A7V133 problems

[robken]

forgive me for my ignorance, I am a "newbie".

Ok here is my problem: I have an A7v133, I can get to bios but I cannot boot from a floppy. When I attempt to boot from a floppy the screen just goes black, so i can't format my hard drive or install an OS. When I attempt to boot from CD rom the screen flashes and the machine beeps over and over and over. The bios reconizes the harddrive, floppy drive, and cd rom drive properly but I can't boot off of them. If i don't try to boot off of any of them then it just goes to a message which says something to the effect of "ultra100 bios can not be installed because no drives were detected." I thought that this whole mess could be caused by one of my components other than the motherboard but I found someone with the same problem, and no solutions, at the asus netQ forum.

I haven't tried overclocking or anything, and it will POST just won't boot from floppy, which i need to do... Can't install OS, can't Format HD and can't update Bios (1001C).

I'd appreciate any help you can provide.



system

A7V133 - BIOS Ver. 1001C
TB 850@850!!!
Antec pp303x 300W ps
256mb Crucial CAS2 PC133
SB live value (in pci slot 3...)
Leadtek Geforce 256 32mb DDR (v.2)
IBM 75GXP 30GB (primary master)
Teac 56E CD (secondary master)

Teac Floppy

 

[osage]

be sure the floppy is set as the first boot device, check that the cable for the floppy is not reversed where it plugs into the floppy drive.
recheck your cables

 

[robken]

Well I have checked the cables, the devices show up properly in the BIOS, HD is master on primary and CDrom is master on Secondary IDE connecter. As for the floppy the LED does light, so it is plugged in somewhat right. I tried all sorts of boot orders and i enabled the "floppy boot check" option in bios (i forgot what it is actually called). I'll check everything again, and try taking out the CDrom, to try and simplify things... any more suggestions are certainly welcome

 

[SCSIfreek]

Try switch places on all your PCI cards. Also try to leave PCI slot 2 empty if possible. then load up default Bios and then set your setting in the Bios. Many times i found that its the IRQ conflicts thats messing things up. I spend one day to figure everything out and find it interestingly enough that after VIA 4.29a 4in1 driver came out --everything is running smooth as silk.


--SCSI

 

[SACANDAGA]

Try hooking up to the secondary controllers by the floppy controller and see what happens. Also the floppy light on my A7V133 came on even when it was hooked up backwards. There were no tabs on the provided cable to let me know which way to set it up. Also I would clear comos by removing mobo battery for a minute to default back to settings you may have changed. Make sure all your dips and jumpers are set to auto. Good Luck!

 

[robken]

I have heard about PCI and IRQ conflicts so that is why I only have one PCI card right now and it is my Soundblaster live value, I think I read a thread here that said slot 3 is best for soundcard and that is something like what the manual said also, so that is where I have it. If it comes down to it I might just take it out and see if I can resolve the other problems more easily without it.

As for the floppy thing, I tried it a different way and got a "floppy failed (40)" error and the LED didn't even work, but it could have been backwards the way I had it before if your light still lit also SACANDAGA, I'll try some more combinations to see what works. I didn't even think that it could be backwards once the LED lit up.

 

[SACANDAGA]

robken, I have put together 4 systems with this board with my most recent one at 5:30 this morning. All run great! I installed Win2K on all systems so I
booted to a Win95 floppy, Fdisked and formatted a partition for Windows to use. I then removed the floppy and attempted to install Windows from the bootable CD and it would not boot to the CD even though my boot sequence
was...... legacy floppy/CDrom/....... I then disabled my first boot device-legacy floppy and it booted the CDrom without a problem.

 

[seind]

my 2c

Have you tried the floppy on a different pc to check if it's working?

I think the UATA100 BIOS is only loaded when there are compatible HDD detected....anyone?

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Floppy LED comes on even if it's in backwards

 

[DolphinJay]

If you have the floppy cable on backwards the light will stay on and not shut off. The reason it gives you that ata100 message is because you dont have any fdisked drives on the ide channels. I also had this happen where i had the cable connected to the floppy and was missing a row of the pins. I wish they would put a housing around where the cable connects like they do hard drives it would make it a little less hassle and less bent pins. If all else fails replace the cable. Good luck. Hope this helps.

 

[robken]

Ok, I tried plugging the floppy cable in backwards (or upside down rather) and that stayed lit the whole time so i am guessing i had it right the first time, but I guess it could be the floppy drive itself or its cable so I will try the floppy and cable from my older computer. If it works then the problem is my floppy drive or cable, if it doesn't than I have a much larger problem...

 

[SCSIfreek]

If there isnt any problems with the floppy i would suggest you look into the BIOS for answer. Setting in the BIOS might have been messed up. Double check the setting in the Boot sequence making sure that your floppy drive is not disable. press F10 to save it and reboot.

Also i see that you're on BIOS 1001C <------- First thing to do is Flash this with 1003a or 1004

--SCSI

 

[robken]

Well i tested my working floppy and floppy drive cable from my other machine and they worked just the same, it appears to read off the disc and then goes to an error screen. I have tried different disc, a windows boot disk and an IBM specific boot disc with program to format and partition hard drive.... Since I got the floppy working now I don't know what else to do. I did make sure that floppy was number 1 in boot sequence and i enabled the floppy boot check thing also. I have tried clearing the CMOS and doing it but the results are the same. Is there something I am missing?

Here is the message I get:

Ultra100 (tm) Bios version 2.01 (build 33)
(C) 1999-2000 Promise Technology, Inc All Rights Reserved

Ultra100 Bios is not installed because there are no drives attached.

What I just thought of is that maybe I left on a jumper that turns on the Promise ATA Controller, but i left all the jumpers in default, i will have to check the manual.

 

[nealh]

that last message just means there are no hard drives attached to the promise controller...that is ide 3 or ide 4...do not worry about it. You do not need to do anything...the if you HDD is on IDE 1 ...you can go ahead and format or you can place the HDD on IDE3 the promise controller and fdisk and format with a windows startup disk...if you use the formatting software from the drive manufacturer it may not see the HDD on the promise controller...this happened whe nI tried to use the MaxBlast software to format my Maxtor 30gbdrive...I used a W98 startup disk and fdisk and formatted on the promise IDE3 controller

My setup..

tosh 48x crom on IDE1 as master
Plex 121032 on IDE2 as master
Maxtor HHD on IDE3 as master

Did I understand you that the floppy is now working???

BTW..you need to wait about 30 sec..that &quot;error&quot; message will go away and the system will read the floppy...if try placing the HDD on IDE3 and try to boot to the floppy

Am I helping or hurting...PM if you want

 

[Dulanic]

<< Here is the message I get:

Ultra100 (tm) Bios version 2.01 (build 33)
(C) 1999-2000 Promise Technology, Inc All Rights Reserved

Ultra100 Bios is not installed because there are no drives attached.

What I just thought of is that maybe I left on a jumper that turns on the Promise ATA Controller, but i left all the jumpers in default, i will have to check the manual >>



This is normal and it should go away.... however you CAN turn of the Promise BIOS in your BIOS... go into the boot section and find Load ATA 100 BIOS... set it from auto to disabled and that will turn off the Promise Controller during bootup.

 

[robken]

Well i disabled the ATA100 bios thing now i don't see that anymore, but I get to a screen with a cursor _ in the corner and nothing else and the screen flashes and beeps. 4 quick beeps - pause - over and over. I looked in the manual and the beeps don't really match any of the error beeps listed. The most similar are long beeps in an endless loop for no dram installed, the beeps i get are not long and there is a pause after every 4. High frequency beeps while system is working for cpu overheating warning, but my cpu is pretty cool (i guess) in the bios it has never gotten above 120(F). I think the beeps i'm getting are different and not listed...

 

[SACANDAGA]

robken.. First of all make sure your power supply is on 115 volts if you are in the US. Second...click it to the proper voltage and listen for a good positive click (engagement sound). I know it sounds stupid but I had an Antec pp303x that showed the 115 volt sign but was a wisker away from being clicked in.
Well i disabled the ATA100 bios thing now i don't see that anymore
Now that you have disabled this are you hooked up to the the primary IDE controllers Manual (page 13 item 7)?

What operating system are you going to install?
Do you have a (&quot;BOOTABLE&quot; CD)?
Do you have a boot floppy that is known to boot the CDrom in this system?

 

[robken]

The power supply checks, I switched it to the other side and then back all the way to be sure.

Yes HDD is master on primary (blue right near floppy, #7 on page 13) and CDrom is master on secondary (black) but I am going to try differnet combinations to see if what happens.

What operating system are you going to install?
Do you have a (&quot;BOOTABLE&quot; CD)?
Do you have a boot floppy that is known to boot the CDrom in this system?


I'm going to install windows 95 right now, it boots from a floppy which initializes the CD rom (or so i'd imagine, but i haven't seen that yet), but first I need to Fdisk and Format my Hard drive (or use IBM's propriatary partitioning software, they say it is more efficient)

 

[robken]

I know it has been a while, but I got it fixed.
At least I got to a A:/ prompt so that is good.

I plugged the HDD into the primary on the promise ATA 100 controller and put the ata100 thing in the boot order menu.

I don't know why this works but it works. It is certainly an improvement over not booting at all...


Thanks for your help everyone.