K7ASA and XP Pro problems

[fmr9]

I am using a K7ASA made by Elite, with an Athalon 750. It was stable and worked fine until I upgraded from ME to Windows XP Pro. Then the power button stopped functioning, on board sound quit, and it refuses to recoginize my CDROM and CDRW. I added a cheap soundcard, and use the power strip to control the power. It appears that there is no bios update available for this board. Not sure I am capable of doing a bios upgrade if it was available.
For a few weeks if I unplugged the C drive with XP and booted from the old HD with Win ME it took several attempts and screwing around with it, but it finally found the Cds. I then shut down and quickly plugged in the C drive with XP, rebooted, and it also found the CDs. If I didn't turn the power off for more than a couple of minutes, it still found the Cds when it rebooted. Now, it doesn't matter what I do, the CDs are never found. I can't live any longer without the CDROM or CDRW.
I really want to stay with XP PRO, but can't afford a new system right now. I ain't smart enough to change the board and cpu. Can anyone help me solve the problem of recognizing the CDs?
Thanks
Frank

 

[Buz2b]

It's not clear from your post but did you do a fresh format/reload of XP on that drive? Also, anytime you get inside a box and "mess around" moving HDD's in and out, etc, you stand the chance of bumping and moving a cable or two. Did you use anti-static protection when you did this?? Did you try resetting the CMOS? That might help also. What is the brand name and model number of the Power Supply you are using and it's rated power (250 watt, 300 watt, etc)? Did you go into the BIOS and try to "Auto Detect" or manually set up the drives? Too many questions; not enough info.

 

[fmr9]

Thank you for replying.
The XP was installed on a new 80GB WD 7200 drive. Putting the drive in required removing 3 ram chips, heatsink and fan, and unplugging both eide ribbon cables. Beofre I installed XP on the new drive, it booted fine and everything worked. This indicates I managed to reinstall all the componets correctly and didn't accidently fry anything.
Soon as I booted with the XP the problems started. I have not reset the cmos. The instrctions for my board say to copy a file from the set up CD to a bootable floopy. Maybe this weekend I can get a friend to copy it for me.
What really puzzels me is the fact that when the system does recognize the CDs, I can turn the power off for less than 5 minutes and it reboots fine. If the power is off for more than 5 minutes, it looses the CDs again.
The power supply is 250w. Not sure of the brand but it is OEM.
I tried the auto detect in the bios. Don't know how to set up the CDs manually. Have not found any instructiuons on doing it.
Thanks
Frank

 

[Buz2b]

I'm pretty sure the main part of your problem is the power supply. It simply cannot provide the necessary amounts for your components. The clue here is the cold start trouble. I think if you invest in either a real good quality 300 watt PS or even a 350 watt, that would clear things up for you. That board is notorious for needing good quality PS's. Yes, there have been some instances where people have gotten 250 watts to work, but those are few and far between. You can get a decent one by Sparkle from NewEgg on this page. The 300 watt they make is a good quality unit and would work well.

I'm not sure what you are referring to as far as copying a file from the CD to a floppy, unless you are just trying to make a bootable floppy. Can you be more specific? Either way, I think you'll find the PS is the culprit. You have added a larger, more power hungry HDD and a sound card to your system with a "borderline" Power Supply. Apparently that put you over the line. The good news is that it is "fixable".