New PC with issues

Hello fellow members of AO. I have a ASUS P5G41-M LE/CSM motherboard this is my first custom PC that I built from buying all the parts (school project). When I turn on the computer and I go into the BIOS I see this Primary IDE Master {not detected} Primary IDE Slave {not detected}

SATA 1 (it does display the hard drive name)
SATA 2 ( also gives name of cd/dvd burner)

Also, when I go into the boot sequence it detects the hard drive and cd/dvd drive. However, when I turn on my computer I see the BIOS splash screen then next I see this error message

Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press any key

when I do this same error message. So, I changed the boot sequence to boot off of the cdrom drive first to bypass the hard drive, same issue. I triple checked all the wiring unplugged the cables replugged them in. I tried hooking up another hard drive it detects it, but that hard drive has issues. Anyways, I am using a SATA hard drive with SATA cables, I just want this computer up and running so I actually can use it. All help is greatly appreciated. Thanks, CN22

Hi CN22,


1. With the boot sequence set to CD/DVD, HDD will it boot a live CD?
2. Do you have any IDE (PATA) devices attache? if so, remove them.
3. Do you have any USB devices (other than mouse & keyboard) attached? if so remove them.

Finally, were you ever able to load Windows and boot to it on this machine?

Quote:

---

Hi CN22,


1. With the boot sequence set to CD/DVD, HDD will it boot a live CD?
2. Do you have any IDE (PATA) devices attache? if so, remove them.
3. Do you have any USB devices (other than mouse & keyboard) attached? if so remove them.

Finally, were you ever able to load Windows and boot to it on this machine?

---

As of right now the boot sequence is 1.)CD/DVD drive 2.) Hard drive

I placed the CD that came with the motherboard into the drive but it will not boot off the cd.

2. I don't have any IDE things connected (thats the thing with IDE ribbon cable right? On the physical motherboard it's self, it has a blue connector that says primary IDE and it has a place to put the IDE ribbon cable there but I didn't place a cable there because I am using SATA cables. Do I need one there? As of now, there is no ribbon cable. The motherboard came with a IDE cable one end is blue the other end is gray I didn't hook this up because there is no place on the back of the hard drive to plug the cable in. The hard drive is using SATA cable.

3.) No. I only have the mouse & keyboard using USB.

I was never able to load into windows because the hard drive is completely blank right out of the box. I only can get to the splash screen, then into the BIOS by hitting the 'delete' key. This motherboard came with a disk that says "P5G41-M Series intel G41 Support DVD Rev.620.04 ASUS DVD ROM Windows 7 ready" right on the disk. Does this mean it has windows 7 on the actual DVD? Thanks Nihil for the fast reply, I bet if you were here you could easily fix this box. Me on the other hand not having such good luck.

Hi,

Chances are that DVD ROM is just the drivers for windows 7. If it were an actual installation disk I'm fairly sure you would see the version of windows 7 printed somewhere on the disk, i.e. Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional 32bit. You can test this by inserting the DVD into another PC and see if it loads any windows installation files.

Looking at a few specifications on your board, I see that it has several SATA ports and only 1 IDE port, so SATA is your primary connection by default. If you attached any IDE drives (CD/DVD ROM, Writers, or Hard Disk Drives) you might have to enable them in the bios (I've seen this with a few motherboards).

I would definitely try another boot medium first as it seems like all of your drives are being read in the bios.

Your ASUS support DVD is not going to have an OS, and probably not bootable, which is why it is telling you to insert bootable media.

Hell, try your SUSE 9 CD. It will probably crash and burn ( figuratively ) but it will tell you if it can boot to a drive. ( SUSE 9 is too old, doesn’t have the drivers to properly install on this, but if that is all you have, all you need is to see if it will start. )

What OS did you plan on putting on this box?

Yes, I threw the DVD disk into a spare box and it exactly what you said strictly drivers and other stuff no operating system on this disk.

Quote:

---

Hell, try your SUSE 9 CD. It will probably crash and burn ( figuratively ) but it will tell you if it can boot to a drive. ( SUSE 9 is too old, doesn’t have the drivers to properly install on this, but if that is all you have, all you need is to see if it will start. )

What OS did you plan on putting on this box?

---

Will try SUSE 9 cd right now. That is all I have and the DVD that came with my Dell Vostro 200 PC. I planned on installing Windows 7. Then I was going to install virtual box with Fedora 14 and other distros of Linux. I will let you guys know how it goes wish me luck. ;) Later, Mike

Hi CN22,

I suspect that the MoBo DVD isn't bootable, or it won't boot because it has nowhere to go :D At the moment all it could write to would be the BIOS chip (too small) and the RAM (pointless, as it is volatile memory).

Your HDD is unformatted and doesn't have an OS.

You need to get a Windows installation DVD and boot from that. It will prompt you to format the HDD and set a bootable partition, then it will install Windows and away you go!

The motherboard DVD should now work if required, and will presumably load additional drivers that Windows might want. Otherwise you might get a load of "Windows has discovered new hardware" messages?

My suggestion to remove any IDE and USB devices is because they are known to be a possible source of conflict when setting up a new system.

Quote:

---

Looking at a few specifications on your board, I see that it has several SATA ports and only 1 IDE port, so SATA is your primary connection by default. If you attached any IDE drives (CD/DVD ROM, Writers, or Hard Disk Drives) you might have to enable them in the bios (I've seen this with a few motherboards).

---

Yes, you usually have to enable something like "compatibility mode" which would be rather unusual as you would reduce the SATA to PATA (IDE) performance levels in a system containing both types of drive. :(

I have come across it with Windows XP and large SATA drives. You have to install Windows in compatibility mode, load the SATA drivers, then uninstall the PATA drive and reboot so that XP "discovers" the SATA drive.

I don't think that you have had to do this since SP3??? The last reinstall of XP I did was SP3 on a machine with 2 SATA drives and it loaded just fine.

EDIT:

If the machine won't boot from an OS installation disk, it probably means that the CD/DVD drive is faulty.

Finally got my hands on a Windows disk. I was able to get the system up and running. I did all the windows update & service packs that are available. I also installed CCleaner, Malware Antispyware tool, AVG 2011 AV software, and enabled the windows firewall. I would like to perhaps like to run some more security tools for this box. I like this new PC it is great and the best one I ever had. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for the help. Later, Mike

Security tools, to help assist in securing my box. If not hacker tools, nmap, metasploit and various other tools to p[lay with for knowledge not malicious intentions. ;)

Hi CN22,

Glad to hear that worked!!!..........no real reason why it shouldn't.............I must have done it hundreds of times :D

I guess we wait until Tuesday for the other one (Vostro 200)?

As far as security software is concerned, I don't really know what to suggest without confirmation of which Windows version you are running.

I am still a little wary of the effectiveness of the Windows firewall, and the dumbed down UAC in Win 7.

Cheers,

:)

I am running Windows XP Professional (my personal favorite) on the system. Also, I installed Virtual Box and installed Fedora 14 (it is a school assignment) I am in the next month or so, properly get rid of Windows XP Professional and Go to Windows 7 Ultimate.

Quick question is there a way to spoof your IP address in a virtual enviroment? For example, I am running windows XP pro, it has it's own ip address is there anyway I can get a different IP address for Fedora 14 inside the Virtual Box? If so, let me know. Later, Mike

ps; thank you guys for all your help

Hmmmmm???????

What IP address are we talking about here?

If you have several machines connected to a router, you can fool the router into thinking that something came from a different (legitimate) machine.....I guess those are internal addresses as they are 198.xxx.xxx.xxx? (at least mine are).

From your ISP I don't think so............it just uses the router's IP address..........mess with that and you won't get a reply, so no connection? As far as I am aware if I am at 935 Pennsylvania Avenue and have an IP addy allocated to that, and I spoof a message from the IP for 1600...........I won't get the reply, but Mr Obama will? :D:eek:

NOTE: I am just going by how my stuff seems to work over here in the UK.

I have no idea how a VM is handled..............I guess my stuff would just look at the machine, and not worry about the OS.........after all, a router just does what it says..........it directs traffic. I guess the question is whether the VM just allows a different OS on the same hardware, or whether it presents itself as a new device to the outside world?

I do not run VM, so I don't know for sure. The answer might also be different for Cat5/RJ45 connections as opposed to wireless? I believe that 2 of my wireless connectors can also act a sub-routers???

It might help if you could suggest some sort of hypothetical scenario? :)

Please don't be surprised if you don't get a reply other than this.........your spoofing question really is a completely different issue, that merits a new thread.;)