First build attemp, no hard drive found

[TrapperJohn]

I'm not sure where to start, so like Great Granpa Sodie used to say "when you don't know where to start, start at the beginning."

I'm not exactly a computer rookie, but this was my first build attempt. My "expert" skipped town leaving me with an expensive pile of parts. I've used the PC tech tutorial to get the hardware together, but I'm running into the same problem he had.

"Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer"

I'm running a BIOSTAR M7VIZ Mobo, my THIRD one, the last two had defective onboard video. here is a link to the board I'm using.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138259

Other Hardware specs:
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

gigaram 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory - OEM (x2)

AMD Athlon XP 2700+ Thoroughbred 333MHz FSB Socket A Processor Model AXDA2700DKV3D - OEM


At this point any and all suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks!

[rightcoast]

You need to enable SATA drive support during the install when it asks in the very beginning. Download the sata driver for that drive from the manufacturers site, or have the floppy that came with the drive labele d sata drivers. When it says "Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver" Press "F6". Then, press "S" to specify additional device when next screen pops up. pop in the floppy and continue the install. HTH :D

[Panama Red]

You probably need to install the drivers for the SATA. During the XP install, you'll see "Press F6.." to install the SATA or RAID drivers. The drivers should be on the mobo disk or supplied on a separate floppy.

edit: Looks like Rightcoast types faster!

[rightcoast]

And sloppilier (is that even a word? heh). I have an excuse, I broke my leg yesterday and I'm 2 hydrocodones deep ATM. I thought I would edit in the driver link for you:
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?cxml=n&pid=15&swid=10

I'm pretty sure that's it, but my judgement is not to be trusted right now. Someone can verify, unless you have the one that came with the drive, then use that.

[TrapperJohn]

here goes...
thanks for the fast replies....

[TrapperJohn]

File \WinXP\fasttx2k.sys caused and unexpected error (18) at line 2113 in d:\xpxprtm\base\boot\setup\oemdisk.c.
press any key to continue


At least I feel like I'm on the right track.... Where to go from here?

[rightcoast]

Heh, like I said my brain is muddled right now. This is going to smoother when you use the drivers for the motherboars sata controller, lol. Sorry about that. :o
http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdownloads.asp?model=M7VIZ

[TrapperJohn]

which one do I use?
Is it the first or second IO driver?
VIAVT6420_430G_WIN98SEMENT42KXP64.EXE
or
VIAVT6420FLOPPY_300A_WINNT42KXP.EXE

[rightcoast]

The second one with floppy in the name is the one you need I'm pretty sure. HTH :D

[TrapperJohn]

first one too big, attempting second

[TrapperJohn]

I'm still stuck. It still doesn't recognize the Hard drive, I've tried using a different SATA cable and I've tried using the SATA2 port. I've switched to another lead from my power supply, I'm running out of ideas.

[rightcoast]

I haven't looked around much yet on this, but on this page it says "only pcb 5.1 supports sata, versions 5.0 and 7.0 do not" this may be related to the issue. Lets look into what pcb is, whether its a bios version or what that is. do you have your manual? If so scour it for "pcb" look on the board itself too.
http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdetails.asp?model=m7viz

[TrapperJohn]

I can't find 'pcb' anywhere in my manual, but it does say that 2 SATA connectors support 2 SATA devices (version 2.0 only), on the board itself it says M7VIZ 400 ver 2.0 and the book also says that only version 2.0 has 4 rear USB ports, which mine has.

Still searching the board for 'pcb' but so far nothing.

[TrapperJohn]

I think PCB means printed circuit board, or at least it does in other places.
How come I can't find anything about ver. 2.0, which mine is clearly marked on the board itself? All I'm finding on BIOSTARs site is info on versions 5.0, 5.1, nd 7.0. What exactly did Newegg sell me?

[TrapperJohn]

I'm going to contact newegg tomorrow and see if I can't get some more info. I might be new to this, but I'm starting to wonder if 2 plus 2 isn't coming out to four in this case. Even in my manual it states that 'only verson 2.x supports SATA.' So who do I believe, the manufacturers manual or their site? ugh.
If anyone has suggestions, they are always appreciated.

a heartfelt thanks to rightcoast and PR for trying to help, and again any additional info is more than welcome.

[Alaron]

Just a note TrapperJohn, when you want to add something to a post, click the "Edit" button in the lower right of the post, rather then making new posts so quickly.

:)

[rightcoast]

Did you get all the parts shown here? http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.asp?image=13-138-259-01.jpg,13-138-259-02.jpg,13-138-259-03.jpg,13-138-259-05.jpg&CurImage=13-138-259-03.jpg&Description=BIOSTAR%20M7VIZ-SATA%20Socket%20A%20(Socket%20462)%20VIA%20KM400%20Micro%20ATX%20AMD%20Motherboard%20-%20Retail

It looks like after clicking the link you don't have a BIOSTAR M7VIZ exactly, it's actually a BIOSTAR M7VIZ-SATA, which is a seperate model. One which the Biostar site has no drivers online for. http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdownloads.asp?model=M7VIZ-SATA

If you did get all those parts though (manual, disk, etc) try taking the CD-ROM and in another PC, open with a right click>explore in my computer. Then try to figure out which driver file is the sata driver (it is probably named something very similar to VIAVT6420FLOPPY_300A_WINNT42KXP.EXE) and save that to a floppy and try using that. Good luck. :)

[TrapperJohn]

I contacted newegg customer service and they were really great. They are paying for return shipping and taking the item back. Now I need a different mobo. Any suggestions? I'm running the following:

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive -

gigaram 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory - (x2)

AMD Athlon XP 2700+ Thoroughbred 333MHz FSB Socket A Processor Model AXDA2700DKV3D

[glc]

Newegg doesn't have any other micro ATX boards for socket A with onboard video and SATA. I'd Ebay that processor - there are people with existing Socket A boards that are looking for upgrades and that's a hard processor to find. Then I'd get a Socket 754 board with a Sempron.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131549
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104245

[TrapperJohn]

I returned my BIOSTAR board to Newegg, and bought a ASRock board locally, without SATA (sold my SATA Drive). It fired up right away and has been working great.

Thanks Rightcoast and Panama Red for the help, I guess all the help in the world doesn't make defective parts work.

I'm not sure how much faith I have in newegg after this, they still made money off me for sending me junk parts. I'll think twice before buying from them again.

[glc]

Not Newegg's fault - it's Biostar's fault if anything. They did pay for return shipping, right? Not all vendors even do that.

[TrapperJohn]

Yes, they did pay for return shipping on the third defective board, but thats not enough to make up for the twenty dollars they made off me selling me the first two defective boards. Plus, I still haven't actually seen the supposed refund for the third board deposited in my account yet. A 15% restocking fee on DOA parts is kind of a ripoff.

[glc]

They probably would have waived the restocking fee if you had bought a different board from them with your refund.