included a BASIC
interpreter in ROM (written by Bill Gates, BTW :-) IBM decided their
PC would have this capability also. In fact, the original PC's
base configuration was 64KB RAM, no floppy drive, CGA with
composite video output (to hook up to your TV) and a cassette
interface to store programs and data. Yes!
When you turned it on, it would check for a bootable floppy disk. If
it found one, it would boot it. Otherwise it would load the Cassette
BASIC from ROM. Later revisions of the PC would check for hard disks
before booting the ROM BASIC. The error message about no ROM BASIC
originates with this history. In fact, you could actually buy ROM
BASIC from IBM (why you'd want to is beyond me) and install it in your
PC -- then instead of this error message you'd get a version of BASIC
that doesn't know what a disk drive is. (!)
The message concerning ROM BASIC is excruciatingly correct, but not
helpful. Nicer BIOSes say something like "Boot Device Unavailable."
The second message is a little more humorous. Here you've told the
BIOS that there is no drive A:, which forces it to try and boot fropm
the hard drive. It can't, but it gets _something_ from it -- enough
that it gets past the part that vectors to BASIC instead -- so it
tells you to put a good disk in the A: drive (the one that's "Not
Installed" :-)
So, to make a long story short:
Your BIOS can't find a bootable floppy. It also can't find a bootable
hard disk. And it doesn't find BASIC ROMs at the appropriate address
(F600:0000). So it's complaining. To get rid of this you'll have to
fix your disk subsystems, which are currently not working. Look for
IRQ/DMA/IO Port conflicts with your new motherboard.
--
----------------------------------------------------
Gordon S. Hlavenka cgo...@vpnet.chi.il.us
Proud father of Daniel Scott born August 9, 1993
Phil Koenig
All quite correct. And now the TRIVIA part: this particular message
seems to be specific to computers with an AMI (American Megatrends)
BIOS.
And yes, even their _newest_ BIOS (as evidenced by a manual I have
sitting here for the 486/Pentium overdrive-ISA/VESA "Super Voyager
VLB-II" motherboard they manufacture... does this!
Phil Koenig
p...@netcom.com