At 08:23 PM 4/5/1998 - Jim Cook wrote:
>
>     I was not sure how to tell if the MB was a TX Chipset.  So, i installed
>the hard drive into the MB that it came from.  I get the message NO ROM
>BASIC when it tries to boot from the original motherboard.
>
>Jim Cook
>Jim's Computer Systems


Jim:

You can look at the chipset on the motherboard and see if "TX" is
inscribed on the chips.

SYSTEM HALTED NO ROM BASIC means you don't have a bootable
drive and you don't have the BASIC programming language on a ROM
chip on the motherboard (which only the IBM PCs had; if no boot drive
was available, the IBM computer would load BASIC from the ROM chip;
the BIOS cloners replicated this feature from the IBM BIOS).

Verify you have a bootable HDD (Active Primary DOS partition and
formatted with the system files) as the Master drive on the Primary
IDE channel socket on your motherboard. Verify your cable is
properly aligned and all the PINS mate with the matching connector
(consider swapping the cable). Check the CMOS settings for HDD
parameters, BOOT sequence, IDE channel enabled. Take out all
expansion cards, particularly any SCSI cards. Check your power
to the drive (back probe with a DMM).

Download IDEID.EXE from Micro House which queries IDE hard disk
firmware for drive information. Use this to confirm the drive parameters.
You can get it at:

      http://www.solutions.microhouse.com/support/files/misc.htm

Instead of using autodetect of your drive, manually input the HDD
parameters disclosed by another system using LBA. Try a
known-working,  non-LBA, bootable hard drive.

Good luck.

John Chin