BIOS related prob, LOTS more info inside... please help?

[Curryman]

(This is copyed from my post on another site)

Hey I just built my new comp (w00t)

AMD Athlon 2700
ASUS A7N8X mobo
Maxtor diamong9 HDD 80GB (or something like that)
Nvidia Geforce FX 5600 256mb
2x512mb crucial RAM DDR400
Audidgy 2
2optical drives - CD-RW DVD-RW
Some random floppy drive
(I think that's everything)

When I get the graphical 'splash screen' (i supose you could call it that) from ASUS i have 2 options to run AWDFlash or to view POST.

If I say AWDFlash then it claims to be decompressing the files fro BIOS which it doesn't do.

Pressing TAB for POST can give one of two screens:

1 - I press it instantly and I see my CPU frequency and it doing a memory check.
Then it tells me the frequency of my RAM and then says it detecting IDE drives (which it doesn't do, i left it for at least an hours trying to do that).

2 - I press it later, then I get a screen saying the CPU freq. and the memory test ONLY (no mem freq or it finding IDE drives)

Now then when I try to enter BIOS (where i wanner go) the whole thing just freezes.

The lights on the keyboard stop responding (CAPS, NUM, SCROLL) and nothing can be done. The other eventuality is that the del thing (to enter BIOS) does nothing but doesn't freeze me out, the little lights work and when I press buttons on the key baord it makes little noises so I can make a little disco if nothing else...

Does anyone know what could possibly be going on? I'm gonna cry soon of I can't get it to work... can anyone help?

Thank you:

_Eddey

[Gecko]

I would suggest that you disconnect your two burners first and see if that lets you get into the BIOS.
If that lets you into BIOS I would then make sure that you put your CD R and DVD R on the same IDE cable, make sure your jumpers are set right for master and slave.

[Curryman]

Still it doesn't work.... I tryed taking both CD and DVD off and it doesn't work. Also they were on teh same IDE cable before your advice.

I have no idea what to do, can anyone give me any ideas?

Thanks

_Eddey

[Curryman]

OK, I took fo the HDD aswell and now I'm into BIOS (this prolly means still no progress but still)

Ok I'm in BIOS, if I reconnect my HDD while the system is on will it die?

[Gecko]

DO NOT connect the HDD when the system is on!

[Curryman]

I thought that...

[Gecko]

Have you tried connecting the drive to the other IDE connection?
You could also try using the other IDE cable (the one the burners where using)
It has to be something that is not letting the BIOS detect the HDD.
Have you tried using the boot disk that came with the HDD to install the HDD?
I know that you have probably done this already but make sure the jumpers are set for Master.

[Curryman]

Cool, i'll try it all in the morning, thanks

_Eddey

[daxian]

hi there curryman....
while you have all ide conectors off and you are in the bios set up the ide to auto detect ,save settings and exit .
then shut down the pc connect the ide cable to the hard drive only ....
then start the pc and see if it detects the hard drive .
if this is successful then power down again and connect the other drives ,
making sure one is master and the other slave (jumpers on the back of each drive ).hope this helps ....