1st timer having problems w/Abit KT7A & Duron 750 - please help?

[adinar]

Hi all,
I decided to "take the plunge" and build my first computer. But I'm having problems getting anything more than my hard drive installed. Seems like anytime I try to add anything in addition to my HD (CD-ROM, floppy, etc), the system doesn't boot or beep or anything.

My setup so far:
Successfully got the following to boot:
Abit KT7A
AMD Duron 750
Generic PC133 128MB M-tech RAM
Generic (Photon) 4MB PCI video card w/Cirrus Logic chipset
WD Caviar 20.5GB HD
Superpower Zephyr KS-201 mid-tower case w/300W PS

Unsuccessfully:
Teac floppy drive
Acer 56x CD-ROM

Here's what I've tried so far:

Installed CPU, RAM, vid card & HD - nothing doing. Not even a beep. Turns out I hadn't connected the case speaker header. Connected header & still nothing. Re-read manual & find that I had connected my CPU fan to the FAN2 header. Reconnected to FAN1 header. Try to boot again. Nothing.

Reset CMOS, try with just CPU & RAM. Get beeps indicating vid card not installed. Yay! Progress!

Install vid card w/CPU & RAM only. System posts - more progress!

Install HD - system posts, boots & loads OS. Go back & connect floppy drive. Nothing. Disconnect floppy drive. Still nothing. go back to square one, reset CMOS and after more tinkering, manage to get system to post again.

Manage to get system to boot up again after lots more resets, going back to basics, then installing piece by piece. After getting HD to boot, try installing CD-ROM. Same result as floppy drive. Back to square 1.

Observations:
I've tried my vid card in different PCI slots - noticed that it didn't work in a few slots, but worked in one particular one. Could the PCI slot I choose make a difference?

Would my board somehow be shorting out against my case? In one of my successful trials (don't remember if I had the HD installed or not), I had the mobo on cardboard. When I put it back in the case, and booted w/my HD installed, it loaded the BIOS, but couldn't detect the HD. I loosened one of the screws (which seemed kinda suspect), and it detected the HD. Don't know if I was lucky or if it made any bit of difference.

Also, could my outdated vid card or generic RAM be causing all these problems?

In my earlier trials, I probably didn't disconnect the power cable when I reset the CMOS (I read that this could make a difference). During my later trials, I remembered to do this.

I also had my HD running in another machine which has onboard video and it already has a bunch of stuff loaded. Could this also be a potential culprit w/excess drivers & stuff?

Right now, nothing is working - I had given up for the night. Just very frustrated at this point, nothing seems to make any sense. I'd appreciate any ideas from anyone. Thanks!

 

[SleepyGuy]

reverse the floppy cable, if the light is constantly on. make sure the jumper on your hd is master and your cd is slave (or they won't work). if you have 2 ide cables set the hd to primary master and the cd to secondary master, place them on separate ide connectors. run with bios defaults. are you using amd approved power supply? make sure you mounted to motherboard correctly (shorting). try a different video card, try a different hd, try a different floppy. that's why i have a spare 800 mb hd and spare cheap pci and agp video and a spare cd rom, for troubleshooting purposes. are any of the pins on the floppy connector or the ide connectors bent? post your results and we'll help you, peace out.

 

[SleepyGuy]

oh i read too quickly! you haven't even fresh reformatted the HD! this is a must if you are swapping systems. do a fresh reformat from does if you get your floppy working. peace out.

 

[UrineSample]

the system should still post regardless of os on hd0. make sure you have all the ribbon cables oriented correctly and drive jumpers are set. you may want to try a different video card if you can get your hands on one too...

 

[tippmann]

If you have the cpu/ram /VD card & floppy connected to the computer and get post.... Boot from win9x floppy disk... You should get video... If not look at those issues first..... If you get video add one item at a time.... Double check jumpers on HD/CD drives for master and slave... Also check for "pin 1" when pluging cables onto mobo... red line to pin1

good luck

 

[CyBOrz PaCe]

Everybody is giving great trouble shooting ideas.

Obviously, swapping out video, floppy, etc for known good is a must. Also, cable orientation is essential.

What bothers me is the question "could my Motherboard be shorting on my case?". Well yes it could be if not installed properly. If you istalled it correctly it won't be shorting. In the middle you said I had it running on cardboard.... Are we being static aware?? Static Zaps or shorting of the mother board on the case could be the death of the MB.

How about swapping out the Motherboard for a known good board?

The stage in the build that you are at only has so many variables to change. Start with BIOS defaults and take it one variable at a time.

Good luck.

CyBOrz

 

[adinar]

Hey all,

Thanks for your ideas...turns out it was the POS vid card that was causing the problems. Went home w/an ATI Rage II+ vid card from work, hooked it up, posted no problem. Then hooked up the floppy drive w/a new floppy cable, posted again. Hooked up the HD, and it booted up fine. Installed VIA drivers & other PCI cards - running smoothly now! Yay! Thanks for all your ideas. I appreciate it. Got another question regarding Ultra ATA/66 but that's for another thread.

--Addy