MBA Initialisation

[reflex_monkey]

I tried to replace my old ide cable with a brand new one but upon replacing it, one of my drives (the cdrw) didnt work i.e. it got detected in my computer but whenever i put a cd into the drive it doesnt read and the computer slows down. so then i tried changing the orientation of the ide cable thinking maybe i had it the wrong way around but still i had the same problem. then i tried fiddling (unplugging and plugging) with another cable already plugged into the back of the cdrw drive. it was at this point that i realised that this cable wasnt even supposed to be there in the first place and the audio cable wasnt plugged in. after sorting that out, i proceeded to reboot but now my cdrw isnt even detected. i opened up the case and unplugged and plugged the power cable to the cdrw but upon rebooting, still nothing. it was at this point that things just went pear i tried using two ide cables i.e one for the dvd and one for the cdrw....still nothing. i tried placing back the old cable and still nothing....then, upon rebooting at the point where windows is about to start up (the point where it detects which drive to boot from), i see that one "cd-rom" is detected (probably the dvd-rom, but then this message suddenly pops up:

"MBA Initialisation Press Ctrl +Alt + B to enter setup"

the screen doesnt change over but then theres messages poping up that "network boot failed", amongst others.

then the screen changes over to this message (i cant quite remember exactly):

"boot failed....please insert system disk"

whenever it rains it pours and a simple thing like replacing an ide cable turned into a disaster!!!!

help please.

[CptMurphy]

Ur system is, possibly, trying to boot from a LAN. Go into BIOS and make sure that all the drives are set to auto detect. Save changes and reboot. Make sure that you can at least go into windows. Make sure, also, that you jumpers are properly set and that it is in IDE0. Also, what drives do you have? HDD and optical?

[Tasslehoff]

I once had a dodgy visually undamaged IDE cable straight from a spanking new Gigabyte box. Check no pins are broken on the mobo ide ports, there's supposed to be one missing from the floppy port I think though. Check you've got master/slave the right way round and then try auto detecting the drives in bios(any changes to the cables while in bios might need a reboot. Try taking one step at a time by getting the boot HD to work on Prim master and then adding a cd drive to slave/reboot/auto detect in bios add another hd to sec master/auto det in bios/reboot repeat whatever.

Yeah follow Cap'n Murphy's suggestion re boot device priority in bios, sometimes it stuffs up and can't remember what HD and CD goes where when changing cables around so it defaults to another source which could be LAN/USB anything, lol.

Edited July 18, 2006 by Tasslehoff

[Takeshi]

It looks as though in the process of replacing the CD-RW cable:

1. The new cable is faulty or not connected/configured properly.

2. You might have unplugged the HD's cable too.

3. The BIOS now detects something has changed and prompts you to enter setup. It may also have changed its boot sequence.

4. Now it can't find a CD-ROM nor a network boot device to boot from, nor a HD.

It's possible that the old cable is not faulty, but the MoBo.

I'd do what the others have said above, but I'd instead connect the HD to primary master, CD-RW to secondary master, DVD to 2° slave.

[reflex_monkey]

okay, i solved my mojor problem about the "MBA Initialisation Press Crtl

+Atl + B to configure".....it seems during my IDE cable swop overs, my power cable to my serail ata hard drive came loose

however, even that problem is sorted and windows xp boots perfectly, i still detect my cdrw....the thing is, i tried different power cables to the drive and it still seems as if there is absolutley no power coming in....the dead giveaway is there arent any LEDs flashing and i cant even open the tray.

but il try your guys suggestions and let u know whats up.

anyways, i was planning to replaced that cdrw