SS40G - FDD & HDD Boot Problem

I have built a new system as follows:

SS40G uses FS40 m/board and SiS 740/960 chipsets
Athlon 2000 XP
Samsung 512MB DDR 2700
WD 1.6GB HDD
Pioneer DVD-ROM
3.5" Floppy

On booting the system hangs for a long time (40 seconds+) whilst searching
for IDE devices. I then receive Floppy failed on 40 message (irrespective
of whether there is a disk inserted in the drive). If I press F1 to
continue the system fails to boot returning a system disk error (please
replace & press enter).

I cannot boot system disk from floppy to install OS on HDD - all cables &
power checked. The floppy drive whilst clearly powered (LED light is on),
does not make any tell tale read noises to suggest it is being accessed
during the boot process.

I can use a bootable DVD. Installed SuSE8.2 succesfully, but the OS will
not now boot from the HDD. On reboot the system will only proceed if there
is a bootable disk in my optical drive.

I have gone into BIOS to ensure configuration is as follows:

1. Device order to boot: Floppy, CD-ROM, HDD
2. Boot up floppy seek: Enabled
3. Onboard FDC Controller: Enabled

Why will the system only boot from CD-ROM?

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Nick Entwistle (Cheshire, UK)
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