Can't boot from CD or Floppy to install OS

[hendonblue]

Hey,

Just built my first system. Guess I had beginners luck setting it all up, but now my lack of experience is catching up with me.

Heres the deal. I set the whole thing up. Everything went ok, although I initially had a bit of trouble getting my HD and CD working. I solved the HD problem by using a new ATA133 cable. And with the CD, I initially used the cable that was in my old computer but it didn't work, so I tried using the IDE HD cable that came with my new MSI KT333 Ultra mobo. Surprisingly enough, it worked.

So now, I turned the system on, it POSTs, and unless I press 'Delete' to go into the BIOS, It will show me a screen called 'System Configurator" with all my system specs on it. At this point, the computer doesn't respond at all to the keyboard, but I can still turn it off, or I can restart it via the restart button.

Now, being new to setting computers up, I wasn't all that sure about all the settings. So I had my CD drive as the Master, and my HD as the Secondary Master. Even tho I try to boot from the CD Drive with the WinXP cd in, it still doesn't start the setup program. It senses my CD drive as I see the lights blink and hear it spin. The BIOS also recognizes it, and shows its speed. It also senses the Floppy, as it shows that it is a 3.5. I tried changing the boot order to have the CD first, still no setup program.

I don't have any computer buddies to help me out on this one, so I'm relying on you forumers. ANY help or direction would be appreciated.

Thanks in Advance, Will be eagerly watching for replies.

AMD 1700+
MSI KT333 Ultra
OCZ PC2700 256mb RAM (shows up in POST)
Maxtor 60gig 7200rpm
ATi 8500 64mb
Aopen CD drive (works well in the old computer)
AMD Approved 350w Allied PSU
CPU Temp was at 40C or so...110F

 

[spanky]

have u actually tried booting to a floppy? u can go to bootdisk.com and get some boot disk images and make bootable floppies for almost any OS. try using a win98se boot floppy and boot the pc with cd-rom support. then try to run setup from DOS. or i could just be way off.

 

[Slogun]

When you are at the BIOS screen, set your cd-rom as the first boot device, then boot to the windows CD. If that doesn't work, then set the cd-rom as the ONLY boot device. IF that works, make sure you reset BIOS to boot from HD as first choice by the time you are installing your operating system and it wants to reboot your machine the first time.

 

[hendonblue]

A new developement:

When I set the CDROM drive as the ONLY boot device and restart, I get the message 'Out of Scan Range'. What do you make of this? What can I do?

Also, I have tried booting from a floppy, but I still get the 'System Configuration' screen.

 

[amdskip]

When the message "Out of Scan Range" appears on the monitor it is alerting the user to the fact that the settings in Display Properties are not supported by the installed video card. In particular, the refresh rate specified is out of the range offered by the card. This viewlet illustrates the steps necessary to correct this error.

To change the refresh rate click Start, then Settings, then Control Panel. When the Control Panel opens, double-click the Display icon. The Display Properties screen will open.

On that screen, click the Settings tab. When the Settings tab opens, click the "Advanced" button at the lower right. The video card properties window will open. Click the Adapter tab of this window. When it opens, there is a window below the center of the screen which shows the refresh rate currently selected. Click the arrow at the right end of this display to show a drop down menu of refresh rates to choose from. Select a refresh rate that is supported by the video card installed (this information is available in the technical specifications of the video card's documentation, if that is unavailable choose either Optimal or Adapter default).

Once the rate is selected, click Apply. Windows will advise that the screen display may flicker as the new setting is implemented and ask if this is acceptable. Answer that it is. When the setting is complete, Windows will ask if the user will accept the new setting. Unless the display is improper, accept it.

Close the Display Properties windows and return to the Desktop.

It's something to do with your video card/monitor. Try messing with that somewhat.

 

[vailr]

Configure the HD jumper as Primary IDE Channel Master, the CD jumper as Secondary IDE Channel Master.
Set bios boot sequence to CD first. Boot from Windows CD.
The floppy drive is likely wired up incorrectly. The red wire (on the power connector) goes opposite of how the red wire attaches to the HD. In other words, the red wire is nearer to the center of the floppy drive, instead of to the outside of it. Compare the floppy wiring with a working system if necessary.

 

[hendonblue]

hmm, thanks for the tip amdskip, but i have one problem. I don't even have the OS installed yet, so i can't really change my refresh rates...

any ideas on this?

BTW, the monitor might be a little old, but its a good one. Clean and crisp, res up to 1280x1024...don't think its too outdated to run my rig...or is it?

 

[xpr8]

Also, make sure that your CD drive is on a seperate IDE channel than your HD.

 

[bacillus]

out of scan range usually indicates that your monitor is being asked to use a resolution or refresh rate that isn't catered for!

 

[hendonblue]

Hmm...I wonder if the "Out of Scan Range" screen comes up when the Windows XP install program opens. The thing is tho, I've never been able to repeat it. The monitor is capable of 1024x768 at 85Hz as well as higher resolutions at lower frequencies. Could this really be the monitor causing the trouble? Does anybody know what frequency WinXP's install program is? My monitor is running at 60hz right now...

What I would really like to be able to do is boot off the floppy. Don't know why I can't. Is there any jumper that you know thats preventing the floppy from booting? The floppy shows up in the BIOS as a 3.5 Floppy, so it appears that the computer recognizes it. The lights on on it and I hear it spinning....

 

[DieHardware]

Do you see the FDD(floppy) listed in the "Standard CMOS Features" after you press Del and enter setup? Is the FDC function set to auto in the "Integrated Peripherals" menu? Also make sure the twisted end of the floppy cable is connected to the FDD and oriented correctly(red wire to pin1). Good luck

 

[hendonblue]

Hey guys,

Been away from the boards for a few days. I'd like to say thanks for the 'tech support' you've been giving me here.

Well, the status of the problem: solved.

Heres what I did. Might sound kind of newbie, and like I stumbled onto something, but thats what happened. I took the new hard drive out of the new system, put it into the old system, and installed XP on it. I put the new hard drive back into the new system, booted, and got the same old System Configurator screen. But I remembered that I had set the BIOS earlier to boot only from the CD (this was when I couldn't get the CD to work, and I was just trying to boot from something. So I went into the BIOS, changed the HDD to the first boot device, CD second and floppy third. It was then that I took a look at the setting 'Reset BIOS to default settings', I thought 'hey why not' so I clicked that (should have done it WAAAY sooner) rebooted, and TADA, I get Windows XP installer. (BTW, I had to reformat the HDD because the 'other' install didn't work on the new system) It was downhill from there.

Now why would resetting the BIOS help me? Well, when setting up the system, I didn't put all the optical drives in(just the HDD), just to get the basic stuff working. So of course it only gave me the System Configurator. But I noticed that the system recognized my CPU as a Athlon 1100mhz. So I wanted to change the BIOS so it would recognize my 1700+. I didn't know how to set it up at the time, so I just clicked "High Performance Defaults". This changed my CPU to a 1700+ which was fine, but it also caused some of the other components to become unstable and not allowing it to boot. Resetting the BIOS let me boot off of the devices, and then once XP was installed, I just changed the FSB to 133 and that sped my processor from 1100mhz to 1467mhz.

Anyway, problem solved.

Thanks.

 

[StinkyMeat]

Hey hedonblue, I'm just curious, what was the problem with your hard rive in the first place? I'm having some hard drive problems, as you can read in BigNate603's thread, and was just wondering if a cable switch might work on mine too.

 

[hendonblue]

The first problem with the HDD. If I remember correctly, the computer didn't 'see' it. At the time, I was using the HDD cable that came with my mobo. But I had also bought a ATA133 round cable, I plugged that in, and it worked fine. Now, it could have just been me, being new to the field and all...not knowing how to set it up right...but that what I did...