No boot when Floppy or HD 0 is the first boot dev.

[jp1114]

Greetings,

I am in STILL the process of building my FIRST computer.

Computer:
EP-8RDA+
AMD XP 1800+
2 x 512MB DDR PC2700
Antec KS 282
Windows XP PRO
Western Digital 120

After many hours/days of trial and error, --replacing the processor, clearing the CMOS, checking and rechecking my connections, bios settings, etc, I have FINALLY stumbled across a solution on how to make my computer boot. I am sharing this info (a) in case some somebody else has been having the same problem and (b) because I do not understand what's happening.

My problem: The computer would not boot up.

I tried placing the front panel connectors every which way to no avail. (The front panel connectors (Power On/Off, IDE, Pwr, Reset) are now placed so that the text/labels are facing toward the inside of the case, toward the inside of the motherboard. Is this the correct way to place them?)

The only software installations so far has been Windows XP and Service Pack 1. (No drivers, etc. have been installed.)

The BIOS is set up so that I can power on also from the keyboard. I disabled Quick Power On so that the PC will do a complete POST test.

PROBLEM:

When I press the power on/off button, (or a key on the keyboard) the fans come on, the hard drive whirls and the led shows 92 (reserved code). The monitor shows absolutely nothing --as in absolutely nothing.

When I press the power on/off button again, to turn it OFF, nothing happens. It will only turn off if I hold the power on/off button for 4 seconds.

The only way I can get it to boot up, is to press the power on/off button for about 2 seconds, it boots up, does the post test and loads Windows XP. When Window is up and running the led shows FF (Boot Attempt --which seems like a strange POST CODE). (If I simply push the power on/off button without holding it for 2 seconds, most of the time it will not boot up.)

ACCIDENTAL SOLUTION:

Out of pure desperation, I was going to reinstall Windows to see if that would make any difference, so I changed the First Boot Device to CD-ROM. I pressed the power on/off button --without the Windows CD in the CD ROM drive-- and it worked. I have rebooted several times and it has worked perfectly!

I changed the First Boot Device to HD 0 and it boots up... but only if I hold the power button in for 2 seconds!

When I do get it to boot, POST indicates that the Processor Athlon XP 1916MHZ, the memory, etc all are recognized and working.

"My Computer" in Windows does not show a A Drive. (I have taken out the floppy drive since I don't plan on using a floppy drive on this computer.)


QUESTIONS:

Question: Since the Floppy is only the first boot device, even if it is not working, why isn't it bypassed and why doesn't the computer boot from the second device, HD 0?

Question: When HD 0 is set as the first and second boot device, why doesn't it boot?

It seems that for some reason it cannot boot from HD 0 or the floppy... or to be exact, that it boots only when the CD ROM is shown as the first boot device.

Thanks for any suggestions, clarifications, etc.

Pat.

 

[pIII_Man]

The floppy is not always the first boot device and is bypassed if non is installed...i beleive your problem is that the jumper settings on your drives may be messed up...for a drive on its own with no other drives on that channel the jumper must be REMOVED.

There is no smell better than fried silicon

 

[jp1114]

Thanks for the reply.

It’s finally working correctly!!! I made a triple DHU???!!! Mistake!

I read through all my files and came across this bit of information from the Epox web site: “1. Start with the BIOS optimized defaults…”

Since in the beginning I had some booting problems and since I didn’t know what to do, I had originally loaded the “Fail Safe Defaults” instead of the “optimized Defaults.” DHU??!!

Now that I have loaded the BIOS optimized defaults all is working perfectly.