Cant get new P4 rig to boot! D850GB mobo

[Redstar7]

I am working on putting together a P4 rig, with Intel's D850GB motherboard. Using a 1.7 cpu. What I have in it so far is:

2x 256MB/ECC Rambus 800 Memory by Corsair
Western Digital HD 40GB ATA/100 @ 7200
Visiontek GeForce2 MX 400 64MB
Sony 24x10x40 CD-RW
Floppy

So far I cannot get the system to boot up, instead, I'll get 2 seconds of a screenshot of an ad for the motherboard, then screen is black with cursor marker waiting in top left corner. Now, there is a jumper I can switch to get into the BIOS- I'll switch the jumper, set things up in the BIOS (actually there isn't much to do in this BIOS), then when saved and done, I get message informing me to power down and switch the jumper back to normal mode. So I do that, and same issue comes up every time.

The only problem I can think of is that I had a hard time figuring out the IDE cables for the CD-RW, HDD, and Floppy. I couldn't (and still can't) figure which is the dang Pin 1!!!! Motherboard manual is not helpful with this. Am I ruining the motherboard if the IDE cabling is wrong and I try to power up? Memory in the system is secure.

Any ideas or advice here?

 

[Redstar7]

well I figured out the IDE cabling, there is nothing wrong with it at all. I am leaving the CD-RW unhooked for now though, just to see if I can get anything at all- still nothing. I am worried that the cpu is fried, but I don't see how that is possible really, as the fan has always turned right on, and the installation went very smoothly.

I do have a PSU of 300 watt, maybe not enough for a P4 rig?

 

[LordEdmond]

hard disk set to master ?

blue end of 80 core ribon cable to m/b and drive at other end on the black connector

do not connect the floppy or cd drive should then boot ok , but if no os on h/d you will get error

 

[Redstar7]

Yep HDD set to master, blue end of ribbon in M/B in the designated Primary IDE connector slot, no floppy no CD-RW connected, I power on and same thing. No o/s on HDD but I'm not getting anything at all here.

 

[LordEdmond]

is the h/d formated ?
is the bios seeing the h/d correctly?

if you can get to the bios the cpu is ok , bit worried that the cpu fan is full on ?
is the heatsink ok?

as its a p4 it will not fry it will only get slower.
300 w is a bit tight but with only one h/d it should be ok

another way to try is disconnect the h/d and onny connect the floppy use a 98 boot disk and see if you get a boot that way

 

[Redstar7]

HDD I formatted on another system just before installing to this one.

BIOS does see the HDD correctly.

CPU fan is on, and has always worked since my first attempt at a power on.

Yes one of the first things I tried was to leave a 98 startup disk in floppy, and have it as the only connected drive- get same problem.

Very strange, I can't figure this.... you know now that you talk about the cpu fan I remember there is an issue on where exactly to connect the fan for power. In the cpu manual, it showed the power connector as being in one spot, but on the motherboard manual, that spot is shown as "chassis fan connector"- with "processor fan connector" in another spot. I left it where the cpu manual said to, but maybe I should try where mobo manual says. In any case, the fan has always worked...

Thanks for the suggestions LordEdmund.

 

[LordEdmond]

thank for the info

yes the cpu fan should plug in as per the manual very important!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hmmmmmmmmmmmm hd formatted that may be the problem bad mbr, but as you cannot boot you cannot fix it.

check that the boot sequence is set to floppy first, maybe its set to hd first if it is , the bad mbr will stall the boot process

well I have run out of ideas now but good luck

 

[Redstar7]

ok.. I think I am getting closer, as I switched the cpu fan plug in to the manual specification. i left only floppy connected with win98 start up disk, and I got a message "Disk not ready, system halted". Hmm, well next I connect the HDD, and boot up, but back to the same black screen. No messages this time.

Well, at least one issue is out of the way! Seem to be getting closer to having this thing up and running, but I hope I did not ruin anything by attempting so many boot-ups with the cpu fan connector in the wrong spot. Doesn't seem like that would ruin this mobo or cpu but it might.

 

[Redstar7]

Got it working! I thought for sure I had formatted the HDD correctly, but it turns out this was not the case. Into another system went the hard drive, formatted, and that was the difference! Thanks again LordEdmund, now I'm anxious to get everything in there and up to speed (although after phone-ordering WinXP and XP office from Aberdeen inc., I have learned that the software is back-ordered, of course their sales person did not mention that when he took my credit care number...)

 

[LordEdmond]

no probs, thats what the forums for, to help each other