Booting New Comp, Help Pls! :)

[lbaileywork]

Ok, I've finished putting my first computer together for the first time and I'm trying to get it up and running. I have installed all the components, ran through the BIOS/CMOS setups and made sure that everything is the way I want it. I have also set the boot order to:

1) CD/DVD drive
2) Hard Drive
3) Floppy (since I don't have a floppy drive)
4) disabled

However, when I try to install WinXP Pro on my hard drive, I get this message:

"Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key"

Again, I have the CD/DVD selected as the primary boot drive, I have the WinXP Pro disc in the drive. It's just not working....?

Here are my system specs. I would really appreciate any and all help especially fast help

Motherboard: MSI K9N Platinum
Processor: AMD Athlon X2 4200+
RAM: 2GB corsair PC6400 800 Mhz
Video Card: ATI Radeon x1900 All-in-wonder
Hard Drive(s): Western Digital 250GB 7.2k rpm, 16Mb cache, (x2)
CD/DVD: Sony DRU-820A
no floppy

All components are brand new.

Please help!

[flanzig1]

Check the jumper on the DVD drive. If the data cable is an 80 wire IDE cable(blue/gray/black connectors), set the jumper to CS. Blue connector to mobo and DVD to Black.

[lbaileywork]

The data cable is blue/gray/black connectors. I have the blue on the mobo, black on the DVD, gray on nothing. I have changed the jumper settings on the DVD from master to CS. Still no response.

I currently have no jumpers on the hard drives, is this a problem?

Any other thoughts?

[doubledragon5]

Waht kind of WD HD to you have?? If it is not a raptor drive you need a jumber on the HD.. It should have come already jumbered in CS.. In not then set it to CS and try again....

[flanzig1]

If the HDs are SATA, then no jumpers.
Also, try to clear the CMOS. Should be instructions in the mobo manual on how to do this.

[lbaileywork]

Both of my HD's are SATA: HD 250G|WD 7K 16M SATA2 WD2500KS

I did buy these HD's OEM so no jumpers came with them.

I cleared the CMOS, when I turned on the comp again it hit a MSI screen where I could enter setup or load default settings. I entered the setup, changed the boot order to DVD first and save/exit. Upon the reboot, I continued to get the same message.

Hopefully that helps. Anything else I should try?

Should I get ahold of some jumpers and put them on the HD's somewhere?

[newbuilder14]

Hard drives don't require jumpers (SATA), the optical drives do. Also, have you tried one stick of memory?

[lbaileywork]

k, no jumpers on the HD's. I've got the optical to CS. Why would the number of sticks of memory make a difference? fyi, also, I bought these two sticks as a paired set so they're supposed to work well together (they're not just two random sticks being used simultaneously).

[newbuilder14]

Defective memory causes many setup problems - I've experienced this myself (it was Corsair) - test one at a time.

[lbaileywork]

Ok, I've tried it with only one stick (tried both sticks separately).

I have also tried it with the DVD jumpers to slave, master, and CS. All the same result.

One thing though, upon further look, the IDE connector to the DVD is black, there is a gray one in between (not connected to anything), but the connector on the mobo is BLACK not BLUE. Does this change anything?

I have another IDE cable, that is just two black connectors, I'm going to try that one next I guess.

Please continue to let me know of any ideas.

[glc]

Is the DVD drive seen in the bios on the POST screen?

[lbaileywork]

Finally after TONS of attempts to bring up and actually read the POST screen, I was able to discern that yes, the Sony DRU-820A was being seen (currently as the slave, though I've tried booting the computer with the Optical set to Master, Slave, and CS).

Anything else?

[lbaileywork]

One more thing. I have done some more tests with various things connected . When I boot up the computer with only the Mobo, Processor, RAM, and video card instaled, the EXACT same thing happens. Even though, the HD's and optical drive are not even connected. Why would there be absolutely no change when I plug in a DVD RW (with a winXP PRo disc) and two SATA hard drives?

I am open to any suggestions including bad news. Currently this forum is my only hope as I have already exhausted the efforts of my computer savvy friends. I hope someone on here can help me.

Thanks!

[hawkeye91]

I'm going to throw this out there as crazy as it may sound. Are you using the correct Windows disk to boot from? As you can see from my thread, I had exactly the same problem with the same symptoms. Turns out, I was using the wrong Windows CD to boot from. I just picked up the first one in the case figuring it was the right one to boot. Turns out it was just an update disk. Once I got my act together and actually read the disk, I realized that I wasn't using Windows disk 1. Once I tried that, everything worked like a charm. Oh the shame of it all. LOL

Anyway, thought I'd throw that out there just in case.

Good luck!