IBM Aptiva will not boot up

My Aptiva 2159 will not boot up. Aunti gave it to me after cousin had it opened up and tried to install mismatched EDO Simm and new Hard drive with win98SE on it.
I removed the mismatched SIMM and installed four matching EDO Simm for total of 32MB of memory.
I gave a look and every thing was connected correctly.
I also removed all unnecessary cards, and still not starting up.
Do not know if he did anything right to Prepare the HD or not?
He did say he tried this win 95 hard drive in another of his computers and it worked.
But it would not start up with that New HD with Win 98SE, and he took it out, and put the smaller HD back in that he had installed win95B.
So I do not think the factory Installed Software load is still on the orig hard drive.
It gets to the IBM logo on the screen, and Also, it takes 15-20 min to count the 32MB ram.
It counts the memory, and when it is done just sits there and does nothing.
The keyboard does not seem to have any effect, as in trying to enter set up by hitting F1.
I have spent three hours on the IBM Aptiva site so far trying to find out how to order a Product Recovery CD rom, and cannot get anywhere.
I am trying to get my aunt who gave me the Aptiva 2159, to look and find the recovery CD. I have her manual and the diagnostic CD but the Recovery CD rom is missing.
Any help to get this started up would be wonderful.
I am not sure if the hard drive has the orig factory software load on it or not, but it does have win 95, or so Aunti told me.
Would appreciate any help in getting it started up and/or locating a place to buy a Recovery CD. Thanks, Joe

What size is the disk. Early Aptivas do not like anything bigger than around 3.8G and freeze at startup just as you have described. You can get around it with disk overlay software.

Or you can get around that by using a ATA66/100/133 PCI Adapter card. It has its own Bios that fools the on Board Bios and can work with larger hdd .

It is actually the original 2.5 Gig Hard drive. JOe

OK so it is not the disk size then. Freezing at that stage on an Aptiva is usually some sort of hardware problem. Lets try to eliminate things.

1) Counting memory slowly usually indicates problems with the memory. Is it the original IBM memory? If replacement memory, is it at the right speed? Have you any other memory you could try? Try with two sticks and 16M.

2) If you disconnect the hard drive and boot from a DOS boot disk or the Diagnostic CD what happens?

Good luck

You all probly have read a post i put here about me building my own system well i have started i just got my lian li case with all the fruit fans, power supply (300W) and usb 2.0

Now i have come to a major stump

I have gotted my motherboard here or just about to order

COMES WITH ONE IDE CABLE ONLY. MAY REQUIRE 80CM CABLE TO CONNECT AS IDE CONTROLLERS ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MOTHERBOARD.


Model: AX4B-533

Form Factor: ATX

Memory Slots: DIMM x 3

Chipsets: Intel 845E chipset

CPU Bus Clock

Spec: 533

Max: 992

Notes: USB 2.0/ AC97 2.2 Audio (5.1 channel)


Key Features

Support 533MHz FSB for Intel Pentium 4 Socket 478 CPU

Support PC2100 / PC1600 DDR SDRAM

Support AGP Protection Technology

Jumper-less Design

Dr. LED (User Upgrade Optional)

Support 4X AGP mode

AC97 2.2 Audio support / Audio Codec onboard (5.1 channel)

Supports 6 USB 2.0 ports

Watch Dog Timer

Support S/PDIF interface

1MHz Stepping Frequency Adjustment

Chassis Intrusion Detector

Hardware Monitoring

Wake On LAN / Modem / Timer / Keyboard / Mouse

PCI Rev 2.2 Compliant

Resetable Fuse Providing Short Circuit Protection for Keyboard and USB Device

AC Power On Auto Recovery

ACPI S3(Suspend to RAM) & S4 (Suspend to Disk) support

AOpen Bonus Pack CD (Norton Anti-Virus included)



Specifications

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 Processor

CPU Table

ASIC: Intel 845E Chipset

Architecture: 6 *PCI slots +1* AGP slot + 1 * CNR

Max. Main Memory: Max. 2GB DDR SDRAM for 184pin DIMM*3

DIMM Type: 64/128/256/512MB/1GB

On Board Sound: Realtek ALC650 AC’97 CODEC on board (5.1 channel)

On Board I/O:

2 Serial Ports (UART 16C550 Support)

1 Parallel Port (SPP/EPP/ECP Support)

2 Channel E-IDE (Mode 4 and Bus master Ultra DMA 33/66/100 Support)

1 Floppy Drive Connector (1.2/1.44/2.88MB)

2 Universal Serial Bus Ports

1 PS/2 Mouse Port

1 PS/2 Keyboard Port

Game/Midi Port ,Speaker-Out ,Line-In , Mic-In

Onboard Connector:

IrDA, Wake-On-LAN , Wake-On-Modem, CPU Fan, Fan2, Fan3 , CD_IN, AUX-IN, FRONT AUDIO, Dr. LED, S/PDIF, Chassis intrusion connector, Additional 4 USB 2.0 Ports (via optional cable)

Battery: 3V Lithium Battery

Green Function: Yes

BIOS: Award Plug and Play 4Mb Flash ROM BIOS

Board Size: 305mm x 244mm, ATX Form Factor


Thats what am getting is that alright??

Well now comes the time for the CPU. Pentium 4 2.4GHz FCPGA-2 478 Pin (512K L2 Cache) 533MHz FSB Now this is worth over 400 bux is it worth me paying all that??? because the board is $234 is that a good thingy??

i need some help here i am pulling my hair out arguing with my parents over this

thanx

lord P

hi thelordPRoudicle you posted this in wrong post mate i will make a new thread for ya :) mike


http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...hreadid=124655

just a thought

if you think it is the hard disk try removing it.
then if it is the hard disk you will get an error message if it doesnt give you a error i.e (no operating system found) then it must be before the bios checks the hard disk. just trying to narrow it down :) mike

Edit : sorry Admiral just see you suggested this :)

mike

Thanks for the Ideas. Here is a recap of the problem, and results of trying the suggestions.

Aptiva 2159 S64. P166 MHz(256KB), 16MB 2.5GB HDD IDE, PCI/ISA Split(7X8), ATI 8X CD 33.6K, Win95.
My Aptiva 2159 will not boot up. It gets to the IBM logo on the screen, and It counts the memory, and when it is done just sits there and does nothing.
Also, it takes 15-20 min to count the 16MB ram. About ten minuets after the memory has counted the Num lock lights up on the Keyboard, and if the Product Recovery CD Rom is in the Drive it will start spinning, but nothing happens and no Recovery Prompts show up.
The floppy light will also come on, but if I have a boot disk in I get none of the normal indications of the contents being read and displayed, nor do I ever get to a Dos Prompt.
I did find the Product recovery CD rom, and the Diagnostic CD Rom, and followed the instructions for each at different times, but they will not work.
I am believing that the Hard drive does not have the original Factory Software load.
I can not get past the IBM Logo screen when the memory has counted up.
I let it go like that and came back four hours later and nothing had changed on the IBM Logo screen.
I have removed all unnecessary cards, and even removed the hard drive, and the 166MHz processor to see if I can get into Setup, and no luck.
I did install the hard drive into another regular CLONE (not another IBM or Aptiva) and it did start up in windows 95, After ten minuets of recognizing all the hard ware in the other computer, and numerous required restarting windows 95 did start up.
So does it look like something is TOAST on the motherboard or in the separate unit which houses the Floppy Drive and CD Rom Drive, or the controller which it plugs into?
Any help to get this started up would be wonderful. Thanks, Joe

Sounds like you have tried almost everything!

How about: Remove all PCI/ISA cards and IDE device cables from the motherboard leaving only floppy drive connected plus monitor plus keyboard and mouse (with cpu and original 16M ram). When you power on then what happens?

Have you checked the IDE socket on the motherboard for bent pins?

If all of the above has already been tried then I think the only thing left to try is to reset the BIOS.

I did re-install the CPU, and put the orig 16MB ram back in the four slots.
Restarted and no change, still takes same amount of excessive time to get to the IBM Logo screen, and excessive time to count 16MB ram.
The rest is kind of difficult. Not sure if I made my self clear, but here goes again.
This IBM Aptiva is not a stand alone Case with everything inside of it.
There is the case with the mother board, processor, and slots for the cards. I removed all the cards except one.
It is the controller card I think for the External unit that houses the Floppy drive, and the CD Rom Drive, and the POWER SWITCH.
If I take that ISA card out, there will be nothing to power the Drive unit. I do not know what other functions are taken care of in that external unit.
But cannot disconnect the ISA card it is plugged into, and cannot turn it on without that unit connected.
Possibly that sheds a little more light.

So How do I go about re-doing the BIOS if that may be the problem?
Is there a Bios download for this 2159 Aptiva on the IBM site or other site? HOw do I look into re-doing the Bios?
the Floppy does come on and the Num lock on the keyboard comes on when the memory is finished counting.
IF the Bios needs to be re loaded with the floppy, it may just work. Thanks, Joe

What a strange beaast. On the IBM site it is possible to e-mail their "experts" who should be able to help. There is a BIOS update there but if you can not boot to DOS you may not be able to use it.

Below is URL for that on the IBM site. This URL also leads to the IBM User Discussion Forum. (You may find help there - just seen you have been there and no one answered - not a very helpful lot are they!)

http://www.pc.ibm.com/qtechinfo/MIGR...ws&subtype=Cat

and the main page for your model

http://www.pc.ibm.com/support?page=2...e=&subtype=Cat

Thanks Admiral.
I checked out the Official IBM Tech support options on the site you made reference to. Everything I saw of an IBM official nature they wanted you to pay for it!
I cannot see paying for something, that they made it real difficult to work on. But I guess that is how they make their money, making it hard to work on it, so you get frustrated and pay them to do it.
Once I figure this IBM Aptiva thing out it may not be so much time consuming.
Hey Gang, I think I will close this thread for awhile. I have to get two computers up and running for a couple Missionaries in my church.
Think I will work on some thing simple, (?) for awhile like a couple Clones of 166MHZ, with MMX technology to give them on sunday.
I will pick this up and run with it next week. thanks for all the ideas. Joe

One last thought. You say "IF the Bios needs to be re loaded with the floppy, it may just work". On the IBM site there was a BIOS update.