friend's PC won't boot

just had nic card installed and cable connection.
seemed to be working fine, but then on bootup now, it won't.
It won't even get past a screen that reads something like:
"invalid system disk. Press any key to continue"
I'm troubleshooting this over the phone, but I had them try booting to safemode or dos, but it won't get past that screen.
NO floopy is in drive.
No cd in Rom
Windows cd in rom with same result (no boot disk handy).

any ideas please?
TIA...

Assume a stuck switch on the floppy drive - so put a disk in and remove it to try and free it.
Alternatively, set the boot order to C: first in the bios.

Need a floppy boot disk to help solve the problem. One can be made on another machine or borrow one.
Insert the disk, start the machine, at the A: prompt type sys c: and press Enter, remove the floppy, restart.

The floppy disk isn't lighting up or stayin lit is it? If it is, check what's in there. If there's notin in there, check the cable on the floppy drive, it might be bad.

Does the BIOS detect the disk? Does it take a LONG time to find the disk? That might mean that there are problems in the hard disk, but I doubt that because its just a NIC card and that is too spontaneous.

thanks IMM.
since my post, that's been tried - put a floppy in and removed a few times - no go.
>>Alternatively, set the boot order to C: first in the bios.
How is this done, please

I wish I could help other than over the phone, but I'm nowhere near - they're up by LGH in your hood!

thanks ski
but shouldn't the Windows cd also suffice as a bootdisk?
we tried with it, but no go.

Windows should try to boot from its installation CD if BIOS has the CD-ROM drive listed before the C drive in the boot order.

I'll go there with screwdriver and a bootdisk in the morning.
oh, IMM, wasn't meaning to imply you oughta go over :)
I'm researching about what it takes to "set the boot order to C: first in the bios" still though. Is that done with the pc on, or physically adjusting cable connections inside the tower?

Thanks all.
I'll post back with an update tomorrow - hopefully from the pc in question!

It means boot into the bios (usu. hit Del on the boot) and set the Boot Sequence (Order) in 'Bios Features' (I'm guessing about the type of bios) to boot from the HD before the A: (floppy) drive.

If you insist on using the screwdriver then take the power and data cables off the floppy and remove it from the devices on the first page of the bios.

I think the nic needs pulled also. Acting like it is bad and shorting things out on you also. Could be a bad pci slot though.

Make sure the nic is not in the pci slot closes to the cpu as that one is basically reserved for a video card.
So remove the card and see if it will boot.

gotcha IMM
ski, checked sequence in bios on my machine to see how it's done - looks like C before rom might be default, eh?
Train, noted, thanks, will do.

Well, I'm on my machine, so that says something...
On the friend's machine, I used the bootdisk, but at first it would not
sys c:
and wasn't sure what do do from the A:\ other than try that, so I just removed the floppy and tried reboot: same "replace disk" message, so...
changed bios sequence to
C only
no go, so changed it again to
CDrom, C, A
I think it was, and put the Windows cd in the drive.
On reboot, I got options to

1 - Run windows startup
2 - Boot with cdrom support
3 - Boot Normal (without cdrom support)

I left 1 alone and tried to start Windows with both 2 and 3: no go
Tried reboot after removing floppy and cdrom: no go

Powered down from the tower (exit and win commands doing nothing and don't know dos commands for shutdown), disconnected external lines from tower, opened case and checked patch lines and unset/reset the nic (wasn't closest to cpu - though I'm not certain about what's what with everything in there yet, but I was very careful)
Nothing seemed loose or disconnected - I manually checked they were snug.

Put all back together and was surprised, after setting bios sequence back to start with
A:\
and finally was successful with getting
c:\ sys
done with floppy, but then removed floppy and rebooted - same screen...

I just can't t seem to get windows started!

I'm kinda extra concerned too:
c:\dir
shows WAY TOO MUCH free space on the hard drive, I figure!
(originally, there wasn't much free space on the little 4 gig hd)
HD not backed up, so I suggested getting another and then concentrate on recovery efforts if the old one is hooped.
Cable company going there tomorrow and my friend is right choked:
pc worked just fine prior to the nic install.
Set bios sequence back to
A, C, cdrom

Thanks for the help, gang - we'll get this sorted yet.
I'm anxious to get find out what is up and what I might have missed or done wrong!

Just a shot here. You say the NIC was just installed recently. Maybe the ribbon to the HD got knocked or loosened and there is a bad connection now. Try powering down the computer, disconnecting the power, ground yourself by touching the frame of the case and then disconnecting and firmly reconnecting the HD ribbon cable to both the HD and the motherboard.
Worked for me when I was goofing around on my old P133.....

will do, Herring
and after a google cpu image search, I'm anxious to recheck the placement of that nic - now I think of it, they might just be side-by-each, as Train considers.

And here I was. hoping for some simple electrical or firmware confusion over the presence of a disk in the floppy drive :eek:

Remove that nic and try booting up with it out of there. And then, just wondering if he got hit with a bad virus like chernoble?