Thanks in advance for reading.
Ok, so here's the story: Once upon a time, I helped a friend with a PC problem. It was a low-budget PC, a Dell Dimension L800r. To make a long story short, I had to replace the motherboard, CPU (and fan), and RAM. The replacement parts came directly from Dell, and after replacing the old parts everything worked fine. For a few days, once again all was peaceful in the land.
Fast-forward a week, and I get a call from the same friend saying that her PC froze and now it won't boot up. Apparently she was online (through dial-up AOL) when the PC crashed. I thought, "Ok, this sounds pretty basic. Should be a piece of cake." 2 weeks later, I have not fixed it and here I am humbly asking for your help.
To review:
- Just 3 weeks ago the motherboard, CPU, and RAM were replaced with ceritfied Dell parts and the new parts worked fine.
- She was online through dial-up AOL when her PC froze up, and now will not boot.
- Regardless whether or not there is a floppy disk in the drive (or even whether or not the floppy drive is connected), the PC gives the following error at boot-up:
Invalid Boot Disk
Insert BOOT disk in drive A:
I've tried the following things, all of which resulted in still getting that same 'BOOT disk' error:
- Disconnect the floppy drive
- Use a new floppy drive
- Disconnect hard drive
- Use a new hard drive
- Use new cables for all disk drives
- Disconnect all disk drives
- Reset CMOS settings through BIOS software setup
- Reset CMOS through motherboard jumper setting
Frankly, I'm stumped!
I've tried all kinds of boot disks (Win98, ME, DOS, etc.), and I've tried both bootable floppies and CDs. No matter what I do, it always gives that same error. I've come to the conclusion that the new motherboard needs to be replaced again, but I have no real evidence of that other than by process of elimiation.
If anybody has ever encountered something similiar or if you have any suggestions, I'd really appreciate your help. Thanks again for reading.
EDIT - clarification 
Linear Mode
