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Intel RC440BX Refuses to Enter BIOS + Demands Floppy Disk in Drive A:

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First post, by PKFreeZZy

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Hello,

Just received an Intel RC440BX motherboard in the mail today and was pretty excited to try it out... Only it appears to have other plans for me.

The board boots up and POSTs just fine, no fatal errors or anything. However, even if there are IDE hard drives connected, it still tries to force boot from floppy.
Naturally, I tried entering the BIOS, except that doesn't seem to be working either. It tells the user to press F2 after POSTing, which, if done, displays "Entering SETUP..." in the bottom left... Except it never does. This message flashes a couple of times, then the motherboard reports keyboard status and proceeds to the same floppy error.

Any ideas what might be going on with it?

My Windows 98 PC: Slot 1 Pentium III 600 (Katmai) | 256MB PC133 SDRAM | 64MB Leadtek WinFast GeForce2 Pro | Creative SB16 CT2230 | Intel PRO/100+ with Alert on LAN* | 18.64GB Seagate ST320011A | Corsair CX430 | ASUS P2B Rev. 1.04

Reply 1 of 6, by Disruptor

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Perhaps its BIOS has a problem and it is just booting in boot block.
That is an emergency mode where it just allows you to boot from floppy.

You may try to re-flash the BIOS to fix the error.

Reply 3 of 6, by PKFreeZZy

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Thanks for the suggestions, guys! Unfortunately, it's not in recovery mode... I tried all 3 jumper settings, and the issues I'm talking about in this thread are happening on "normal" mode; heck, even the one that forces entering SETUP doesn't work. Quite clueless now because the seller showed images of the board past the boot screen (and also the "Manufactured by Intel" screen which I can't seem to get to appear).

My Windows 98 PC: Slot 1 Pentium III 600 (Katmai) | 256MB PC133 SDRAM | 64MB Leadtek WinFast GeForce2 Pro | Creative SB16 CT2230 | Intel PRO/100+ with Alert on LAN* | 18.64GB Seagate ST320011A | Corsair CX430 | ASUS P2B Rev. 1.04

Reply 4 of 6, by PC Hoarder Patrol

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PKFreeZZy wrote on 2024-01-12, 14:31:

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! Unfortunately, it's not in recovery mode... I tried all 3 jumper settings, and the issues I'm talking about in this thread are happening on "normal" mode; heck, even the one that forces entering SETUP doesn't work. Quite clueless now because the seller showed images of the board past the boot screen (and also the "Manufactured by Intel" screen which I can't seem to get to appear).

Does this sound similar to your isssue - https://www.wimsbios.com/forum/general-bios-q … more-t5008.html

Can you boot a floppy disk?

What BIOS version are you on?

Reply 5 of 6, by PKFreeZZy

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PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2024-01-12, 15:30:
Does this sound similar to your isssue - https://www.wimsbios.com/forum/general-bios-q … more-t5008.html […]
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PKFreeZZy wrote on 2024-01-12, 14:31:

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! Unfortunately, it's not in recovery mode... I tried all 3 jumper settings, and the issues I'm talking about in this thread are happening on "normal" mode; heck, even the one that forces entering SETUP doesn't work. Quite clueless now because the seller showed images of the board past the boot screen (and also the "Manufactured by Intel" screen which I can't seem to get to appear).

Does this sound similar to your isssue - https://www.wimsbios.com/forum/general-bios-q … more-t5008.html

Can you boot a floppy disk?

What BIOS version are you on?

Yes, in fact, I'm pretty sure this is the exact same issue as mine. BIOS version is 4R4CB0XA.86A.0016.P10.9904231653. I don't have any boot floppies on hand.

My Windows 98 PC: Slot 1 Pentium III 600 (Katmai) | 256MB PC133 SDRAM | 64MB Leadtek WinFast GeForce2 Pro | Creative SB16 CT2230 | Intel PRO/100+ with Alert on LAN* | 18.64GB Seagate ST320011A | Corsair CX430 | ASUS P2B Rev. 1.04

Reply 6 of 6, by PKFreeZZy

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Update: got it to work. Inserting a functional CMOS battery gave me the option to enter the BIOS and now everything works! Thanks everyone for dropping by to help!

My Windows 98 PC: Slot 1 Pentium III 600 (Katmai) | 256MB PC133 SDRAM | 64MB Leadtek WinFast GeForce2 Pro | Creative SB16 CT2230 | Intel PRO/100+ with Alert on LAN* | 18.64GB Seagate ST320011A | Corsair CX430 | ASUS P2B Rev. 1.04

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