New Parts Came In... Now I Have Even More Problems

[dr15]

Grrrrrr!!!!!!

Not sure if I should be starting a new thread.. but I thought since its a whole new problem...

Anyway, I recieved the following new parts in the mail on Thursday:

AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.1GHz 200MHz Bus Socket A PGA Processor

AOPEN AK75 Motherboard SiS 745 ATX

Speeze CPU Fan Model 5F263B1M3 for AMD/Intel Socket A/370

CRUCIAL MICRON 256MB 32x64 PC 2100 DDR RAM

Heroichi Electronic corp. Power Supply

I assembled these in my old ATX chassis along with my old Diamond Viper AGP video card, Soundblaster Live PCI sound card, and NetGear PCI network card. I also reconnected my old disk drives. One 60gb and one 2gb hard disk (yeah, I know.. i should toss that one.. hehehe), both Western Digital. A Soundblaster Encore DVD ROM drive. And my old 3 1/2 floppy.

I am fairly certain I connected everything correctly. I've read the motherboard manual cover to cover several times.

The problem:

When I boot, I get all the normal boot screen messages and a single beep. Both hard disks are properly detected. The DVD ROM drive, however, is not detected. I have no OS installed on either hard disk, but I had a Windows XP istall CD in the DVD ROM drive. After the boot screen messages scroll, the DVD ROM drive's led starts flashing, and you can hear the disk spinning inside. But its not reading or anything.. it just keeps lighting and spinning.. but nothing. If I hit reset, I don't get any of the normal boot screen messages and no beep. It goes straight to the DVD ROM drive led flashing and disk spinning. But no boot. To get the boot messages and beep back, I have to turn the power off, and then restart the computer.

I tried replacing the DVD ROM with 2 other CD ROM drives I had laying around the house. The exact same thing happens regardless of the drive I use. I also tried with SEVERAL IDE cable ribbons. Still same problem.

The two hard disks are connected to the IDE 1 ribbon, master and slave. The DVD ROM is connected to the IDE 2 ribbon as master. Since the BIOS showed both disks on IDE 1 as detected, I tried connecting the DVD ROM as the slave on IDE 1 along with one hard disk as master. Nothing connected to IDE 2. Powered down and then back on. The DVD ROM was detected this time just fine and the computer booted from the Windows XP install disk. So then I'm thinking the motherboard IDE 2 is defective.

Unfortunately (as if having a defective IDE 2 is not unfortunate), after running through the install (format of hard disk, copying over of Windows XP files) when it got to the part where Windows XP restarts, it falls right back into the problem I was having where there are no boot screen messages or beep. Black screen (monitor actually powers down cuz i guess it doesnt detect anything being sent to it), flashing DVD ROM led and disk spinning. So I power down and then back on, since doing this before would at least get me back my boot screen messages and beep (even though it would still freeze up with the DVD ROM drive after). Doing this did cause a proper boot with the DVD ROM detected as slave and the hard disk detected as master, BUT, I get the "no OS detected" message. So I guess after powering down and back on the Windows XP install is aborted or something.

I tried doing this several times too. Thinking I could live with a defective IDE 2. DVD ROM as slave on IDE 1 just to install the OS. Then swap back in the second hard disk. For what I'm using the computer for, I don't need the DVD ROM. But, since I get the same problem when resetting the computer even when only using IDE 1, there has got to be something more to this.

I also tried resetting the CMOS. Playing with various options in the Bios (and resetting them back to factory default as well). I double and triple verified all the motherboard jumper settings.

Also I found this post at Aopen's web site. It's a very recent post from someone with a very similar problem, but no solution posted yet. It's not exactly the same, because when I boot from power off I do get boot messages and a beep.. but then everythign locks up while the DVD ROM starts flashing and spinning. But when I reboot (press reset button or hit control alt del) I get no boot messages and no beep. Black screen. Fans spinning. DVD ROM flashing and spinning. Just like the person who posted explains. Unfortunately there is no solution yet posted.

Anyway, I'm posting here because the feedback here seems so much more promising. I'm desparate, tired, frustrated, and at a complete loss. Any thoughts at all are appreciated.

And sorry for not having joined the forums here until AFTER I started banging my head against the walls.

There is lots of good stuff here.

[MSNwar]

Your computer BIOS must be set to boot from a CD-ROM. Look in the motherboard manual, BIOS section, for instructions on changing the boot device sequence. Real easy! Just select the CD-ROM drive as the first bootable device. After the OS is installed and running change the BIOS back to booting from the floppy or the first hard drive (your choice). I wrote this because some newer BIOSs will detect a bootable device even though the user did not change the settings, but this is a new feature and is not always failsafe. Pre-2001 BIOS are not set to boot from the CD-ROM by default.

Never shutdown the power when loading Windows or you have to start all over. Rebooting several times will foul the Windows bootlog and sometimes the hard drive Master Boot Record (MBR) and you also end up starting over.

The DVD drive might be defective and then again may not be defective. Some (not all) DVD drives have a firmware chip and can only be installed as a Master or Slave, but must be installed on the Primary IDE channel. In any case go back to the BIOS and set the hardware device settings to auto.

Always build a new system with just one of each device. You can install the extra hard drives, CD-ROM drives, but do not cable them to the board until the OS is up and running. Then cable them to the board and allow Windows to detect them one at a time. Last, install the network card.

Be certain to check the APCI setting in the BIOS. Try it set to both on and off. One of the two will probably fix the boot problem. The old 2GB hard drive may be defective. Hard drives will not last forever. Since you are not receiving a long series of beeps when the PC boots and you are not always getting video check to make sure the video card is seated properly. It may have been bumped slightly out of its slot when you were inside the case. Same with the other cards and IDE cables - check they are all seated properly. Press down firmly but not roughly.

Just found this nice tip you may want to look at: TheElderGeek

[dr15]

Thanks MSNwar. This looks like some really good info. I'll give it all a try as soon as I get back home today.

On the disk boot order, the CDROM was set to boot first in the BIOS by default. Followed by the floppy disk and then the primary hard disk. I never changed that except only one time trying the floppy first and cdrom second. That gave the same results.

The DVDROM worked fine in the old computer that was self restarting all the time. I did think that it might be broken or something... so I did try other cdrom drives. Was the same result.

Also, on the old computer the two hard disks were set as master and slave on IDE 1 and the DVDROM was set to master of IDE 2. When installing them into the new motherboard I did not change any jumper settings I just put them into the exact same positions. So I'm pretty sure the DVDROM was manufactured to work on IDE 2 as master just fine.

I did not try changing the APCI setting in the BIOS and I couldn't tell you now what it was set to. I am not even really sure I know what it is. But I will try this and will try removing all the extra goodies. Network card, sound card, and the 2gb hard disk. I'll reset the cmos once more and restore the BIOS defaults again.

Also I responded to the AOpen forum post with what I'm thinking I'll do if I don't figure this out. It didn't show when following the link I posted above.. turns out there was duplicate posts (almost identical) from the same user on that problem. The post I responded to was here.

[zipp51]

I agree with MSNwar about everything especially removing your network card while trying to install windows.Also,did you try removing the jumper altogether on your dvd rom instead of setting it to master?

[dr15]

Ok, I went thru the suggestions above and narrowed it down to the NetGear network card.

With just the minimum components installed the system booted fine. I was able to install Windows XP and everything. I started adding stuff back in one at a time. Everything still fine.. up until I added the network card. Then BANG... same old problem again.

I removed the card and took it to a friends house and tried it in his computer. The card worked fine. It also worked fine in the old system I had before I tried to rebuild it.

So again, I am at a loss. Though I admit all my suspicions were originally wrong... blaming it on the IDE interface and all.

Any other thoughts? Right now I'm trying to decide if I should look to see if AOpen has an updated BIOS I can try. I'm nervous about that though.. cuz if it doesn't work.. I'm not sure if having upgraded the BIOS will negate my ability to return the board for a refund/exchange.

Again, any help is appreciated. And thanks for all the help so far. It's been very useful.

[zipp51]

If you don't want to take the chance on flashing your bios(which can produce undesireable results,just ask Experties ),then maybe you can exchange your Aopen for another board with an updated bios.You've done a great job troubleshooting the problem dr15,you can always recover from a flash failure if you make an error or something else happens.I used to sweat and get nervous while flashing bios's,but today's mobos even have utilities to flash from windows like many of the video card and firmware flash programs.Just read the instructions carefully and as many times as you need to and have a hard copy handy for reference.

[dr15]

Finally!!!! One fully functional machine.

I ended up trading network cards with my brother.

I plopped my NetGear network card into his machine to TRIPLE check that it was not a defective card. As before, it worked fine.

I asked him if I could borrow his Intel network card to see if it would work with the Aopen board. It did, so he told me to go ahead and keep it.

So, in conclusion..

Aopen + NetGear = BIG HEADACHE (not compatible)

Not sure which is at fault, but I'll probably never buy either brand again.

Thanks again for all the help gang.

[dr15]

I should say:

Aopen AK75 + NetGear FA311 = BIG HEADACHE

Other models might work fine together. Who knows...

[MSNwar]

Nice work dr15.

I have never had a problem with NetGear hardware, but I have had problems with their drivers. There have been times that I had to roll-back a driver in the stead of using their newest drivers.

Aopen boards are not all bad, but I prefer ASUS and Gigabyte. To be honest, most Aopen boards do not last long in homebuilt PCs. There are just better boards available for slightly more money. Remember, the MB is the heart of your PC. Try not to spend $300.00 on a good CPU and only $50.00 to $100.00 on a MB. Invest heavy into a solid MB, CPU, and RAM. Everything else (hard drives, CD-ROM drives, etc) will fail or start to show the wear-and-tear long before the MB.

Do not spend to much money on the NIC. I replace all my NICs once a month when I am hot-and-heavy on the net. At $10.00 a pop the cost is not bad. The brand does not matter to much when paired with a major manufacture MB. Aopen boards are usually designed with a small amount of focus.

Like you said other models might work fine.

[XPerties]

Great job guys. Nice work dr15

[DMB Fan]

hey MSN

re:replacing NIC cards once a month?

I have 2 NICs in my pc and have never even considered doing that (one is SMC and the other is Netgear)I leave the PC on all the time and is has constant heavy network activity, so I guess my question would be why would I want to replace them? Am I simply unaware of something?

Thanks

[MSNwar]

NICs can be traced. Search google for more info.

[Porn Loader]

I should say:

Aopen AK75 + NetGear FA311 = BIG HEADACHE

Other models might work fine together.  Who knows...

i actually have had quite a few problems with those nic's.

from them not physically fitting in hp machines (plate was to long, some tin snips solved that problem), to having them screw up os installs.