Need help quickly with ribbons!

[mystikast]

Hey, I'm building my new computer right now and I have a question. I have the http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket939/a8v-e-d/overview.htm
Well, I have four ribbons, 2x HDD, 1x Floppy, 1x CD-ROM, and I can't figure out where they go. Each of them has three connectors on it, and I can't figure out where to plug them. I have one hardrive, 2 cd-roms (one is a burner), and one floppy, how do I plug these up? Help please

 

[geffin]

ok, the floppy is the smaller of the ribbons. you should be able to pick it out of the group. The harddrive connector is the port closest to the outside on your mobo. (IDE Connections) just hook this up directly. And of course for the cdrom drives, it's the remaining ide slot. You can slave the two cdrom drives on one cable. Oh, the hard drive is the same way, just make sure that the harddrive jumpers are on the correct master and slave settings. Remember, make the cdburner the slave drive for the cdroms. This will help prevent buffer underruns while burning. If this wasn't helpfull, please reply! good luck!

 

[gsbtech]

Patience. Take your time building that new system. First plug that floppy in by itself with your 34 pin cable and see if it will boot. You'll know if the cable is connected wrong because you won't see anything on the screen.

After you've booted on a floppy and confirmed your system is stable set the jumper on the hard drive as stand-alone and plug the hard drive in with a 40pin ribbon to IDE1 (just use the connecters on both ends and align the red stripe with pin 1). Turn it on and make sure you get something on the screen.

Then set your CDROM jumpers, one to master and the other to slave. Take your other 40 pin cable and and use the two plugs that are closest together and plug them into the CDROM's. Plug the other end into IDE2. Turn it on and see that it works.

Don't put in any expansion cards other than graphics. Set your BIOS to boot from CD, and install your OS.

 

[mystikast]

The ribbons are labled, "Floppy", CD-Rom, HDD. I hooked everything up and tried to boot up. I get projection on monitor and I see the Asus logo and whatnot, but I keep getting CPU-Fan error. But thats a problem I think I can fix because I have a CD that defaults the BIOS to the motherboard specific, but I can't get my CD-drive to read it. Did I hook the ribbons up right? I used HDD to connect my CD-BURNER to my CD-ROM, then I connected those to my motherboard. I wasn't sure if I should use CD-ROM ribbon because I was also connecting a CD-BURNER, though I don't think this matters because I think the ribbons might be exactly the same.

 

[mystikast]

double post

 

[mystikast]

Also, I think this might be important, it says "Unable to load fasttrak controller, BIOS is not installed." Yeah, I'm pretty sure thats important, but I have no idea what a fasttrak controller is.

That is one error, however another one I notice is "Unable to load CPU fan." But, I see the fan spinning and it lights up blue.

 

[mystikast]

bump

 

[gsbtech]

But thats a problem I think I can fix because I have a CD that defaults the BIOS to the motherboard specific, but I can't get my CD-drive to read it.

Put all of your parts back in the box, take them back to the store, and buy one that is already working!

.... just kidding ... but your statement above and your error message make no sense to me.

First, IDE hard drives and IDE CDROMS have exactly the same cable. For new systems they should have 40 pins and 80 wires.

Your motherboard BIOS has nothing to do with the CDs. You don't need a CD to get into your BIOS setup. When you turn on the computer, the onboard software will check your hardware, identify it, and look for problems. It has obviously found some problems. However, how the heck are you supposed to know what is causing an error if you go and plug everything in at the same time?

Second, the CPU fan. GO into your BIOS configuration (instructions in the book that came with the MB), and find the system monitor. It should tell you the speed of your CPU fan (in RPM). If it's plugged in correctly and spinning, you should see it's speed and the MB temperature should be 50C or less. Once you confirm that your BIOS has identified it's components, we'll tackle the next problem.