kt7a athlon1.2 new computer(1st time builder) - wont boot - help pls

[duds]

Gday all,hope u can help me cos I want to get up and running. Installed the hardware per manual.HSF is winfop38 and bios cnfms cpu temp 40C. I hv a fdd and cd,hdd is quantum 40mb, gef2mx400, 300watt tower, 256k hyundai ram, and thats it so far. Adjusted bios to reflect cpu speed and chkd fdd as primary boot drive. In goes the win95 boot disk and get the message"boot disk failure - enter disk and press enter", or something like that. Now I know the system chkd fdd cos I saw the light on. OK, tried again and again and again, changed and re-checked things, even tried cd on ide2 on its own ide cable,(which I dont think was detected, accdg to bios), and still get same error. Now the fdd and cd came in plastic bags with no instructions,so I'm not 100%sure if they're okay, but they both have power, and when I tried to boot my "new" os (w2000) off cd, after changing primary boot dr, still wont boot.(the cd didnt spin even). So guys and gals, what do u think, I'm beginning to think its a m/brd problem. Thanks for your comments.

 

[NelsonMuntz]

I need to ask what is probably a stupid question. You have the ribbon cable plugged into the FDD correctly, right? The light doesn't stay on, it just turns on and then off again? As for the CD being detected in the BIOS, most of the time those just detect hard drives, not other IDE devices. Have you tried a different floppy cable to make sure it isn't that?

 

[duds]

thanks your reply. The cable to the fdd is ok, installed correct, the light on the fdd goes on and off as u would expect. This does'nt explain why the system wont boot from the cd though, does it? Currently the blue connector for hdd is on ide1 and the black to hdd, and the cd is on the ide2 socket on its own cable. I really am at a loss for answers.

 

[fargopilot]

Hmmm I just upgraded to a AMD 900 tbird and I cant make a boot disk either. Boot disks worked just fine on my Celery 300 the other day on Windows ME. I mean I can make a boot disk and it starts to load it on a reboot but says disk error. I dont know if it is a similar probably. I have a KT7 Pro 2a

 

[nord1899]

Well there could be a bunch of reasons why your system won't boot. You mention that it might not be detecting the drives. During boot-up, it should do a quick check of the memory and then scan for drives. If anything is detected it will show up there along with what channel its on (Primary Master/Slave and Secondary Master/Slave). You should see your hdd show up as Primary Master and your CD-ROM as Secondary Master. If this isn't correct, check the cables first. Make sure the power supply is connected and that the IDE cables are connected. I don't know about the colors, but if you have a standard 3 connector IDE cable, it is easy to tell which way is which. Fold it in half and the side with two connectors goes to the drives. Make sure the end one is attached to a master device. Plug the other end into the motherboard.
With the floppy drive cables, its easy to get it reversed (I have many times). The important part here is to get them plugged in the same way in terms of how the pins line up. This is more easily done as trial and error. Plug both ends in. If it doesn't read from the floppy disk drive, flip one end of the cable and plug it back in (leave the other end plugged in the whole time).
And lastly, make sure in your BIOS it has the right order for bootup devices. It sounds like you want Floppy then CD-ROM then HDD. After you've installed the OS, put the HDD first so you don't accidently boot using a bootup disk.

Write back if you have any questions/problems.

 

[copyfixer]

Here is your problem (I hope). I also have a worthless W95 boot disk. This is the way I would approach the setup.

1. Take a blank disk to another computer and do a format a:/s to the disk. This will be a bootable disk now.
2. Boot the computer to A drive using this.
3. Most likely the hard drive came with an install utility. Use this or fdisk and format the drive from the W95 disk.
4. Once the hd is done then pop in the cd drivers and msc.exe to the hd
5. Then load windows off of the cd.

Bios will not detect cd only hd. My suggestion is to wait on the CD, get the HD running first, then attach the cd to the computer. Good luck and post back.

 

[Pederv]

The first thing I do on any new motherboard installation is unplug the system and reset the bios with the jumper on the motherboard. When you start the system go in the bios and load bios defaults, then change bios settings so your configuration will work (CPU speed, boot order etc.). Unless you have the latest bios for the KT7A then the primary master is the only drive auto detected, you'll have to go into standard setup and make the other drives detected. Sometimes resetting the bios as described in the first few lines will fix weird floppy problems.

 

[duds]

Thanks for the input you guys. All drives are detected. The cd is on the ide2 socket now with the jumper set to master. It still will not boot on any device, no matter which way I configure the priority drives. Don't give up on me, I know the answer is out there. Just as a sideline, is it okay to run the cd on ide2? And can I use any auto-detect function which lets the bios decide which drive it can boot from? Also, kindly forgive my lack of technical knowledge and terminology as I'm new at this stuff.

 

[duds]

Further to the above. I have reset the bios by moving the jumper across and then re-setting it as part of my original attempts at problem solving. However I did notremove the battery. I said I was new at this, so... the cpu is athlon 1.2 266fsb, what is the correct data to be input on the bios to reflect this?

 

[nord1899]

Well since all the drives are detected, lets try a different approach.

Are you trying to boot from the floppy drive or from the cd-rom drive? If its from the floppy drive, it could be that you have a bad drive or the diskette is bad. Someone else mentioned testing the floppy in another computer and I would second that notion. If its from the cd-rom drive, make sure the cd you are using is bootable. I had a Win2k disc from work that for whatever reason just would not boot. So you can test that out in another computer.

Also, make sure that you have the proper boot order in the bios for what you are trying to do. I don't know exactly where that is in the bios for the mb you have, but it should be fairly easy to find.

 

[duds]

You hit it Nord 1899, the fdd was faulty. I stripped the fdd and cd out of this computer and tried them in my new comp, and bingo, it booted first time off the fdd. So I put win95osr2 on, and it seemed to load okay, but upon restart it failed boot stating an IOS error had occurred. But thats a problem for another day.
Thanks to all you people who assisted, apart from getting my new comp sorta sorted, I learnt quite a bit, found and joined this great site as well.
Cheers all.

 

[nord1899]

Glad to hear that you got it fixed. Good thing it was the fdd since thats only a $15 piece of hardware instead of something more expensive and annoying to get replaced/exchanged.

 

[jugornot]

Wwinn 95 and any proc over 350 requires a patch. And the patch only works with 95b or c. HTH