New Computer, just turned it on...

massahwahl

massahwahl

VIP Member
Ok so my computer is all put together and I turned it on for the first time but I cant get it to load pass the startup screen, each time it gets there and thinks for a few minutes it restarts itself. Im thinking I dont have something configured right on the motherboard

It comes up and says ASUS motherboard and all that good stuff and if I press tab it displays the post boot screen which says it reads my 2gigs of ram, my processor, and my graphics card.

Could it be the HDD? The one i am using is a used one a friend gave me and it already has XP home on it so it should load right up but it gets stuck as mentioned. Any ideas?
 
First that drive and any others ide that is would have to see the correct jumper settings for the master at the end of the cable and slave or cable select for the center usually slave. Second the copy of XP won't load on the totally different system. You should see the failure to find boot device error message since a fresh copy of Windows and a brand new mbr will be needed.
 
Ok I didnt know that about the hard drive. I have a fresh copy of Vista Ultimate to put on it so that should clear up that issue. My DVD drive is set to master at the end of the IDE cable and the HDD when I got it was set to CS setting and I changed it to master as well, also set at the end of the IDE cable. When it turns on though I cant access the boot menu because it resets itself before it loads into it.

One more thing I noticed is that my cd drives wont open at all, but they are plugged into power supply.
 
Hey sorry to be impatient but after spending so much money i cant help but be a little nervous...

Are there any jumpers I need to have set on the motherboard that I may not have set? Any help is greatly appreciated!
 
Besides jumper settings the one item to inspect would be to make sure the ide cables are actually all the way in to see if one of those is bad. That would explain the problem being seen with both optical drives. The flat ribbon type was replaced here some time back for some Antec Cobra round cables since those are reliable.

Not being able to get past the first post screen suggests a possible board fault or power connection problem may a loose contact. Make sure the 12v cpu plug is in and even try unplugging that and only very lightly replugging it back in until the retainer clicks.
 
Ok, only one of the dvd drives are cabled right now. The other one has power going to it but it is not on the IDE chain (one on the IDE is set to master). I dont think its a power problem because the board light is green which means that it is being properly powered (right?). I'll have to go back and recheck all of my connections and see if maybe something is not plugged in right.
 
The one unplugged from the second ide cable should be set as slave since the other is already mastered at the end of that cable. But make sure you check the connector at the board end to see if it is lifted up a little there. That will goof the works.

The green led on the board being lit is a good sign that's there's adequate power for the system to run normally. If you are able to get into the bios setup then you can assign the hard drive as the default at the top of the list if more then one including any sata models are installed.

What model is that? You should see the F8 boot menu option right next to the press DEL now to enter bios setup. That allows you to select the one time boot from floppy, any hard drives installed, or one of the optical drives like when going to install Windows.
 
Its an asus m2n-plus sli vista ready mobo and the f8 option is there, but again, it restarts before it enters into it. Im using a USB keyboard, for any reason would that be not allowing something to work right? Do I need to be using a PS2 keyboard when Im doing this setup stuff? I did notice that lights did not come on on the keyboard thats why I ask, it seems to read my commands but didnt know if that has anything at all to do with it. Thank you for all your help!
 
Hey, I checked some cables and come to find out I didnt have the dvd drive plugged into the power supply:P dummy me!


Anyway, Im getting setup here but its not finding my HDD. When I go into the setup menu its not an option for primary IDE. Does this mean the HDD is bad? or what?
 
First scroll down to the boot menu and set hard drive as the first and disable the rest. That will force the bios to search for a hard drive. Then go into the hardware configuration and see if your drive is seen there. You may have forgotten something like the power plug if not the ide cable at the board end since you already mastered it on the primary channel.

I passed that model up when going for the M2N-E model seeing only one ide channel but offering 6 sata ports and 3 pci slots over 2. But with only the one drive installed that would the default in the list shown in the bios. With more then one HD installed you would use the numpad * and - keys to move that to the top and then save and exit the bios. Not seen check the cable or try another before assuming a bad drive if the power is in.
 
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