Newly Built Comp not working please help!

[[LE].101st4life]

I just built my first computer and i am having problems getting it to work. The hardware i am using is:

MSI PT880 Neo Motherboard
GEFORCE 5700 Video Card
Western Digital Raptor SATA 36.7GB Hard Drive
Sony CD R/RW (not sure of speed)
I am not sure about processor.

First a question. With SATA do i have to run 2 HD?

Ok when i try to install WIN XP PRO i have the CD in the drive and start computer. I get this message and do not know what it means:

Scan Devices Please Wait...
Press <Tab> key into user window
Serial Ch 0 Master: WD3606-00FNA0
Serial Ch 1 Master: No Device

Press <Shift-Tab> key to display network boot option
try network boot first, then local drives


The screen then goes blank (grey/black screen) and stays that way. If i press delete key i can access BIOS and have set the settings what i think is right.
I cant figure out what is going on and would appreciate any help that i can get. Thanks for the time to read this.

[muddocktor]

Welcome to the Short-Media forums. :D

No, you don't have to run 2 serial drives for proper operation.:)


Have you set your cdrom drive as your first boot device in bios? Also, you will need a floppy drive for your install so that you can install the serial interface drivers when installing XP, so that XP can properly find the hard drive. You will have to hit the F6 button when XP asks for any other SCSI drivers during the install, which is right after hitting the F8 button to accept the EULA. Stupid Microsoft didn't plan ahead enough when they put out XP originally and think that the floppy might become as extinct as the dodo bird so soon. :rant:

[[LE].101st4life]

thanks for the welcome!

yes the cd drive is the first boot device in bios.
but i do not have a floppy drive for the computer, and i dont have a floppy disk for XP only CD-rom.

[muddocktor]

That's not good, as you will have to feed XP the serial drivers during the install or Windows won't know where to find your serial interface hard drive. You might need to go get you a floppy drive just for the install, unless someone else has a magic trick up their sleeve. The only other option I can think of is to install Windows into a PATA hard drive then install the serial drivers from windows, then ghost the install to the SATA drive.

[[LE].101st4life]

The only other option I can think of is to install Windows into a PATA hard drive then install the serial drivers from windows, then ghost the install to the SATA drive.

Very Confused! I dont know very much about computers sorry. lol

[mondi]

mudd is right, however...

when you press delete - is this during the grey/black screen or before? if during, then check your XP cd on another system, whether you have the floppy or not, the XP install should start ... if the cd checks out, then carefully go through all your hardware... this sounds like it may be a hardware/hardware installation problem ...

[[LE].101st4life]

i press delete right b4 the screen goes black and it puts me into BIOS. the XP CD works i tried it on my friends machine. what do you mean carefully check hardware? hardware/hardware installation prob???????

[mondi]

ok, so it seems you get past the POST.

when you have the cd inserted and the cd drive selected as the first boot device, then get a blank screen, especially as you say the cd works in other systems, it seems to me that something is wrong with the way you put your hardware together, that or something is actually wrong with your hardware.

what i meant was: check all your cable connections from your peripherals to the motherboard, check that all the seperate parts work independantly (ie check them in other systems) ... so far we've ruled out a software problem, the only thing left is to make sure the hardware is functional...

m

.101st4life']i press delete right b4 the screen goes black and it puts me into BIOS. the XP CD works i tried it on my friends machine. what do you mean carefully check hardware? hardware/hardware installation prob???????

[[LE].101st4life]

thanks for the help. i understand now! ok i will try checking the hardware now. thanks again.