HELP: "no rom basic, system halted"
Ted Pirsig
Just put in a new hard disk on a two-years-old 386SX (been sitting unused for about 6 months), and the above message appears.
I'm feeling rather clueless as to where to start looking... the machine was working okay the last I remember... can get BIOS
up at the start with the Delete key, but no settings there have any effect on the "no rom basic" problem.
(Pardon me if I'm posting this to the wrong group; I realize this problem is happening before dos is actually loading...)
Any pointers as to where to start poking around?
Thanks,
Ted Pirsig
craw...@ilhawaii.net
Ted Pirsig
a: drive, at which point I can switch to c: and proceed merrily from there.
I believe the c: drive is fine; this problem actually happened with an old MFM
drive on the same machine (it wouldn't boot from c:, would boot from a:
however it never flashed the "no rom basic, system halted" message then, it
would just hang...). I've tried all possible jumper combinations on both the drive
and the drive card (ide type).
Is the rom basic on the motherboard? Still feeling rather clueless...
Thanks in advance for any help.
Ted Pirsig
craw...@ilhawaii.net
Gue...@gw2kbbs.com
To: INTERNET: craw...@ilhawaii.net
Subject: HELP: "no rom basic, syst
IC>Just put in a new hard disk on a two-years-old 386SX (been sitting unused for
IC>about 6 months), and the above message appears.
IC>I'm feeling rather clueless as to where to start looking... the machine was
IC>working okay the last I remember... can get BIOS
IC>up at the start with the Delete key, but no settings there have any effect on
IC>the "no rom basic" problem.
IC>(Pardon me if I'm posting this to the wrong group; I realize this problem is
IC>happening before dos is actually loading...)
IC>Any pointers as to where to start poking around?
IC>Thanks,
IC>Ted Pirsig
IC>craw...@ilhawaii.net
Greetings Ted... I believe if you will relate back to the procedures you
followed after the hardware installation you will remember using a DOS
program, FDISK.... After setting up the PRIMARY DOS PARTITION and any
EXTENDED PARTITIONS there is one last thing you need to do... That is,
use FDISK to make the PRIMARY DOS PARTITION ACTIVE... THis is typically
the reason for the no ROM BIOS error message...
Good luck..
---
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Joe Epperson
no operating system was found, it would default to basic.
Derrick McKay
>To: INTERNET: craw...@ilhawaii.net
>Subject: HELP: "no rom basic, syst
>IC>Just put in a new hard disk on a two-years-old 386SX (been sitting unused for
>IC>about 6 months), and the above message appears.
>IC>I'm feeling rather clueless as to where to start looking... the machine was
>IC>working okay the last I remember... can get BIOS
>IC>up at the start with the Delete key, but no settings there have any effect on
>IC>the "no rom basic" problem.
>IC>(Pardon me if I'm posting this to the wrong group; I realize this problem is
>IC>happening before dos is actually loading...)
>IC>Any pointers as to where to start poking around?
>IC>Thanks,
>IC>Ted Pirsig
>IC>craw...@ilhawaii.net
>Greetings Ted... I believe if you will relate back to the procedures you
>followed after the hardware installation you will remember using a DOS
>program, FDISK.... After setting up the PRIMARY DOS PARTITION and any
>EXTENDED PARTITIONS there is one last thing you need to do... That is,
>use FDISK to make the PRIMARY DOS PARTITION ACTIVE... THis is typically
>the reason for the no ROM BIOS error message...
>Good luck..
Pardon me if I'm interrupting, but I was under the impression
(mistakenly?) that this error could also be caused by improperly
setting up of the drive in the BIOS setup? I assumed (through various
sources) that if improperly identified in the BIOS, the MBR is not
accessed properly, hence the above error message. Am I completely off
base here, or is it just a different error message I'm thinking about?
Geoffrey Glave
Pirsig) writes:
>
> Msg-ID: <3t2gvc$i...@lehua.ilhawaii.net>
> Posted: 1 Jul 1995 03:55:23 GMT
>
> Org. : InterLink Hawaii
>
>
> Just put in a new hard disk on a two-years-old 386SX (been sitting unused
> I'm feeling rather clueless as to where to start looking... the machine
> up at the start with the Delete key, but no settings there have any
>
> (Pardon me if I'm posting this to the wrong group; I realize this problem
>
> Any pointers as to where to start poking around?
>
>
> Ted Pirsig
> craw...@ilhawaii.net
Had this problem myself I seem to recall.
From what I can remember I had to change the boot sequence from C: A:
to A: C: This is done in the advanced CMOS settings.
Then I was able to put a DOS install disk in A:, boot the machine and
install DOS.
Good Luck.
Gerry Kroll
!
!Gue...@gw2kbbs.com wrote:
!
!
!>To: INTERNET: craw...@ilhawaii.net
!>Subject: HELP: "no rom basic, syst
!
!
!
!
!>IC>Just put in a new hard disk on a two-years-old 386SX (been sitting
!unused for
!>IC>about 6 months), and the above message appears.
!>IC>I'm feeling rather clueless as to where to start looking... the
!machine was
!>IC>working okay the last I remember... can get BIOS
!>IC>up at the start with the Delete key, but no settings there have any
!effect on
!>IC>the "no rom basic" problem.
!
!>IC>(Pardon me if I'm posting this to the wrong group; I realize this
!problem is
!>IC>happening before dos is actually loading...)
!
!>IC>Any pointers as to where to start poking around?
!
!>IC>Thanks,
!
!>IC>Ted Pirsig
!>IC>craw...@ilhawaii.net
!
!>Greetings Ted... I believe if you will relate back to the procedures you
!>followed after the hardware installation you will remember using a DOS
!>program, FDISK.... After setting up the PRIMARY DOS PARTITION and any
!>EXTENDED PARTITIONS there is one last thing you need to do... That is,
!>use FDISK to make the PRIMARY DOS PARTITION ACTIVE... THis is typically
!>the reason for the no ROM BIOS error message...
!
!>Good luck..
!
!Pardon me if I'm interrupting, but I was under the impression
!(mistakenly?) that this error could also be caused by improperly
!setting up of the drive in the BIOS setup? I assumed (through various
!sources) that if improperly identified in the BIOS, the MBR is not
!accessed properly, hence the above error message. Am I completely off
!base here, or is it just a different error message I'm thinking about?
!
Strictly speaking, the error is generated by some clone BIOS when neither
the A: nor the C: drive contains an operating system. BIOS is looking for
MSDOS.SYS or IBMDOS.SYS. If this file isn't there, you don't have a
bootable disk. There may be some other things that are looked for in
addition to these files, but I don't want to get into a long discussion
about this.
In this case, the old IBM PC and XTs would start the BASIC interpreter
built into ROM. Since clone manufacturers couldn't legally include ROM
BASIC in their machines, they had to resort to this kludge. I can't be
certain -- did the IBM AT have a ROM BASIC or not? I think not. If not,
then the IBM AT BIOS would also have produced this error message.
Since the C: drive can be accessed, it's OK. Therefore, you just haven't
installed the operating system. After FDISK has been run, you are supposed
to re-boot from a floppy and run FORMAT C: /S to format the hard drive and
install the two hidden system files as well as COMMAND.COM. If you've got
data on the hard drive, you could try booting from a floppy and then
issuing the SYS C: command. With any luck, this will install the missing
system files that makes the C: drive bootable instead of just potentially
bootable (which is what making the one-and-only partition the active
partition does).
Don't forget that if you've used FDISK to re-build the partition table,
there will be no data on the hard drive. FORMAT will try to access the
unformatted disk _before_ the formatting starts, and will report an error.
You are supposed to reply F (fail) to the error message to let FORMAT
proceed.
Good luck.
Gerry Kroll
PWGSC Network Infrastructure Directorate
Public Works & Government Services Canada
2A1, Portage III
11 Laurier St.
HULL, PQ
Canada K1A 0S5
donald song
: Since the C: drive can be accessed, it's OK. Therefore, you just haven't
: installed the operating system. After FDISK has been run, you are supposed
: to re-boot from a floppy and run FORMAT C: /S to format the hard drive and
: install the two hidden system files as well as COMMAND.COM. If you've got
: data on the hard drive, you could try booting from a floppy and then
: issuing the SYS C: command. With any luck, this will install the missing
: system files that makes the C: drive bootable instead of just potentially
: bootable (which is what making the one-and-only partition the active
: partition does).
Well, you can do all of the above and you'll still get the NO ROM BASIC
message unless you make the C: partition ACTIVE using FDISK.
This is very important!
--
========================================
Donald Y. Song Suicide...
Homicide...
ds...@corsa.ucr.edu Pesticide...
Riverside.
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