PC problem! Please help me...

[big_lebowski]

PC Problem
----------

I'm trying to build a new PC, but I'm having a problem with getting it to boot up properly. It's taking way too long, and won't boot from the HDD.
Please see below for the screens I see when booting up. Following that I have posted a list of all the components.

Any help would be HUGELY appreciated. Things to check, helpful sites/forums, what the "no 80 conductor cable" message is about?

I have the HDD set to master and on IDE1. The cd drive also set to master on IDE2.
Initially it would only detect my processor as a XP1733, but I changed the clock speed to 166 and it now shows as XP3000

I installed XP on it (since it will only boot from a CD) However, once I take the CD out, I can't get it to boot from the HDD

Something is not right, and, to be honest, I am lost.

Please someone save me! :-(

Thanks in advance.

SCREENS WHEN TURNING THE PC ON:

------------------------------------------------
Pheonix Amd BIOS v6.00P6
VIT1216 BF Grand
XP3000+
Memory Test 524288k
Memory clock DDR400

Detecting IDE drives (this takes about 20 or more seconds. too long??)

Primary Master WDC WD-1200JB-OOEVA0 15.05R15
Primary Slave None
Secondary Master ATAPI COMBO52XMAX VER 1.00
Secondary Slave None

Secondary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable installed


(You then have choices to press DEL to go into CMOS, F9 to selct boot device etc)
Then it waits for about 30 seconds and goes to the following screen:

-----------------------------------------------
VIA Technology Inc. VIA Serial ATA RAID BIOS

Scan devices

Serial-Ch0 Master : No Device
Serial-Ch1 Master : No Device

Then it goes to the following screen:

Hardware monitor....

(info about CPU temp etc)

Verifying DMI Pool Data .......... Update Success
Boot from CD:

and then it just hangs......

System components:
--------------------
CASE-T3005300W - TASK 300W PEARL-WHITE CASE FRONT USB
MB-B-M7VITGRAND - KT600, 2xATA133, 2xSATA, 2xSATA RAID, 8xAGP, 5PCI, 6
CHNL SND, ATX, 2xDIMM DDR400, 8xUSB2.0 (4xOnBoard), 10/100 LAN &
Nortons Ghost, and Nortons Internet Security (Inc's Antivirus,
Personal Firewall & Others
512MB PC400 - 512MB DDR 400 PC3200
WD1200JB - 120GB 7200rpm 8Mb Cache UATA100
FDD-MSU144FDD - Mitsumi 1.44 FDD
DVD-MCOMBO-W - Mitsubishi Combo Drive
VGA-RD9600XT - Power Color Radeon 9600 XT 128MB DDR 8xAGP TV DVI - VGCPR96TC3
SP-3D602S - JUSTER 1000W SILVER SPEAKERS
XP 3000+B - AMD ATHLON XP 3000+ Socket A Boxed 333 Mhz

 

[winblowz]

Make sure all the ide cables are plugged in right
set bios defaults

go to bios and set boot devices

1 cd drive
2 IDE drive

restart

start xp setup
install
hope it works,
Al

 

[big_lebowski]

Yeah, I think the problem might be related to my IDE cables....

I did manage to fully install XP, but when I try to boot, it will only get to XP if I have the Windows XP cd in my cd drive??

I have been reading up about the 80 connector cable.

damn it! Things were so much simpler when I built a basic Durnon a couple of years back. I'm cool with putting all the componets is, but the wiring is getting crazy. I have about 30 single pin connectors coming from the front of my case (front usb and sound and some other stuff). Trying to figure out what goes where on the mobo is crazy. (Well, for me anyway, since the mobo labels and the lables on the connectors are diferent

 

[mrzeeedler]

I think your boot config is wrong. You should have it set to boot from hard drive, then cd drive, then floppy. Thats what mines at right now.

 

[confusedSQL]

Looks like your motherboard has onboard Serial ATA controller, since you are not using it, disable it in your bios. Check with your motherboard manufacturer to see if your bios is as up to date as it can be (if not up to date: update bios and continue reading, if up to date don’t worry about it and continue reading). Also, if your bios has a ‘load optimal settings’ feature, make sure to try and use it, then reconfigure only the settings that you need to reconfigure to get the machine working, then try to boot and see if that works.

About the use of both IDE channels, you might want to check your connections - make sure everything is secure - that means everything: video card fully seated and secured, all other cards secure, RAM properly seated, cables secure and in proper orientation, etc. If you check all connections and are still having trouble, remove all devices except for the CD drive, HDD, and video card, then try booting (keeping the obvious devices like the power supply, etc.). If you have more than one ram chip remove all but one (leave in the primary RAM slot).

Is there any particular reason why you are using both IDE channels for 2 devices? I would configure the CD drive as the slave and put it on the primary IDE channel.

Does your motherboard have many manual jumper settings needed to configure the bus speeds, etc., or is it primarily auto-configured? If it has many manyual settings that need to be properly set, ensure that they are properly set - neglecting to do so will concievably cause problems like this.

Are you using a power supply that is rated for the amount of components you have in your system? Even if all of the components require less than a 300W power supply, power too many components and the supply may become underrated. Additionally, the 9600XT may require a supply capable of greater than 300W - you will need to figure this out.

You said you can’t boot from your hard drive, are you booting to a functional OS? You can’t boot to the Windows XP install CD and use the OS like you would off of an install on a hard drive. When restarting your machine after the first part of the windows XP installation, does the XP CD report ‘checking your system settings' (or something along those lines) and then get stuck in a loop, restarting when complete and going back to the first part of the install? Or, on restart, do you get the message “Press any key to boot to cd..” when the Windows XP install CD is in the drive?

Those are some things to keep in mind. Hope this helps. Post back with some more specifics about what, exactly, is going on when your machine boots up - from start to finish or failure.

 

[confusedSQL]

I think your boot config is wrong. You should have it set to boot from hard drive, then cd drive, then floppy. Thats what mines at right now.

Boot order shouldn't matter in this situation. But setting the machine to boot from the HDD first will give further insight on the matter by allowing error messages to display first (in some situations).

 

[big_lebowski]

thanks confusedSQL.

I'll change it to boot from the hdd first.

I'll also try putting both the HDD and the CD on the same IDE channel.

The mobo does have manual jumpers, but I already set the clock speed one (to 166) and that way it runs as an XP3000+ (rather than as a XP1733 when it was set to it's default of 133)

I have a proper install of XP on the hard disk. I manually selected to boot from the cd and it then installed XP. When it went to reboot after installing, and I had to manually tell it to boot from the hard drive or the cd (can't remember which. It was late and I was getting worked up)

I do only have a 300W power suppy.

I'm at work at the moment, so I'll have to wait until I get home to have another look at it and post back more info. (It's only 11:37am here in Australia!)

 

[confusedSQL]

No problem.

You mention your MB has manual jumpers for the processor frequency and that they are properly set, but have you other manual jumpers on this MB for the bus frequency, etc.? And if so, are they properly set? And are you definitely sure that how you have set the clock speed jumper to 166 is the correct way to make your system recognize and utilize the processor?

When you do get home, post back with the details of how you get your system to boot to the hard drive. IÂ’ll try to reply as soon as I can.

 

[big_lebowski]

Ahhh... I give up

I fixed the "no 80 cable conductor" problem. I had the cable the wrong way around. I had to plug the blue end into the motherboard IDE2 slot and the black end into the cd drive. But it was a bit of a red herring since it made no difference (appart from not getting the error anymore)

I cleared the cmos, removed anything non-essential, removed and refit the video card, removed and refit the 512 Mb ram stick, disconnected non-essentials such as front USB wiring etc etc.

It just takes too damn long to detect the IDE devices. Thats the first noticable thing. From there on things don't get any better.

Eventually it will try to boot from the cd drive, but we're talking about a 2 minute wait while it produced the 3 pages of info I posted initially.

I'm starting to think it's the motherboard... but I'm learning I don't know bugger all about PCs

I think I'm going to just take it somewhere and pay someone to figure it out Which sucks as I was building it for a friend and will probably end up footing the cost myself.

 

[Cappy]

Boot order should be Floppy,Hard Drive,Cd-rom Drive. Fix it in your BIOS .If your not using the RAID disable them in BIOS this will cause a long delay durring boot up.Double check your IDE cable look in the MB manual make sure your red led on the IDE cable is oriented on PIN 1 of the MB and Hard Drive. For Ultra DMA/100/66 IDE devices use an 80 PIN-conductor IDE cable(This cable has real fine wires count them.Non ultra use the standard 40 pin ribbon cable you can see the differnce between the 2. Make sure your Hard Drive and cable are connected to
IDE 1( Primary) on the motherboard.Conect your CD rom device on the IDE 2 socket Master/Slave accordingly with the devices .make sure the cable is properly conected Red stripe Pin 1 on the MB and Cd-rom drive.