Just got a d8b. Need some help, please!

[RenaissanceMan]

Hey everyone-

I just purchased a d8b from a friend of mine and unfortunately it won't boot up. When I turn on the power supply/cpu, I'm hearing an intermittent grinding type of a noise coming from the front left of the unit, and eventually it gives me a "system error 43 - host did not boot message." I'm assuming the 3.5" drive is failing to operate and read the OS disk, but I'm not sure. Is this a problem any of you have experienced? If it is the drive, can I just purchase a replacement drive for it? Any other tips or suggestions for how I might get this to boot? Thanks in advance for any help or insight-

[FrankH]

The D8B doesn't need a floppy in the drive to boot up. I suspect the boot process is incorrectly interrogating the floppy as the boot drive. Two things are the usual culprits:

1. Your CPU battery is dead. Replace it.
2. Your BIOS is incorrectly set. Go here for info on that:
http://www.sonido-7.com/d8b/maintenance.html#Post1

[RenaissanceMan]

FrankH, thanks for the reply! I will pick up a battery and also check the BIOS, and see how I fare. This board has been sitting around for several years, so I'm really hoping it's just a simple issue like the battery. Forgive me for what might be a stupid question in the meantime... In the BIOS link you provided, it mentions holding down the DELETE key while booting. Are those instructions referring to the DELETE key of a plugged-in keyboard, or a button on the d8b, itself? I don't have a keyboard or monitor hooked up to the board at the moment, so I just wanted to make sure I understood properly. Thanks again-

[FrankH]

A PC compatible keyboard plugged into the CPU along with a mouse. These have to be the old style serial plugged types. No USB.

You are going to need a monitor equipped with a VGA input plugged into the CPU as well. Don't start this nonsense until you have these components ready to go.

First, change the battery. Don't force it, it has a springload catch that a small bladed screwdriver will release.

Once that's done, hold down the Delete key, hit the D8B's power switch and don't let go til you get the BIOS setup screen. Make sure which motherboard you're setting up for. The link I posted above has that info.

Barring some other ailment, you should be good to go.