Problem building a pc

kevpatts

Hey all, a little advice needed.

I'm building a PC as I have done many times before but I've come across a strange problem. I put everything together, the Abit KV7 motherboard, an Athlon XP 1800+, Hercules 3D Prophet 4000XT, etc.

The problem is that it'll boot up fine the first time but it has no OS installed. Whenever I go into the BIOS and change the settings to boot from CD-ROM first, it'll save fine but then it reboots and I get a dead screen. Don't even get the video bios messages. If I revert the bios settings with the J1 jumper it'll boot again, but can't install OS! I thought it was a problem with the hardware of the bios, so I returned the motherboard for a replacement, but it's the same with that.

Any ideas?

Kev

OfflerCrocGod

Try and install Win98 or Linux on the hard drive in an another computer and then move the HDD back into this computer. Actually just grab any HDD from a spare comp and stick it in first - even if it's running WinXP - see if it gets as far as windows not letting you boot; if it gets that far then it's either your HDD that's the prob or nothing at all.

jesus_thats_gre

Try a different CD-Rom drive?

kevpatts

I've tried the hard drive in another computer and it works fine. The machine has a DVD-ROM drive and a DVD±RW drive, tried it in both to no avail.

Anyway, it doesn't even get that far, as soon as it reboots after editing the bios settings the monitor goes dead. I still hear the familiar beep and the cdrom drives spin, but I have no video.

Kev

emaherx

I know it shouldn't make any diffrance but maybe one of your dvd drives is causing the problem.
disconect one of them and try to boot off the other one.
it that dosent work try it the other way around.

kevpatts

tried that as well, even tried it with a drive from another computer. no dice.


kev

emaherx

Have you tried creating a floppy bootdisk with cd rom driver files on it

kevpatts

Yeah, good idea though. The problem is I need this machine working properly. I'm building it for someone else so I need a solution instead of a workaround. I need to know whats causing the problem.

emaherx

it could still be a compatibility issue with your selection of hardware. May be you need to install your os using a floppy boot disc. then when you have that done you can flash upgrade the bios on the main board.

just because you use a workaround to get the machine working dosen't mean you can't back track and solve the problem too.

leeroybrown

Things to check:
The two DVD drives in another PC?
Jumper settings on the drivers?
The IDE cable?

kevpatts

The DVD drives work fine in any other machine, they are both set to cable select on a secondary channel UDMA5 IDE cable and set up fine if using a default BIOS. The hard drive is primary master on its own UDMA5 IDE cable. both cables have been tested and work perfectly.

Believe me, I've tried everything like that. The machine won't even get as far as the BIOS messages even if there are no IDE cables plugged in.

Kev

Stephen

tried setting them to master & slave rather than cable select?

kevpatts

thats irrelevant, why does everyone think it's a hard rive problem?????? It doesn't even get that far!!

Kev

p.s. sorry for getting frustrated.

leeroybrown

I've seen cable select cause problems before, though not to the degree where the PC won't POST at all. I always hard set my jumpers to master/slave.

kevpatts

I've also now tried it on master/slave aswell. still no joy.

Kev

C Fodder

Are you using 80 core IDE cable for HDD and DVD ?
Is HDD set to master and connected to master on 80 core cable ?
Are the selection of master and slave DVD matching master and slave on 80 core?
Have you tried with different IDE cables ?
Have you tried with 1 DVD as slave on same cable as HDD ?

Clinical Waste

OK, so all the hardware works on other machines, and hardware from other machines makes no difference, then I would guess it has to be the bios.

When you change the settings to boot from CD-Rom first you are getting no video but board is powering up (beep and CD-Rom spinning).

Must be some other setting in the Bios that needs to be changed when you change boot device?
"Allow boot from other devices" Y/N

Is this option in your bios?, maybe its on No. Or maybe some other Bios option to do with video settings?

I dont know that board or bios so could be something obscure?

Maybe CD-Rom has to be on primary IDE channel to boot first?

kevpatts

okay, just went through the whole process again. I tried the system using:

a replacement CPU,
Replacement RAM,
and a replacement Graphics card.

I tried it with no drives attached at all. In this setting it should still get as far as the POST messages, and it does if I have the factory bios settings set. But as soon as I change them...

Also forgot to mention before, I usually get a "Checksum error" during the bios messages, after it's scanned the ide channels but sometimes this error is a "CPU unworkable or has been changed. See SoftMenu Setup" message.




AAAAAHHHHHH!!! Just been onto Komplett and they finally admitted to me that there's a hardware flaw in the KV8 and some KV7 motherboards! They're replacing it with an MSI nForce2 board. I knew it!!!

Thanks for you're help though all.
Kev