Can't BOOT anything!!! Help!!

[xffe]

Alright, i just build my first computer, WHich has a 949800-E asus motherboard a seagate 160 GB SATA hard drive and a 52X IDE cd-rom. And I had no idea where to start. At first i was getting errors about drives not conntected to fasttrak and other errors, buti moved the Hard drive cable to the sata raid 1 slot and it let me create an array, which i probably wasn't suppose to do. I can't seem to use my cd-rom for anything, In the Bios it detects it as mastry primary IDE but it doesn't work, and when i try to load drivers off like a windows 98 boot disk it gives me cannot find file error's. Im at a total loss here and need help ASAP. thank you in advance MUCH!

 

[mastertech01]

Im using that board but not SATA... but here is a thread with about 2500 replies in it just for that board.. That is if I translated your typo correctly


P4C800-E

 

[xffe]

sorry p4p800-E deluxe I never even noticed it.. ANyway i switched some stuff around, not it says detecting.... No device found, then it goes on and tells me to ente rbootable media and hit a key... when i do it just says enter media hit key.. i KNOW the dvd rom isnt working correctly or something.

 

[Big Lar]

There is a sata configuration in your bios,and you must enable the sata connection in it,(bios), or it won't detect the drive correctly.

EDIT/ Its on page 4-12 in the Manual for the board, IDE Configuration.

 

[xffe]

where exactly is it, the only selection i see in the BIOS was for RAID and i turned that to IDE now it see's the hardrive it just says its not found. and that doesnt explain why my dvdrom doesnt work, its just an IDE cable ?

 

[Big Lar]

Its in the Edit I just posted to the first reply, IDE Configuration, page 4-12 in the book.

 

[xffe]

thank you, but what about the dvd rom?

 

[Big Lar]

If the Dvd isn't sata, you need to change the Boot Order,in bios, usually you set it to floppy/ then cd or dvd, then hard disk.

 

[xffe]

ive already done that, and my IDE is already set to S-ATA ?

 

[xffe]

the BIOS detects both the dvd and the hardrive in the bios
but when i try to boot, it says devices are not found, bios is not installed, and reboots?

Edit: i forgot about edit, anyway, it doesnt load the windows xp pro diskettes either, it says missing NTCLD or which ever its caled when i try to load disk 1.

 

[Big Lar]

It says that due to an improper boot order.
**Also, I believe in the ide/sata config, you need to have it set to Enhanced if you use XP

 

[xffe]

right now boot order is cd then hard drive, i dont hve floppy and still the same error...

 

[Big Lar]

Look up^

 

[xffe]

it says on tp ofthe screen
SATAXm TX3 or what ever for my harddrive then it goes on to do a little detecting thing, and says device is not found, bios not installed! then reboots and goes to a screen that says enter botable media etc... as ive explained. COuld it possibly be a connection? ive double checked all cables are tight, the dvd is in primary IDE as master and the hard drive is in sataslot1 what other wires could possibly cause an error liek this?

its set to enhanced--->
S-ATA

 

[mechBgon]

Make sure your hard drive's SATA cable is on one of the southbridge's native SATA plugs, which are highlighted in this picture. The other two down below are operated by the Promise add-on SATA controller.

 

[xffe]

mech my Hard drive in that picture is in SATA1

 

[mechBgon]

Ok, for clarification:

1. Do you hear the hard drive's motor spin up and run? Yes / No
2. Is the hard drive listed at some point on the screen during POST? Yes / No
3. Is your BIOS set precisely the way the picture shows on page 4-11 of your manual?
4. You might as well go to page 4-20 of your manual and disable the Onboard Promise Controller since you're not using it. That will get that annoying BIOS NOT INSTALLED thing out of your face. It's normal for the tack-on Promise controller to say that when it has no drives hooked up, which is the case here.

 

[xffe]

1: yes it spins up
2: goes to fast can't tell
3:no mine says

secondary IDE Master::: [IRE-ON COMBO SOHC]
and the HDD is
Fourth IDE master::: [ST3160023AS] is SUPPOSE to be S-ATA? the rest says not deteced

and 4: yes exactly like it.

 

[mechBgon]

secondary IDE Master::: [IRE-ON COMBO SOHC]
and the HDD is
Fourth IDE master::: [ST3160023AS] is SUPPOSE to be S-ATA?

That sounds encouraging. Now if you go to the BOOT > BOOT DEVICE PRIORITY menu like shown in section 4.6.1 of the manual, is your order currently set up with the CD-ROM as the first boot device and the hard drive (ST3160023AS) as the second one?

If so, then it seems that the question is "why does your computer not boot from a bootable Windows CD when there's one in the CD-ROM drive." It never prompts you with Press any key to boot from CD..., is that correct?

 

[xffe]

yes, and i put in my botable it keeps poping up enter bootable media etc...

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: xffe
yes, and i put in my botable it keeps poping up enter bootable media etc...

Is that happening when there's a floppy diskette in the drive? If so, try just booting with no floppy in there, only the WinXP CD-ROM. This setup ought to run an SATA drive without even needing a driver floppy, from what I've heard (as long as the Intel SATA controller is in non-RAID mode like you have it, and the drive is on the Intel SATA plugs not the Promise ones).

 

[xffe]

i have 2 sets of sata plugs on my Mobo, 2 rRAID ones, and 2 normal ones, What your saying is u should be able to turn the promise crap off and have it load?

 

[xffe]

Earlier i disabled my floppy drive, because i didn't have 1, now i have 1, but I can't re add it in to rn the windows 98 fscan program from diskette, how do i get it back?

 

[mechBgon]

I don't even really think the Promise controller is doing anything to keep it from working, I just like turning off unused stuff (especially if it's going to hassle me on every boot-up like that).

For the record, your Intel SATA plugs (the upper pair) are actually RAID-capable too. Look at section 4.3.6 of the manual and you see that item called Configure SATA as RAID, you want that set to NO for your goals here. But if you were going to set up a RAID array with two SATA drives, you could change it to YES and plug both drives onto the upper SATA plugs.

So now this is where we're at:

1) your boot order goes CD-ROM, then your hard drive which does show as ST31600whatever

2) your Windows CD is a real, bootable Windows CD, but your CD-ROM drive never gives you the prompt to press a key to boot from CD

Do you have another optical drive you could slap in there just as a fact-finding step?

 

[xffe]

i did that earlier it still didnt load