Boot issues...

[dfigravity]

So I recently inherited an older 1.4 GHz P4 from my neighbor and plan on turning it into a fileserver. Fun stuff!! So I dug out a few HDD's I had laying around with operationg systems already installed on them, and tried popping one of them in to begin work on my file server. Well, the OS wouldn't boot...first it shows me the COMPAC logo when the PC first turns on, then it goes to a black screen with a flashing underscore in the upper left corner.....and it just sits there. I tried two seperate HD's and they both did the same thing. So just to do a little initial troubleshooting I popped both those HD's into one of my other known working PC's and VOILA! They work with no issues. Do you guys have any idea why a HD would boot on one PC and not another?
Thanks!!

Vince

[billygoat333]

hardware as in the mobo is fried? perhaps the bios is set to network boot or something only? i dunno. :S can you access the bios setup?

[dfigravity]

I can get into the BIOS...changed the boot priority so that it would boot from the good HD...but it still goes to that stupid black screen with the flashing underscore in the corner.

[slytherock]

I think some required drivers for the mobo are missing. try install a fresh windows or Linux if you don't have extra M$ cd

[dfigravity]

just finished trying that too...I reformatted and reinstalled XP Pro on a 30Gb HD...no love. I am at a loss here...I guess it has to be the mobo huh? Because this H works on two other PC's...but not this stupid old Compaq.

[billygoat333]

can you boot up from something else? like network or floppy? if you can't, then def. mobo is bad.