Aargh new pc startup hell!!!

[666snake666]

heh, hi,
Im pretty much a newbie at build your own pc stuff. Have built Pc on a (Socket 939 Winfast Foxcon NF4K8AC Motherboard) with an (AMD 3000) processor with a (NvideoGeforce6200) graphics card and (256MB DDR ram) with 80GB Hard Drive and standard DVD-Rom Drive. I have just started the PC for the first time and I get a Winfast screen come up almost straight away with one short beep. At the bottom it says hit Del for Bios, TAB for post and ESC for Boot Menu.
Nothing I press on the keyboard at this point does anything, and yes it is plugged in! although after a while the keys start to make a beep sound through the pc speaker.
Also Ive noticed that the LED for the HD is on. Have checked and rechecked all connections with no luck. The hard drive I have attached is my old HD from my last computer and is still full of data eg: windows etc - does this matter and will I have to reinstall windows for this motherboard??
For starters help with getting past the Winfast screen would be great - Any help greatly appreciated.
Ta
T

[freakitchen]

Welcome to the forums snake!

The main source of your problems in getting this system to boot correctly will be the old install of windows - designed to work with the hardware on your previous computer. You will need to perform a repair install of windows on this drive.

More pressing, however, is the fact that your key presses aren't registering. Even without being able to boot from the hard disc, you'll still need to get into bios in order to change the boot order, and have the cd-rom drive (with your windows CD in) boot before the hard drive. Have you tried repeatedly pressing the Delete key as soon as you power on?

If this fails, try using a different keyboard and post back with the results.

FK

[666snake666]

Hi again, thanks for the nippy reply. Ive actually got into the bios now I was just being impatient. Is it normal for the initial startup to run super slow - it takes about 10mins to get from power on to Bios??

I am now having problems detecting my HD in Bios, it wont detect my drive on channel 1 or 2, the HD jumpers are set to master. In my manual it says the motherboard supports UltraDMA133/100/66 IDE hard disk ribbon cables- how can I tell if the ribbon cables I have are compatible, the cables I am using are old ones off my last PC, could this be the problem?

Also just a couple o quick questions

I have an Auxillary 4 pin power socket on the motherboard on the bottom left under the PCI slots, however I dont have any 4-pin power connectors left. In the manual it says this power socket is optional but doesnt say why and what circumstances? any help?

[fcoral]

i dont think it should take 10mins to get from power up to bios something don't sound right. it takes me about a minute or so to get into my bios from boot up.

[666snake666]

Ok, more newbie questions. Hope someone can help.
Ive sorted the HD problem (Ribbon wrong way round - whoops).
Still getting an unbelievably slow startup time eg it takes a good 3 mins to get to the winfast screen, then another minute and a half to get to bios after hitting DEL. Now when I get round to installing OS it is taking again 5/10 mins to go through the motions of installing eg very long pauses between anything happening - is this normal for a first startup? seems extremely sluggish. Now the main problem is that the BIOS recognises my HD no problem eg:Make and Model number all come up in BIOS, however XP install disk says 'can not find any Hard Disks Installed On This Computer' DOH again anyone with any knowledge they can pass on would be great

[glc]

If you are using the color coded 80 wire Ultra IDE cable that came with the motherboard, you need to jumper the hard drive to Cable Select - especially if it's a Western Digital drive. WD's cannot be jumpered to master unless there is a slave drive physically present on the same cable. The master drive needs to be on the end of the cable, not the middle.

[666snake666]

You are a star* thankyou. As soon as I swapped the jumpers and moved the hd up on the cable everything worked fine, even boots up fast again. Many thanks. Shame my WD hard drive doesnt mention this ANYWHERE in the manual. Thanks again