Hey everyone, I'm new to the tomshardware forums.  After searching the web for days I've not found an answer to my problem.
 
I have a system running a GA-P35-DS3L with a 2.4 ghz Q6600.  It ran great for about 3 months.  Last week when I went to power on, the computer remained at the bios screen (where it says press del to enter setup, f9 for Xpressrecovery2, etc..) and wouldnt boot up windows.  Unfortunately, the guy I had build my computer didn't feel like installing my speaker and now its lost.  So I may or may not be hearing a series of beeps that would diagnose the problem.
 
After that I booted back up, and after a long wait at the bios screen, I was able to get to the windows loading screen where it stayed for a good 10 minutes before booting into windows.  After that I formatted and everything seemed to be working again.  Until I restarted after installing drivers and software.  The computer went back to long waits at the bios and windows loading screens.  I've tried formatting multiple times and I keep getting the same results.
 
I thought that maybe I should try flashing my bios, but I have no floppy drive.  I found information on how to make a bootable CD and have done so.  The CD does work as a boot disk, but I can't get it to read in Q-flash.  When I enter Q-flash, it only lets me choose A as my drive rather than R...  and when I just press any key to boot from Cd it takes me to a weird screen.
 
Anyone have any ideas on what to try next?

ok heres what it says when i boot from Cd
 
Boot from CD/DVD:
 
1. FD 1.44 MB System Type
Caldera DR-DOS
 
CD-ROM Device Driver for IDE (four Channels Supported)
Driver Version: V340
Device Name: TOMATO
No drives found, aborting installation
 
Device Drive not foudn 'TOMATO'
No valid CDROM device drivers selected
 
The Bootfiles are in drive letter A:
Your bios utilities are in drive letter R:
 
strike a key when ready...
 
then when I strike a key, it gives me the A>_ prompt
 
 
 
sorry if this is a total novice question, but I don't really have any experience doing this.  thanks for anybody taking the time to read this.

Please list other specs (ie PSU, RAM, etc) Try clearing CMOS first and then see.  
 
Looks to me like your BIOS is corrupt. Put in the DVD that came with the mother board and press <End>. The BIOS will re-flash the older BIOS from the DVD. or you can save the BIOS *.rom file to a FAT32 formatted USB key and then flash it.  
 
Make the boot up like this:
1st drive: DVD
2nd drive: USB-HDD
3rd drive: Floppy

ok shadow i'll try that.
 
uhm I can't remember the PSU but its a 650 watt.
I have 2 gigs of G-skill ram
and a SATA/300 320 gb seagate hd
 
Like i said, I didn't build this rig, and I've never actally built one by myself before... just kind of onlooked.

at mybios screen <END> is the button to press to go to Q-flash.  I'm not sure that will work.
 
do I need to go to XpressRecovery2?

XpressRecovery2 is to recover from a Hard Drive/Software crash.

First thing you should do is read the manual:
http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Suppor [...] uctID=2583
 
Then try clearing CMOS (see manual for HOW TO). Then try what I said before.  

ok I did xpressrecovery... but windows is bluescreening (running XP) so I'm currently formatting.
 
I still had a fairly long wait time at bios screen.. not sure if the problem has been fixed or not.

ok im reading the manual.

 
The Q-Flash is what you needed to do...

First take a look inside the case to clean out any dust, and make sure the CPU cooler and other fans are actually turning (and that you CPU cooler is still securely attached).

alright guys, thanks for all the input.
 
I knew Q-flash was what I needed to do, tsimonster, but I couldn't figure out how.
 
Xpressrecovery actually just recovers your bios back to factory.   so I booted from the motherboard CD and ran it.
 
I wasn't sure what it would do, but sure enough it fixed my problems and I am now on my pc =]

^XPressrecovery is to recover from HDD/Software problems. Q-Flash is to recover bad BIOS. The drivers DVD automatically runs Q-Flash.