New build goes through post loop

[javery]

Good Morning,
I am building a computer and having the following problem. When I power up the computer it goes through the post and allows me to access bios and cmos options. It will get me to a screen that says safe mode, safe mode with command prompt, last known good, start windows normally. It counts down on the 30 second timer and starts all over again. I am using t the old hard drive but have tried the following steps.
1) I put in a brand new blank, Western Digital SATA hard drive and tried to boot from CD/DVD. It would not boot from drive. Computer powered down completely.
2) I removed all components and checked for grounding. I replaced all components nad checked to make sure that all 3 sytem fans were running. I started up computer and still just get a post loop.
3) I took the hard drive off of my current computer and tried starting it with that and I still get the post loop.
I purchased the components from Newegg so I have a limited time to return and try again. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Components are as follows:
Gigabyte S-series Ultradurable 2 Motherboard GA-P35C/DS3R/DS3/S3
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
2- 1 Gig Ballistix DDRII Ram
Sony NEC Optiarc CD/DVD rewritable drive (SATA Connection)
Radeon 2600 HD Pro Graphics
Turbolink 500W Power Supply

Thank You in Advance,
Jeff

[Kov-Ice]

Welcome to PCMech. Does the old hard drive have an OS on it from an old build? Are you wanting to salvage the data on it?

The SATA drive may not recognize if the SATA drivers haven't been installed yet. Are they native to that board or not?

[javery]

Yes, the hard drive has an early version of XP. I do want to salvage the info. When I put in the disk to install utilities it gives me a express recovery prompt then restarts.

[pam123]

The hard drive with the OS already installed will need a repair install to function, unless you removed all system drivers before you removed it from the older computer.

This may be obvious, if so I apologize, but how have you set up the bios ?

Does the bios see all the drives?
Is the optical drive first in the boot order?

Edit : I would do a fresh install on the new drive and then slave the old one to get data from it.

You install the OS first before you do anything else with a new drive and a core 2 duo board has native support for SATA.

[javery]

The SATA drives are native to the board

[javery]

I tried hooking up a brand new Western Digital SATA HD but the computer goes through the post and PCI Device list and then shuts down. I did this with the XP disk in the cdrom and made sure that that device was first in boot order.

[shadowpr]

If you're in bios, does it still just shut down on you after a little bit of time?

[javery]

Not in Bios. It lets me access BIOS & CMOS and make changes with no difficulty

[pam123]

So OK.
If we've got this right :
The computer post, you can enter the bios and make any necessary changes.
When you save and exit it ignores everything you've done and goes into a continuous loop or just shuts down ?

[daveofds@mac.com]

I am new to this but have the same board I think? Here are my components:

1 ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail
1 Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
1 SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S203B - OEM
1 Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Home Premium for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM
1 XFX PVT88PYSF4 GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
1 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail
1 Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1800 MCE Kit 1128 NTSC/ATSC/QAM/FM TV Tuner Card w/MCE
1 Antec Sonata Plus 550 Black/ Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 550W Power
1 GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Dynamic Energy Saver Ultra Durable II Intel Motherboard - Retail
Memory is Corsair DDR2, Ntune says it is 400mhz speed – 2 – 1 gb bars

I found that nothing was saved in the bios unless I pushed F10 on each page. I went through several pages in the bios and found the next day they were not saved when I went page to page without saving each one individually. After F10 you have to wait for the bios to restart to begin paging through again.

There are several setings I did not fully understand. The manual that came with the board gives very brief explanations. Hope this helps rather than further confuses.
Dave

[pam123]

Hi Dave,
This a fairly old thread so you should have started one for yourself.
A good place to check out Bios terms is here : http://www.techarp.com/show.aspx?fileID=18