pentium 4 logo on new custom

[lodown414]

i am having trouble with windows. i resently assembled a custom computer. i used the xp cd to reformat and try to install itself. it come to the moment of truth, the restart and does the same thing every time. goes to a big pentium 4 logo. what does this mean?. from this logo i can go into bios by pressing esc or del. it also goes to a bios screen after about 5 min then says disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter. i have tried the windows cd and am completely stumped. any suggestions?

~josh

[lil Jimmie]

You need to go into the bios and set the boot order to the cd-rom first and HDD second, save changes and exit the bios. Then continue, look for a message about booting to the cd-rom and hit enter the setup should proceed.

[lodown414]

i can get the set up to proceed and format and install... but after the computer restarts it goes back to the same pentium logo and sits there...

[lil Jimmie]

Ok what are the specs on this build and how do you have the hdd configured? Does the Bios see the HDD? Double check the cables and jumpers on the HDD.

[lodown414]

i have a shuttle xpc case/motherboard/heatsink, P4 2.4c, 2 512 stick of ddr 3200, western digital 120Gigz 8mb cache, and a optorite dvd-rw...
how do i know that the bios sees the hdd? it may not because i noticed in the bios screen that says continue that you were talking about had system info and it had 1st and said the dvd and 2nd and it said 0... the cable and jumpers seem to be fine... should i switch jumpers with the dvd to see if that is it?

[mike breck]

Make sure you disable any anti-virus options in the BIOS.

As LJ has said, check your cables and how the HD is jumpered -if using an ATA HD, you should be using an 80 wire ATA66/100/133 cable and jumper the HD to Cable Select.

Try a different ATA cable.

Try removing all non-essential hardware and try installing XP i.e. just the HD and CD-Rom drive - no PCI cards or other IDE/ATAPI drives.

Try giving the CD a clean.

[lodown414]

it sit says
de channel 0 master : none
de channel 0 slave : none
de channel 1 master : none
de channel 1 slave : optorite dvd

de channel 2 master : none
de channel 3 mater : none

on the first bios screen upon start up (i can press f1 to continue)

[mike breck]

how do i know that the bios sees the hdd?

It should list the Primary Master during POST (aka the black screen when the PC is starting).

To make sure, go into the BIOS and on the first page (main Menu) check your Primary Master is set to Auto and press "enter". That should allow the BIOS to re-detect the HD.

If the BIOS cannot detect the HD, it's down to incorrect jumpering, faulty cable, faulty power lead, faulty HD, or faulty motherboard.

[mike breck]

So is the HD set to Cable Select and on Channel 0?

The 80 wire cable has three connectors - blue to motherboard, and black to HD. The gray is for a Slave - but you don't have a Slave so forget it.

What is puzzling, is that you managed to format the HD from the CD. To do that, the HD must have been detected; however, it seems to have lost it again.

If this is a new HD, did you "Partition" and then format the HD from the XP CD? The HD must be partitioned.

However, try getting the HD detected in the BIOS first. Until you do that, you can't do anything else.

[lodown414]

im sorry i am kinda newbie i dont know about wires and cables.
here are pictures of the back of the HDD and the wires i have put in em.

http://student.washington.edu/lodown/comp1.jpg
http://student.washington.edu/lodown/comp2.jpg

[lodown414]

yes i did partition

[lodown414]

o i am very sorry i forgot an "s" in those links
http://students.washington.edu/lodown/comp1.jpg
http://students.washington.edu/lodown/comp2.jpg

[mike breck]

Sorry, I can't see your jpegs.

But the fact you were able to partition and format the HD, shows the HD was originally detected. However, if it is jumpered incorrectly, that can cause peculiar problems.

Take out the WD HD and "make sure" it is jumpered to Cable Select - not Master. Check the diagram on the HD for this.

Is the ATA cable an 80 wire cable with blue, gray, and black connectors? Then connect the blue end to the channel 0 port on the motherboard (motherboard - check your manual diagram to identify the channel 0 port) and the black end to the WD HD.

The motherboard port and the HD are keyed (the cable connectors have a raised bump on them - so it will only fit one way) so the 80 wire cable can only fit one way.

Make sure the cable is firmly pushed in at both ends.

Make sure the Molex four wire power lead is firmly pushed in to the HD.

Start the PC and go straight into the BIOS. Use your keyboard arrow keys to navigate to Primary Master and press Enter to select the options. Select AUTO and press Enter. The BIOS should detect all the paramenters of the HD.

When you return to the BIOS Main Menu, the make and model of HD should be listed.

If it doesn't work, then try detecting the HD on all available channels on the Main Menu, in case you have put it on another channel.

If it still isn't detected, then try a new 80 wire cable and plugging in another power lead from the PSU (Power Supply) in case the power lead is faulty.

If the HD still fails to be detected, then it is probably faulty and you should exchange it.

HTH

<b>PS. I can now see your jpegs. You are using an 80 wire cable and the black connector, your are holding, connects to the HD. Now you need to take out the HD and double-check you that it is jumpered to Cable Select</b>

[lodown414]

i put it in channel 0 master... does this change anything? should i try to get both my dvd and hd on the same channel or does it matter?

[lodown414]

i have managed to open windows... i cant thank you enough... without your help i would have probably tried to return parts to the online store lost alot of money and gone crazy... it was the jumper... thank you soo much again for all the help...
~josh

[mike breck]

Glad to help. Thanks to LJ for correctly putting his finger on the problem - I just filled in the gaps.

With all those channels, you can afford to put your HD on channel 0 and DVD on channel 1.

Channels 2 & 3 suggest that your mobo has two extra IDE/ATA channels "or" two onboard RAID channels.

If they are RAID channels and you are not going to be using RAID (which I don't think you will - it's not for beginners or the faint-hearted), then you can disable RAID in the BIOS.

Many mobos allow you to use RAID channels as ordinary ATA/IDE channels - which means you can put more HDs or ATAPI devices on them.

But check what your mobo manual says about it.

HTH

[lil Jimmie]

Glad you got it sorted out! Thx Mike for filling in, it was late and I had to get some zzzzzzzzz's, but I knew lodown was in good hands.