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darant
16-08-2003, 19:29
Hi,

Ive just finished building my new pc and need help. All the hardware is installed (i think) the HDD,CDRW, floppy, Mother board, processor, Memory, Graphics card.

Ive powered up the pc and nothing has happend.

Im not doing something right but i dont know what?

Plese help!!!!!

Paul K
16-08-2003, 19:32
Double check everything is seated, all cables in properly.
Does anything at all happen? Any noise, clicks etc?

darant
16-08-2003, 19:36
yes. well no..... the fans on the processors work, the psu fan works, thats it really. my monitor says activate by pc. theres no os installed yet as all is new.

darkangel
16-08-2003, 20:56
Originally posted by darant
yes. well no..... the fans on the processors work, the psu fan works, thats it really. my monitor says activate by pc. theres no os installed yet as all is new. no beep have u move the bios jumper yet?

Paul K
16-08-2003, 21:42
You have power, strip it down to basics.
Graphics card, CPU, Memory and then switch on.
Are you sure all your hardware is installed correctly? Is the CPU seated fully? Are all memory chips installed correctly?
Do you know what Motherboard it is?

darant
17-08-2003, 13:29
sorry for the delay. just replying from my phone. i've installed all the hardware. bios boots okay, memory reads okay. now, when i try to install windows everything go's okay untill the first automatic re-boot. once it does re-boot it will not continue with the install process. what should be the bootable device? the hard drive or the cd drive.

ntluser
17-08-2003, 13:43
Originally posted by darant
sorry for the delay. just replying from my phone. i've installed all the hardware. bios boots okay, memory reads okay. now, when i try to install windows everything go's okay untill the first automatic re-boot. once it does re-boot it will not continue with the install process. what should be the bootable device? the hard drive or the cd drive.

If you're intending to install Windows it might be a good idea to set the CD drive as the bootable drive in the BIOS and put the windows CD in that drive. Hopefully the autoplay will cut in and allow you to install Windows.

Might also be a good idea to set the BIOS setup to 'auto' so that the motherboard 'reads' what is installed and sets up accordingly.

Paul K
17-08-2003, 13:47
Does it give any error messages for why it won't complete the install?
I had issues with a PC I just installed windows on, it was running with 40 pin IDE cables instead of 80 pin IDE cables. Once the cables were changed the install flew.
What hardware have you got connected to the PC at the moment?
Oh and on the reboot don't choose to boot from the CD this will just restart the install, leave it to boot normally

darkangel
17-08-2003, 14:16
make sure u set boot devices in the bios in this order
1)floppy
2)cd-rom
3)ide 0

bonzoe
17-08-2003, 18:45
Originally posted by Paul
Oh and on the reboot don't choose to boot from the CD this will just restart the install, leave it to boot normally

It will work ok, I loaded Win2K yesterday, left CD in drive cos it's needed & boot option still set to CD first, the installation process handles it ok.

bonzoe
17-08-2003, 18:48
Originally posted by darant
sorry for the delay. just replying from my phone. i've installed all the hardware. bios boots okay, memory reads okay. now, when i try to install windows everything go's okay untill the first automatic re-boot. once it does re-boot it will not continue with the install process. what should be the bootable device? the hard drive or the cd drive.

A good tip is to test the memory with Memtest86 before trying to load OS, a memory fault can cause these problems.

What OS are you trying to install?

Paul K
17-08-2003, 19:52
Originally posted by bonzoe
It will work ok, I loaded Win2K yesterday, left CD in drive cos it's needed & boot option still set to CD first, the installation process handles it ok.
When mine boots from CD it normally asks if you want to boot from the CD or not, if you choose yes it starts the install again if you leave it alone it carrys on as normal.
So as I said when it reboots to continue the install leave it to boot normally do not choose to boot from the CD.
Obviously the CD stays in the drive as Windows will need the CD to install the files from (unless you copy to HD and run install from there) but I have known some people to get confused and keep choosing to boot from the CD as they think they have to for the install to complete. After about 4 or 5 reboots they often ask "why hasn't it installed yet? I tell it to boot from the CD"

darant
17-08-2003, 23:03
Originally posted by Paul
When mine boots from CD it normally asks if you want to boot from the CD or not, if you choose yes it starts the install again if you leave it alone it carrys on as normal.
So as I said when it reboots to continue the install leave it to boot normally do not choose to boot from the CD.
Obviously the CD stays in the drive as Windows will need the CD to install the files from (unless you copy to HD and run install from there) but I have known some people to get confused and keep choosing to boot from the CD as they think they have to for the install to complete. After about 4 or 5 reboots they often ask "why hasn't it installed yet? I tell it to boot from the CD"

Nope still not working. Ive tried loads of times with no joy. If i select reboot and from cd it starts the install process again.

Originally posted by bonzoe
A good tip is to test the memory with Memtest86 before trying to load OS, a memory fault can cause these problems.

What OS are you trying to install?

XP Pro

Originally posted by Paul
Does it give any error messages for why it won't complete the install?
I had issues with a PC I just installed windows on, it was running with 40 pin IDE cables instead of 80 pin IDE cables. Once the cables were changed the install flew.
What hardware have you got connected to the PC at the moment?
Oh and on the reboot don't choose to boot from the CD this will just restart the install, leave it to boot normally

Did that and the screen stays on the windows xp pro screen with the incresing bar..............

Originally posted by Paul
You have power, strip it down to basics.
Graphics card, CPU, Memory and then switch on.
Are you sure all your hardware is installed correctly? Is the CPU seated fully? Are all memory chips installed correctly?
Do you know what Motherboard it is?

Tyan Tiger

Paul K
17-08-2003, 23:44
Sounds like its having trouble with hardware. Tyan Tiger ??? Got a model number at all? Any on board sound/ graphics that maybe causing a problem?
Not overclocking are you?
CD clean?
Cables checked?
Grasping and straws comes to mind ;)

darant
17-08-2003, 23:47
Originally posted by Paul
Sounds like its having trouble with hardware. Tyan Tiger ??? Got a model number at all? Any on board sound/ graphics that maybe causing a problem?
Not overclocking are you?
CD clean?
Cables checked?
Grasping and straws comes to mind ;)

its a tiger 2466 - no on board sound - same with graphics - overclocking nope ;) cd clean, tried 2 copies..............


straws - yes im a clutching

the set up goes as far as copying the files from the cd, reboots, thats it. black screen.

Paul K
17-08-2003, 23:50
XP home or Pro?
Think home doesn't support dual processors

darant
17-08-2003, 23:51
Originally posted by Paul
XP home or Pro?
Think home doesn't support dual processors

PRO

Paul K
17-08-2003, 23:55
What hardware have you got connected during the install? Does the install just stop at the boot screen with the moving bar? Did you format the drive prior to the installation?

Lord Nikon
18-08-2003, 01:20
Try switching the Ram for some branded stuff, if only for the install process...

bonzoe
18-08-2003, 07:54
Originally posted by Paul
When mine boots from CD it normally asks if you want to boot from the CD or not, if you choose yes it starts the install again if you leave it alone it carrys on as normal.
So as I said when it reboots to continue the install leave it to boot normally do not choose to boot from the CD.
Obviously the CD stays in the drive as Windows will need the CD to install the files from (unless you copy to HD and run install from there) but I have known some people to get confused and keep choosing to boot from the CD as they think they have to for the install to complete. After about 4 or 5 reboots they often ask "why hasn't it installed yet? I tell it to boot from the CD"

Yes, point taken, just took that for granted!

bonzoe
18-08-2003, 07:58
Originally posted by Lord Nikon
Try switching the Ram for some branded stuff, if only for the install process...

Agree with that, suggested earlier that he test memory but he doesn't seem to have tested it. Mind you, I bought 2 sticks of Corsair memory recently, found 1 to be faulty - don't take any thing for granted. TEST IT, can save a LOT of hassle.

Use proper anti-static precautions when handling components.

Paul K
18-08-2003, 09:00
Originally posted by bonzoe
Yes, point taken, just took that for granted!
Do that all the time, you wouldn't believe how often I have to bite my tongue:D
Recent Example:
"My computer is knackered, keeps rebooting"
"When was the last time you ran Windows Update?"
"Errrrr, windows update??"
"Welcome to wormsville, what firewall are you running?"
"Errr"
:Me bites tongue and takes a deep breath: :rolleyes:

Paul K
18-08-2003, 09:02
Darant, looks like bad hardware somewhere. As you are still posting I take it you have a second, working PC. Is the hardware compatible with the motherboard in the working PC? Can you swap some of the hardware into the working one to see which bits cause a problem?

Lord Nikon
18-08-2003, 09:28
Darant, if you need to, pm me and I will give you my home number and go through the setup with you for pro, see if I can't work out what is causing the issue you are having. (I have plenty of experience diagnosing XP install failures lol, which is why I run 2kpro and linux on my machines lol)

darant
18-08-2003, 21:22
Originally posted by Paul
Darant, looks like bad hardware somewhere. As you are still posting I take it you have a second, working PC. Is the hardware compatible with the motherboard in the working PC? Can you swap some of the hardware into the working one to see which bits cause a problem?

unfortunatly no. Im running my second pc which is a laptop. I'm wondering if the way the ide cables are wrong conpaired to the jumpers. Master, Slave etc

bonzoe
18-08-2003, 21:51
Get it to a state where you can try some diagnostics, trying to diagnose hardware faults by installing Windows is NOT the way to go. You are just poking about in the dark, possibly going to introduce MORE faults.

darant
18-08-2003, 22:05
Originally posted by bonzoe
Get it to a state where you can try some diagnostics, trying to diagnose hardware faults by installing Windows is NOT the way to go. You are just poking about in the dark, possibly going to introduce MORE faults.

you've lost me. Im building a new pc. not trying to diognose anything. What do you mean by "it"?

darant
18-08-2003, 22:09
Right, now for a simple question which will no doubt have a simple answer.

on a drive (CD, HDD) there are settings - Slave, Master. Do these corispond at all to the primary or slave on the mother board?

or what way should I have them....

Paul K
18-08-2003, 23:28
Master Hard drive will be the drive first on the cable and will be the drive with the operating system installed on it normally.
Slave will be any other drive on the same cable.
IDE1 and 2 on mobo...
Personally I always hook the master with the O/S on it to IDE1

Ramrod
18-08-2003, 23:41
Originally posted by darant
you've lost me. Im building a new pc. not trying to diognose anything. What do you mean by "it"? I think he means your hardware setup.....

Paul K
18-08-2003, 23:42
Darant do you have UDMA drives? If so do you have them on 80pin IDE cables?
Okay here is what I would do (just a suggestion):

Put the Hard drive you are installing Windows to on the first connector on the cable plugged into IDE1, Makes sure the jumper on the hard drive (little plastic thing that sits across a pair of pins near where the IDE and power cables plug in) is set to master.
Make sure if the CDRom and HD are on the same cable that HD is master and CDROM is set to slave.
If you want you can put your CDROM drive on a seperate IDE cable on IDE 2 and have it set as master.
Think what bonzoe was refering to in his post is that its easier to diagnose the problems before windows is installed as you are guaranteed that its a hardware problem. Introducing software would increase the risk of adding a software fault too which would confuse the situation.
For the primary install I would suggest only having your hard-drive, CDROM and graphics card installed. Take anything else out if its plugged into the mobo. If you aren't hearing any beeps when you power up then it would suggest that no hardware faillure has been detected. (Doesn't rule it out though)

darant
19-08-2003, 00:03
Originally posted by Paul
Darant do you have UDMA drives? If so do you have them on 80pin IDE cables?
Okay here is what I would do (just a suggestion):

Put the Hard drive you are installing Windows to on the first connector on the cable plugged into IDE1, Makes sure the jumper on the hard drive (little plastic thing that sits across a pair of pins near where the IDE and power cables plug in) is set to master.
Make sure if the CDRom and HD are on the same cable that HD is master and CDROM is set to slave.
If you want you can put your CDROM drive on a seperate IDE cable on IDE 2 and have it set as master.
Think what bonzoe was refering to in his post is that its easier to diagnose the problems before windows is installed as you are guaranteed that its a hardware problem. Introducing software would increase the risk of adding a software fault too which would confuse the situation.
For the primary install I would suggest only having your hard-drive, CDROM and graphics card installed. Take anything else out if its plugged into the mobo. If you aren't hearing any beeps when you power up then it would suggest that no hardware faillure has been detected. (Doesn't rule it out though)

right. What about the processors? Do I enclude them at the start? Im hearing no bleeps. When you say first connector, is that from the top or bottom of the cable.

Paul K
19-08-2003, 00:09
First connector from the end connected to the mobo. Is there a connector on the end of the cable that is a different colour?
Plug your CPUs in mate, no CPU no work ;)

basa
19-08-2003, 09:39
Originally posted by darant
Right, now for a simple question which will no doubt have a simple answer.

on a drive (CD, HDD) there are settings - Slave, Master. Do these corispond at all to the primary or slave on the mother board?

or what way should I have them....

Bit late in on this..sorry.

There is no 'primary master or slave on the motherboard' ! Just two (or more) IDE channels.
Both can carry 'master' and 'slave'. Your HDD should be set as master on Primary IDE1 with one end (the blue connector) of its 40 pin connector plugged into the mobo's Primary IDE1 and the other end (that is the last connector point) plugged into the back of the HDD (make sure the jumper on the back of the HDD is set to master).
The CD should be plugged into Primary IDE2 similarly (again jumpered as master).

I personally think the boot sequence in the BIOS should be set to:

1st...floppy
2nd...IDE1 (HDD)
3rd...IDE2 (CD-ROM/RW)

That way on your first re-boot after the system has copied the OS files off the setup CD it will try to boot from your HDD where enough files should be present to afford a start up.

Lord Nikon
19-08-2003, 09:57
Just to correct this somewhat...

On the 80 pin UDMA Drive cables, the blue connector (usually blue anyway) goes to the MOTHERBOARD, the first connector from that is GREY, this goes to the SLAVE device, the BLACK connector (at the opposite end of the cable) goes to the MASTER device (typically the first hard drive on the system, and yes, make sure it IS set to master)

use a 40 OR 80 pin cable to connect to the CD Rom, if you have a DVD and a Writer, mount the DVD top in the case and set it to MASTER, put the writer below it and set it to SLAVE (makes the drive letters match the order of the drives and also simplifies the cable run)

Set ALL drive settings in the bios to AUTO...

in the bios, DISABLE Trend ChipAway Antivirus (if you have the option) and ENABLE S.M.A.R.T.

leave everything else on defaults. Boot the machine and see if XP installs.

basa
19-08-2003, 10:03
Lord Nikon..

What do you think of my suggestion as to the boot sequence ??

I think trying to boot from the CD is flawed in that it will re-enter 'set up' and try to re-copy all the setup files ?

Lord Nikon
19-08-2003, 10:15
Shouldn't do basa...

When XP detects the presence of a bootable hard drive partition it says "Press Any Key to boot from CD......" for about 10 seconds, then boots from the hard drive.

Only when there is no bootable hard drive partition will it boot back to the CD again.

Although IF the drive was formerly used on an NT based system as an extended slave drive then the drive may not have a primary partition on it. So it is an idea to let XP wipe the existing partition tables and create its own partitions from scratch.

Nemesis
19-08-2003, 10:23
What about the HD itself. It sounds like the initial part of the install went on OK. Just the reboot didn't carry on the installation.

Could be

* Memory
Could have faulty memory as previously mentioned

* HD Partition (previous probs with partitions over 2 Gig)
There have been documented incidents with XP that show that installing on large drives causes problems.

* Video
The screen is black (?) could be a prob with the card switching modes.

If the IDE cable was wrong i.e using 40 when should be 80, the drive wouldn't be recognised, would it ?

Why not go back to basics and put a DOS partition on the machine. Prove some basic stuff b4 putting Windows on it ?

Lord Nikon
19-08-2003, 10:31
My thoughts are the drive partition or the memory...

a black screen can be caused by a problem with the hard drive boot sector, if it is only partially complete then it will tell the system to boot from it, then hang...

I would suggest wiping the drive partitions then letting XP set them up, if that fails, then change the Ram...

As for problems installing XP onto large drives, I have personally installed XP onto 200Gb hard drives in Compaq Evo machines without problems...

Paul K
19-08-2003, 10:39
Black screen? Darant was getting to the loading screen with the moving bar. (page 1 post 13 on thread)
Personnaly I would take the suggestions here about getting the drives on the right cables and the jumpers set right, I would then restart the install and let XP format the drive again and see what happens next.

bonzoe
19-08-2003, 21:38
Originally posted by darant
you've lost me. Im building a new pc. not trying to diognose anything. What do you mean by "it"?

If the PC doesn't work, you need to find out (diagnose) what is causing it to not work!!!! If it will not perform simple tasks from a bootable floppy there is absolutely no point trying to install Windows of any variety.

If you don't understand that concept, get a mate to help you, preferably someone with some experience. I would be happy to help, but it is very difficult on a forum. If you live near me, bring it round.

darant
19-08-2003, 22:23
ive spoken to someone at work who also thinks that it could be a memory problem. I need to get another lot to try. I'm not gonna try again tonight cos i knackered and am getting an early one!!!!

I appreciate all of your help and will repost tomorrow.

goodnight.

bonzoe
20-08-2003, 21:51
Download memtest86, it creates a bootable floppy and automatically tests your memory. More reliable than fitting some more memory, you will probably need a list of failures to get faulty memory replaced, most retailers accept memtest86 errors as evidence.

How do you know that replacement memory is good in your setup without testing same?

darant
26-08-2003, 20:34
right, Im still having probs with this. I have tried other memory, now I keep getting blue screens of death............

Im very desperate to get this up and running

bonzoe
26-08-2003, 21:46
As I said before, you need to test the memory to see if it IS OK without errors, just sticking in different memory is OK only when it fixes the fault.

If you can test your memory in another PC & it is OK, I would suspect memory timing (set to default settings in BIOS if you can) OR a faulty motherboard.

MadGamer
27-08-2003, 15:01
You want to be REALLY careful playing around with memory cos if it gets tampered with too much it can end up snapping and those things aren't cheap.

Lord Nikon
27-08-2003, 19:05
Hmm.. I'm currently paying £10 for 128Mb, £20 for 256 (PC133 SDRAM) and DDR400 aint far behind....

bonzoe
27-08-2003, 20:30
Originally posted by WNA
You want to be REALLY careful playing around with memory cos if it gets tampered with too much it can end up snapping and those things aren't cheap.

Snapping it is the least of his worries! More dangerous to mem is STATIC electricity, the damage is not so obvious and can result in premature failure.

Must say that I have never seen anyone snap memory trying to insert it, must require a degree in hamfistedness;)