newly built computer won't boot

[djohn3853]

Built a new computer. Its my second one. Problem is the first one, 2 years ago, went off without a hitch so I have no experience with problems.

Antec case with 350W
MSI K7N2 Delta2-LSR Socket A (Socket 462) NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 ATX AMD Motherboard
CPU is AMD1700
(2) Crucial 256MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) System
MITSUMI D359M3D/D359M3B Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive
SONY DDU1613 Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive
Masscool WhisperRock IV SPA04B4 80mm Ball Cooling Fan
VGA ATIOEM|RADEON 9800SE 128M 8X RT
80G Western Digital HD

When I first fired it up it hangs up at "verifying dmi pool data"
I notice that the Floppy light is on steady. I unplugged floppy power and cable. Same result. I tried to install XP and it went through partially then got an error msg. (duh, I don't remember what it said) Can't get it to even try again to install OS.

 

[jkoon]

Have you double checked that all of your IDE cables are in correctly (as in not flipped upside down). Generally speaking the red pin should be on the side closest to where you plug the power into the drive. And on the motherboard side the red pin should correspond to a labeled ?pin 1? on the board.

I mention this because often times if I have (for example) a floppy cable plugged in upside down the light on the drive will just stay on.

 

[djohn3853]

thanks jkoon. Yes I checked the cable. They are keyed. I even forced it on backwards at the floppy end and then I get an error saying "no floppy" or words to that effect.

Ive upgraded the bios successfully using a floppy and then cleared cmos. I'm pretty sure that the floppy is working even though the light still stays on steady.

I'm going to try to install XP from the dvd drive. Someone told me to make sure the cd (or in my case dvd since i don't have a cd) is ahead of the hd in the boot sequence in bios.

 

[KGB]

john,

Regarding the WD HD, make sure it is jumpered correctly.
If it's alone on the PRI channel, remove all jumpers.
If it's not alone, make sure it is jumpered as "master w/ slave".

 

[racefan]

reseat all the cards also. Remove the memory and reseat also and give it a try. I would do the ram first.

 

[pkypkypky]

google it

 

[montag451]

well googled