asus a7v8x won't boot

beebie · #1 03-04-2003, 07:35 AM

Hello,

Last friday i pruchased some elements to upgrade my computer from a 350mhz to a more powerfull one. I decided to by an Asus A7V8X in combination with an AMD Athlon XP 2400+. But unfortunately, after installing the whole the computer did not boot. It got as far as running the POST and when it was looking for a bot dvice it stopped doing anything until it said; no boot disk.

when i disconnected everything except the floppydrive and inserted a bootable disk then things went as normal. But as soon as i re-installed a hard drive; it didn't work no longer.
I thought the error would be caused because i had an inadequate power supply of 200w, so i went back to the store today and bought a 350w one.

But after installing the unit nothing changed. Could you please advice me on what i am doing wrong??

System specs:
Asus A7V8X
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ 2 Ghz
512MB DDR-Ram 333
Nvidia GeForce2 MX 400 AGP vga-card
HDD master: IBM 10gb (model: DTT-351010)
HDD slave: Seagate Barraccuda ATA IV 80gb (model: ST380021a)
Plextor plexwriter 24/10/40x a
Creative Labs 48x cdrom
3com Fast Ethernet XL PCI 10/100mbs
Codecom ATX switching power supply 350w
HP Deskjet 815c USB
Logitech optical wheel-mouse PS/2
Compaq V75 17" Monitor

Thanx in advance!

chrisinthesun20 · #2 03-05-2003, 02:55 PM

same mobo and processor combo as me - a few things to try:

make sure that your me speed is set to 133, with the other settings on auto- do not set me to 166 as processor will be detected incorrectly.

as for the HDDs - try just pluggin one in - make sure you have the master and slave on the correct part of the able, master at the end and slave in the middle...and set them to master and slave on the jumpers rather than cable detect.

also, both both drives to work on the primary (ata-133) channel, they have to BOTH be at least ATA-66 (UDMA-66) capable drives, if one is but one is not, then you WILL have problems.

Try the newer of your two drives, plugged in the master, then try booting and see what happens.......

let me know how you get on.....

BTW - is your master disk really only 10gb? - this must be the older of the two drives, and may not be ATA-66 (UDMA-66 capable)...so that might be your problem....

chrisinthesun20 · #3 03-05-2003, 02:56 PM

the should be memory speed by the way.....

beebie · #4 03-06-2003, 03:25 AM

getting closer to a solution here;
started to boot from xp-cd to reinstall the bloddy thing.
Currently, it has just finished formatting.

If that don't work; will try the stuff you wrote.

Anyway, thanks a million for the effort...

chrisinthesun20 · #5 03-06-2003, 03:57 AM

BTW - I'd be interested to know what you CPU idle and max load temps are according to your bios temp reading....

To get a max load temp just play games for 30mins, then re-boot the system, go straight into the bios and check the temps before the system cools down.

My CPU max load temp seems to peak ata bout 53-54degreesC, but I have no idea if this is high or not.

When you have your system back on its feet, given that you have the same processor/mobo, i'd be interested to know what your temps are..

cheers!

beebie · #6 03-06-2003, 04:03 AM

Well, when setup tells me to restart; it just won't boot from the HDD and i end up starting all over again. this sucks!

How do i check whether the drive is capable of running on my new system?

would you know what my bios-settings ought to be?
The thing seems to be running real slow, especially when booting.... (takes about 2 minutes before it continues doing anything...)
what should the settings about the cpu be (voltage,. speed, etc etc) considering i have a xp 2400+????

when my system is running (if it ever will... ) i will post the temps for ya.

thx again

chrisinthesun20 · #7 03-06-2003, 04:17 AM

I'm at work so I can't get you the exact figures from my bios, but the uppermost setting for mem Mhz in the BIOS should be 133 NOT 166, and the other options should be set to auto. This should result in your CPU being detected correctly. Best thing to do is to resest the bios to defaults, then change this setting to 133 if it is at 166. (133x2=DDR rate of 266)

As for your hard disks - if you look on the back of the them (on the sticker) it should say the type of drive - e.g ATA-100, UDMA-66
Both drives need to be AT LEAST ATA-66 or UDMA-66 to work on the primary cable together on this mobo. I have an ATA-133 as the primary and an UDMA-66 as the slave, and they work fine.

I would suggest that you try JUST having your newest drive plugged in as the master (leave the other one totally unplugged), then go through the XP setup and see if it boots OK...

I'm home in 2 hours so I can post you my CPU bios settings then if it'll help.....but if you set the mem clock to 133 and the rest to auto you should be fine. When I set the mem clock to 166, the system would either not post, or would post as a 1800+ not a 2400+!!!!

Good luck!

chrisinthesun20 · #8 03-06-2003, 04:18 AM

Oh yeah, and check all your data cables are fully seated in their mobo slots, you never know!

beebie · #9 03-06-2003, 04:36 AM

i can't seem to find it on my IBM 10gb drive.... it doesn't say anything about udma or ata; and the ibm-internet site don't work either...

the problem i have with the 80gb drive is that is is my storage unit. it's nearly full with music, software and movies... the last thing i want to do is having all of that lost....

gonna try formatting the thing with FAT32. maybe that works...

beebie · #10 03-06-2003, 04:42 AM

i just don't understand...
how come the bios and the setup in windows both detect the drive but when the drive is needed for booting or when i run partition magic it just isn't there...

chrisinthesun20 · #11 03-06-2003, 05:01 AM

I had a similar problem on a old system that was only solved by changing the drive.

To clarify - do you have the same problem with BOTH your HDDS?Have you tried jumper setting each HDD to either Master or Slave, rather than Cable Detect?

You definately have all the cable connectors seated properly?

Formatting type won't make any difference BTW

is you 80gb one newer than the 10gb one? - how long ago did you by it. I you sure it does not say somewhere what type of drive it is? does it say the make and model on the 80gb drive?

try with just your newest drive plugged in, check the bios to make sure that it is only seeing the one drive, reboot and check its still there, then run the XP setup, select the partition you want to install XP on, format it, then off you go......

You may need to remove ALL the partitions and start again, but that of course would mean you would loose all your data.....

beebie · #12 03-06-2003, 05:07 AM

The 80gb is way newer; it dates from december 2002.
The 10gb i wouldn't know, but it was new at the time so it would probably be from 1999 or so.

the drive are set as slave and master (always were)

gonna try the 80gb next... (gotta save some stuff first)

what city are you at btw? (i live in dutchland too...)

chrisinthesun20 · #13 03-06-2003, 05:49 AM

The lovely city of Eindhoven

Try setting the 80gb to master, with the older drive unplugged...boot of the XP CD, ideally remove all the partitions and start again, or failing that if you have a C: partition you can format, then try that and see what happens...

Good luck!

beebie · #14 03-06-2003, 02:06 PM

At the moment i am still trying to save all the data on the 80gb drive (read: i am burning cds like a madman...) so when i am finished i can continue the battle...

Unfortunately, i am going to be away for the weekend and i will continue on sunday afternoon. Hope you check up on me by then to see how things are going... think i am gonna be very pleased with your help then...
for now thanks for the effort and have a nice weekend!

Yours sincerely,
Beebie

chrisinthesun20 · #15 03-06-2003, 10:31 PM

I'll admit its a bit strange that that drive is obviously working OK in another machine (given that you are busy backing up stuff)..

I checked my bios, and my mem settings etc are exactly as I said.

If you still have problems, give me an exact step-by step account of what happens from when you switch on the PC, and I'll do what I can.....