Cant load os off cd

[morganw333]

hi guys

i recently built a

P5ql pro motherboard
pentuim d 960 cpu
2x 2gb of ram
his 4850 iceq4 turbo

for my partner to play fallout 3 and oblivion on but when i downloaded ati tools it messed up my system so i tried to restore back before i installed it but that did not work so i tried to reinstall windows xp but it wouldnt read the cd.
I then took out the hdd and used partion magic to format it and tried to install xp again but it still would not read the disc.

I am using an ide cd/dvd rom and it gives me a screen to select the correct device or insert bootable disc and push any key but it just repeats the message when i do, so i tried a new ide cable and also a different cd rom drive, on the cd rom drive I just get a black screen with a white flashing line at the top.

I have used the same cd before and its fine even when i put it in this computer it reads it fine.

I have checked the boot order in the bios many times and disabled everything else but the same thing happens, I have also tried a new keyboard and hdd.

Does anyone have an idea how to get around this??

 

[morganw333]

i have tried installing winxp on the hdd using another computer and the cdr drive and it worked but once i put it into the p5ql it just kept restarting, so i know its not the hdd or cdr drive

 

[Paperdoc]

Your Install on another machine was a good way to prove the HDD and CD are OK, but what was installed that way probably will not work in the original machine. You'll have to re-do the Install of Windows on that machine, AFTER you can fix its current problem.

You are installing Win XP on a machine with an IDE optical drive; we don't know whether the HDD is also IDE, or SATA. I'm going to guess SATA for the HDD.

First, you need to ensure the optical drive and IDE connections are right. I will assume that ONLY the optical drive is connected to the IDE port (this mobo only has one IDE port). The 80-conductor ribbon cable for IDE data has 3 connectors on it. The BLUE one on one end goes to the mobo port. The BLACK one on the other end goes to the port's Master device - in this case, the optical drive. That device MUST have its jumper on the back edge set to be Master (or Master with No Slave, if that is a separate choice). Use the diagrams on the optical drive itself to see how to set the jumper. The Grey connector in the middle of the cable is not used. The optical drive needs a power supply from a 4-pin Molex from the PSU.

Next, the SATA HDD unit. It may have jumpers on its back edge, but do NOT change them from the factory default setting. These have NOTHING to do with Master or Slave or Boot Drive. On some HDD's it is possible to temporarily disable a drive by setting a jumper wrong here. So, IF you "adjusted" a jumper on a SATA drive, go to its maker's website and find out what the proper factory default setting is, and re-establish that. Now plug the SATA unit into one of the mobo ports on the main group - there ought to be six in the lower right corner of your mobo. Choose the early-numbered one like 0 or 1. And, of course, it needs its power supply cable, too.

Since you are installing Win XP, you have to deal with the fact that it does not natively understand SATA or AHCI devices. The "proper" way to do this is to prepare to install the AHCI driver for your mobo from a floppy diskette as you begin the XP install. But the easier way is to use a trick built into your BIOS. See your mobo manual, p 4-15. You must enter the BIOS Setup routines as you boot the computer (see Manual p. 4-10: you hold down the "Del" key when powering up until the Setup screens shows). You navigate to the Main screen and down to Storage Configuration. Configure the SATA ports to use IDE Mode. In this mode you miss out on a few extra features of SATA drives because the BIOS makes them appear to be older IDE units, but Win XP is completely happy to deal with them because it DOES understand those drive types. You do NOT have to install a driver from floppy when you configure this way.

Now, let's check the Boot Device Priority - see Manual Section 4.7 on p. 4-31. Set it to use your optical drive as the first choice, your HDD as the second choice, and NO other devices allowed. When done, SAVE and EXIT from Setup. BUT before you do that, insert your Win XP Install CD into the optical drive.

The machine ought to boot from your optical drive, and it ought to find your HDD as a potential Install device. However, it will warn you that it contains data that could be destroyed. You want that! If necessary, choose to have the Install routine Delete any existing Partitions on the HDD so it is completely empty. THEN proceed to have it Create a new Partition (I assume you will want it to be the full size of the HDD) and format it with the NTFS File System, then Install to it.

If you get all these things set up right and it still cannot find the optical drive or the SATA drive, you may have a problem either with the cables or the mobo ports. Try different cables, and try connecting to a different SATA port. For the IDE port you only have one choice. If necessary, leave the optical drive's jumper set to Master but plug into it the Grey MIDDLE connector on the ribbon cable. (Although this is not ideal, it will work this way as long as the cable and port are OK.)

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

 

[morganw333]

hi and thanks for the in depth reply, i have done all of these and yes my hdd is sata and i changed the bios setting to ide. i also tried a 3rd cd drive and got the black screen with the white flashing line again.

Could it be a bios update that i installed and if so how do i reset it as i have already cleared the cmos

 

[Paperdoc]

It is possible the BIOS update has caused your problem. When you set out to do such a job, the cautious first step is to save a copy of the existing BIOS from your machine into a storage device like a floppy or USB drive. Did you do that? If so, you can use the Bios Update process again and do one of three things:

1. Re-do the update to the latest version - the one that's most recently been installed - in case there was a simple glitch in the process.
2. Re-install the OLD BIOS you had from your backup copy.
3. Go to the mobo maker's website and download an older BIOS than the most recent one that is not working. (Maybe even the old BIOS you used to have, if you don't have a backup copy.)

You say you "cleared the CMOS". But, especially after installing a new BIOS, you really should do a few more steps to ensure that a full reliable set of parameters is loaded into that new BIOS. See my post here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/330487-31-system-locks-reintall-cmos-battery

which starts from before the BIOS update is done, although that post did NOT need to reset the BIOS because of an update. If you did not do the loading of a Default Set, try that first before re-doing the BIOS update, just in case it helps. It can't hurt, and at worst may only leave you exactly where you are already.

 

[morganw333]

i did do steps 1-7, i dont have any floppy discs and im not 2 sure if I can still buy them here, i tried to load off usb using Win to Flash but got the same result as cd rom drives.

Can I load the bios settings on a cd r and load them on that way?

 

[Paperdoc]

Check your mobo manual, page 4-5, Section 4.1.3. It details how to use the ASUS EZ Flash 2 utility built into the BIOS. Using it you can load a new BIOS file from a USB drive. (So, you need a way to get the desired BIOS file copy onto a USB stick first.) You do not have to use a floppy disk system. It does not appear to allow you to make a backup copy of what is already in your BIOS chip, but it's too late now to back up what it had before you updated, anyway. So if you want to restore to the old BIOS, you will need to download a copy of that from the ASUS website.

The only snag here is that the current BIOS needs to have a functional version of this utility working. That usually is going to work, even if there is some BIOS corruption elsewhere. However, if it does not work, the backup plan is the do it from a bootable floppy disk, per manual p. 4-6 using the AFUDOS utility.

I notice the fourth option in the manual (p. 4-8) can work from an optical disk, BUT it specifically says it cannot work if your optical drive is connected via the IDE (or PATA) port.

 

[morganw333]

ok i'll download an older bio version and try off usb if not i have brought a sata dvdrw i just have to wait for it to come.

thanks for your help and i'll let you know how i go

 

[morganw333]

i have just tried off usb but it will not read the bios.roms off the usb stick so will just have to wait till the dvdrw arrives