This is with HDD and CD-ROM removed. I tried booting with either stick of ram removed and it was still the same
When i turn off quiet boot in the bios setup, I get the following logs:
223M System RAM Passed
512K Cache SRAM Passed
System BIOS shadowed
Video BIOS shadowed
Mouse Initialized
(then it halts here)
I also turned off IDE and IR in the bios, didn't help. Enabled a setting so it beeps when it starts booting the OS but the beep never comes which means it is stuck in POST.
It also can't reach boot device selection menu.
This machine was in pretty bad shape when i got it and I basically had to take it apart and put it back together.
CPU was repasted and there is no way it is overheating since I can stay in the BIOS as long as I want to and the fan kicks on when the CPU starts heating up.
There were apparently PCI diagnostic cards for these machines but they are hard to find where I live. So guesses to which stage boot is failing in is appreciated.
Is there a battery for the rtc and have you replaced it? An empty cell might cause a voltage drop and have weird effects.
CMOS battery is dead, but are you really sure that is it? I mean it holds bios settings as long as I keep it plugged in
I don't know, but if it is easy to replace or even remove I would try that - won't make it any worse at least.