bloom25, anyone?

[eddiek]

I've been working on this older computer a friend gave me when it quit working for him.
It's an old AMD K6-2 450, with an Asus P6 mobo.
At first I thought I had the problem isolated to a failed HD, but when I put a known good HD in, I get the same "BOOT DISK FAILURE" message.
One thing I noticed is that if the CD-ROM drive is plugged in, the thing will not boot; the fans run and all that jazz, but it never goes anywhere, just a blank screen.
I replaced the CPU/mobo with another known good set, and get the same exact message about a boot disk failure.
Now, I am at a loss as to what the heck is going on here.  I wanted to get this one up and running for my kids, but I don't have any intentions of spending an arm and a leg to do it.
Any of you computer gurus able to clue me in on this?

[bloom25]

Will it boot with the cd drive not connected?

You might want to have only the floppy and HD connected and try it.  Be sure the hard drive is jumpered to single (some brands combine master and single as one jumper setting) and connected as the only device on the primary IDE channel.

If that doesn't work, try clearing the CMOS, reboot and enter the bios and check the boot up sequence.  Depending on the bios, you should also be able to see whether or not the drives are being detected.

Honestly, troubleshooting something like this is kind of a matter of trial and error.  A lot of the time it's just a 'follow your nose' type of thing.

[sparkzz]

You've probably already tried this.. but just in case you haven't.

Try a different IDE cable, and make sure it is not backwards. (Its possible to reverse some of the cheaper generic cables)

Try the same with the floppy cable.  Especially the orientation. (I screw this up about every 5th system build)