I haven't been able to get into my computer for four days, luckily I have another with internet access so that I can research this.
I used my "Application and Support disk" which came with my computer to reload the original drivers onto my system.
A program which I liked to use (Power Producer Gold) had stopped working, so I thought I'd try to re-load the original drivers to try and get it working again. I used "Option 2" after I accessed the "Application and Support" disk. I wasn't trying to wipe everying out and start from scratch, which that was what "Option 3" would have done.
Reloading the drivers went very, very slowly. It took probably 45 minutes. When it finally finished, the computer tried to boot itself up. It could not get to the desk top.
Now, when I turn on the computer, it continuously reboots until I turn it off.
By pushing "pause" at bootup I can see that the system knows my hard drive exists. I keep changing the BIOS settings hoping to get lucky. At one pont the bootup screen said:
Pri Master DVD-RW, ATA 33
Pri Slave DVD, ATA 33
Sec Master None
Sec Slave None
IDE Channel 2 Master Disk: LBA, ATA 100, 200GB
I changed a few of the BIOS settins and now it says this:
Pri Master DVD-RW PIO 4
Pri Slave DVD PIO 4
Sec Master None
Sec Slave None
IDE Channel 2 Master Disk: LBA, ATA 100, 200GB
The manual for my MS-7046 mobo is located at:
http://217.110.237.67/Manuals/7046-e...%20MS-7046.pdf
I've spent around 20 hours on this project so far. Several of these hours were spent reasearching what the manual says. So many little abbreviatons for mysterious terms. I fail to see how any of it might relate to my problem. BIOS wants to consider my SATA drive IDE, but I see no options for correcting this. Apparently RAID does not apply to me since I have only one HD.
At one pont in the manual it says that if you hit F11, you will be able to select which drive to boot with. I tapped F11 after turning on the computer, and it asked me for a password. It said nothing about needing a password in the manual.
I went into BIOS and established a "supervisor password." Tried the F11 route again, and it did not work. Odd to think of it, someone was paid alot of money to design this thing.
I've read alot about adding drivers to update BIOS versions. Unfortunately, my model of motherboard isn't listed at the site of the manufacturer. I'm not even sure if I could update the BIOS since I can't get to my desk top anyway.
If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. I'm about to get a huge piece of paper, make a chart and to begin systematically testing all combinations of the BIOS settings.