ASUS TUSL2-C Mobo please help.

[ibex333]

Hello.

I cant get this damned thing to boot from the XP CD disk. It goes into the screen where you have to select which windows install to log on to. I tried going into BIOS to select CD drive as 1st boot device but I don't see such an option. It seems it still defaults to a floppy boot.

When i try to install windows from windows, it doesn't recognize the hardware, and asks me for a system floppy disk which off course neither I nor the owner of the PC has.

Where can I get the necessary boot files/drives so that windows recognizes the PC's hardware? I did a lot of searching on google, but found nothing xept for onboard audio drivers and mobo manual.

 

[NXIL]

Hi Ibex,

first, does the BIOS autodetect the CD drive? If not, maybe checking to be sure the IDE cable is good and has not been damaged by folding'bending/cable management, i.e. getting it out of the air flow....that it is plugged in correctly, with no bent pins on either connection, and, that the dreaded master/slave/cable select settings are correct--I always manually set master/slave, as cable select has been flaky for me in the past.

If connections % cable itself are OK, is CD drive fully functional? That's a pretty old motherboard, and if it has an old CD drive too, maybe it has its own hardware issues.

If the hardware is OK, see page 50 of the TUSL2-C manual: BIOS menu options are

Main Advanced Power Boot Exit

Check "Main" page to be sure CD drive is fully autodetected...if it's not on the main page, there is a glitch somewhere as above: the cable, the connections, or the CD itself. Note: see page 56, where the BIOS makes a distinction between "CD-ROM" and "Other ATAPI device"--if it's a newer CD drive, maybe it's ATAPI, and not "CD-ROM"?

Page 63: Onboard PCI IDe set to "both"?

Page 66: onboard LAN BOOT should be "disabled".

Page 74: if the CD-ROM drive is listed, use the + and - keys to move boot drives up or down the list.

It should end up reading:

1) CD-ROM, or, ATAPI CD ROM
2) IDE Hard Drive

After that, doesn't matter, I usually disable anything but those two options.

Exit, save changes.

Sounds like you CD-ROM isn't showing up in BIOS at all? Replace the cable, and use an 80 pin cable, not a 40 pin, even though the 40 pin ones are supposed to be OK with CD-ROms. Also, maybe use a flat one instead of a rounded one, as some of the round ones are sort of cheesy and unreliable.

HTH

NXIL

 

[ibex333]

Thanx for the help. This is indeed a very thorough reply.

I will do everything you said except replacing the cable. (I'm not getting paid for this you see, I'm only doing this because I'm being nice) I cant see how the cable can be faulty because the CD-ROM works and recognizes disks in windows.

CD ROM is listed as ATAPI

Will report back with my results soon.