Help me with my upgrade please

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Help me with my upgrade please - Alram - 05-22-2005

I installed a new motherboard, CPU, PCI Express graphics card, POWER SUPPLY, and RAM to a 3-4 year old desktop. The old hard drive (with Windows ME--will be installing XP), DVD ROM, CDRW, floppy drive, and case were left in place.

When I power up the computer, the BIOS does not beep. I see a splash screen for the Motherboard and graphics card. Some self tests run. When I press delete to enter setup the main menu shows "none" for any IDE devices. I am unable to open the CD or DVD drives when I press the appropriate buttons.

I tried moving the power supply cable attachments around for the drives, and changed out the IDE cable on the HD to no avail.
The amount of installed memory is correctly identified.
All fans appear to be working.

New equipment
Motherboard
MB ASUS A8V-E DELUXE K8T890 RET - Retail
PCI Express graphics card
VGA LEADTEK GF PX6600TD-256 RT - Retail
POWER SUPPLY
ANTEC NEOPOWER480 RTL - Retail
CPU
AMD 64 3500+ ATHLON 64 939 RT - Retail
RAM
DDR CRSR 512MB X2 KIT|VS1GBKIT400 - Retail

Old equipment
Western Digital HD 120 GB about 1 year old
3-4 year old CDRW
3-4 year old DVD ROM

What is wrong? Please help. This is the first time I have undertaken such a massive project.

Help me with my upgrade please - Yrrek - 05-22-2005

Does your hard drive spin up? You might need to unplug a few fans to be able to hear it. Also, make sure the cable is plugged in correctly. When you fold the cable in half, the side with two connectors goes to the drives and the other end goes to the motherboard. Another thing to check is the type of cable, is it 40 pin or 80 pin? Some motherboards only like 80 pin cables, but those should have come with the new motherboard. The hard drive is IDE/ATA correct? If it is SATA you might need to get drivers.

That is all I can come up with right now, if I think of something else, I'll add another post. Hope this helps!

Help me with my upgrade please - Quark - 05-22-2005

Are Master/Slave set properly?

Help me with my upgrade please - Yrrek - 05-22-2005

Quark,May 21 2005, 11:51 PM Wrote:Are Master/Slave set properly?
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THAT is what I was trying to remember!

Help me with my upgrade please - Jim - 05-22-2005

Hi,

I just did a complete rebuild myself...I have the same power supply & the same HD.

The HD came with only 1 Jumper...the Jumper was set by default to allow the MB to choose Master or Slave depending on the Connection that the Cable was pluged into the HD. Although I pluged it in wrong [Slave] the BIOS still found it.

This is WD support most guides are in PDF...I needed it since my HD was OEM [no manual included]

Quote:Technical, Warranty and Support Information:

Drive Specification Sheet (HTML)
Drive Specification Sheet (PDF)
Warranty Information
Software and Drivers
***Jumper Settings Guide ***
Quick Installation Guide (PDF)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Contact Service and Support

Western Digital

Help me with my upgrade please - Alram - 05-22-2005

Thanks for your suggestions.
The HD jumper settings were at cable select, and I reset the jumper for a system with only 1 hard drive.
The optical drives are both on the same cable with their settings unchanged from the system in place before the upgrade.
There is an onboard HD monitor which I have enabled.
The CPU temp is 51 degrees. Target temp is listed in the BIOS as 45 degrees.

It still doesn't work.

There is a funny smell--not exactly a burned smell, but unpleasant kind of burned but not burned.

Help me with my upgrade please - jahcs - 05-23-2005

Alram,May 22 2005, 01:44 PM Wrote:There is a funny smell--not exactly a burned smell, but unpleasant kind of burned but not burned.
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I am no computer expert. Could the burned smell be your power supply getting warm for the first time?

Triple check your power connections and the mounting of your CPU heat sink. Can you boot off of any device? Try a bootable CD or floppy in a different drive, if you can get one.

Also, make sure the SLI daughter card on your mobo is in the position for one video card.

edit: Oh, another tidbit I saw in a magazine once. Check your mobo and computer case manuals for the pinouts for your switches and USB/firewire ports on the case. They don't always match.

Help me with my upgrade please - Quark - 05-23-2005

Sorry for the short post before, but one reply got eaten and I had to go.

So not one of the IDE/ATAPI drives works? Can't use HD or CD? Do these components still work with the old parts fine?

Burnt Smell is bad. I've witnessed it twice, and both times it was a failed Power supply - but yours is still booting, so that's a good sign. Have you tried the old power supply with the new stuff? Keep the components down to a bare minimum (Memory, Video, HD) and see if it detects the HD. If it does, add in parts until it doesn't detect it. If everything works, you've got a bad (new) power supply.

I'd more lean toward problems with the motherboard, though. Either some setting got messed up or the IDE channels are fried. I have an A8V (similar, but not the A8V-E), but can't remember what settings are like in the BIOS - damn thing went bad and is being looked at by Asus now.

Help me with my upgrade please - Jim - 05-23-2005

Quark,May 23 2005, 12:15 PM Wrote:I'd more lean toward problems with the motherboard, though.  Either some setting got messed up or the IDE channels are fried.  I have an A8V (similar, but not the A8V-E), but can't remember what settings are like in the BIOS - damn thing went bad and is being looked at by Asus now.
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Hi, good read :D

Quote:AMD FOURM>>>>Tip: Asus A8V reports "System Failed CPU test"

It appears quite a few people (myself included) purchased this motherboard recently (Nov 2004) to find it didn't work straight out of the box. This is because the A8V-Deluxe was shipped with a bios that didn't recognize the new 939 pin 3400+ processor or the newer Winchester 90nm processors (since they were released only recently).

Tip: Asus A8V reports "System Failed CPU test"

Help me with my upgrade please - Jim - 05-23-2005

Hi,

I was going to go AMD but at the last second I went with INTEL...I still have all this info in my favorites folder :D

Quote:The first 939-pin platform, the A8V Deluxe, is a very solid product all around.

Socket-939 Arrives : AMDâs Athlon64 3500+ and the A8V Deluxe

Help me with my upgrade please - Alram - 05-24-2005

1. I tested the power connectors going to the IDE drives with a voltmeter, following instructions from a website. The voltage readings were as they should be, so there is juice going to the IDE drives.

2. The sort of burned smell comes from the power supply I believe.

3. The floppy drive works. When I attempt to boot from a floppy, the system fails to find any CD-ROM or HD.

4. When I followed this procedure:

Unplug both the data cables (ribbon cables) from the motherboard....

boot up and set the bios to AUTO find Ide devices...

THen plug in ONLY the hard drive's cable....

See if it finds it.... (dont go into the bios, just wait for it to try and boot off it... sometimes the bios only finds it after a long search)

If it doesnt... then plug in ONLY the cd roms... see if it finds this...

The system failed to find the drives. Neither one.

The HD is currently formatted with ME. Should I put it in a different computer and format it with XP? Would that make any difference?

I am afraid to upgrade the BIOS as I have never done it and hear that it is a big problem if done wrong.

Help me with my upgrade please - jahcs - 05-24-2005

If it isn't finding the drives and you've changed the cables I do not think reformatting the HD will help.

You may have a bad mobo or bios as suggested. Check your warranty paperwork and see if flashing the bios will void any warranty you may have.

Help me with my upgrade please - Concillian - 05-24-2005

Looking towards the obvious since others seemed to have gone into detail...

In the BIOS under integrated peripherals, are both IDE channels active? Are SATA ports disabled. (you don't need to disable them, but I'm reaching here.)

Is there an updated BIOS for your board?

Help me with my upgrade please - Quark - 05-24-2005

Check over all the IDE settings again, just to make sure. If you don't find anything, I'd flash the BIOS. Asus' download page looks messed up right now, so this is the A8V-E ftp spot. You'll probably want the A8VE1006.zip file for your BIOS.

jahcs: never heard of a warranty being voided by flashing :blink:

If nothing works, I believe the MB got fried. I'd be hesitant to use your power supply at all, since burning smells aren't exactly good. I'd be even more hesitant if it turns out your IDE channels don't work, because it might have been a power surge that killed them.

Help me with my upgrade please - jahcs - 05-24-2005

Quark,May 24 2005, 07:53 AM Wrote:jahcs: never heard of a warranty being voided by flashing :blink:
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Whenever you are having problems with something you puchase it is a good idea to check the warranty paperwork.

I wasn't sure what will void the warranty, it's better safe than sorry.

Help me with my upgrade please - Wyrm - 05-26-2005

Eh... I don't know if your problem has been solved or not yet, but here's my two cents.

Check if your motherboard has two different places you can hook the HD up to. If you have your drives hooked up through the ATA/SATA or whatever connnection, and not one that says IDE, then they won't be recognized as IDE drives in the BIOS. If that is what works, then just make sure you change the boot-up sequence so that it goes to the ATA drive and not an IDE one. ATA has been listed under the "other devices" category, so you might want to check there.

<personal experience story> I have the Asus A7V and noticed that when I hooked the drives up through the ATA instead of the IDE they weren't recognized in the BIOS. They still worked, but I had to change a setting in the BIOS so that it would load the ATA on-board BIOS, then they were detected during the boot process, but still wouldn't show up in the POST or BIOS as being on the IDE channel. It showed another listing of ATA drives and there they were.</personal experience story>

Help me with my upgrade please - Alram - 05-27-2005

I haven't found a solution yet. I am returning the motherboard and power supply for a refund. I plan to then buy them locally and get someone to install them for me.

Help me with my upgrade please - Jim - 05-28-2005

Alram,May 27 2005, 06:23 PM Wrote:I haven't found a solution yet. I am returning the motherboard and power supply for a refund. I plan to then buy them locally and get someone to install them for me.
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Take stock of what you have after you return it ALL...you might do better buying a New Comp retail they are so inexpensive & GOOD :D

Although I've been lucky, so far, with my upgrade of my Alienware Area 51 , next time I'll buy retail again [not to include HP or Compaq] :P

Quote:Area-51Â® 5500
Cutting Edge Intel Processing
Next Gen PCI Express Graphics
High Performance DDR2 Memory
Ultimate Performance for the Latest PC Games
Performance Benchmarks Documentation
Personalized Owner's Manual
FREE Custom AlienwareÂ® Mouse Pad
Latest Qualified Drivers Installed
Was: $2,039.00

***$1,539.00*** ...After $500 mail-in rebate...
FREE Shipping & NO Tax...as low as $62/mo

AlienwareÂ® PCI Express Motherboard with IntelÂ® 925XE Chipset 1066/800MHz FSB
IntelÂ® PentiumÂ® 4 Processor 550 w/ HT Technology 3.4GHz 800MHz FSB 1MB Cache
MicrosoftÂ® WindowsÂ® XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2
AlienwareÂ® 460 Watt Max Power Supply
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz - 2 x 512MB
NVIDIAÂ® GeForceâ¢ 6800 GT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 w/Digital and S-Video Out
High Performance - Serial ATA 160GB Serial ATA 7,200 RPM w/8MB Cache
Lite-OnÂ® 16x DVD-ROM Drive with Software DVD Decoder
3.5" 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive - Black
Creative Sound BlasterÂ® AudigyÂ® 2 ZS High Definition 7.1 Surround Firewire (IEEEÂ® 1394)
Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet

Area-51Â® 5500

Estimated Ship Date...>Thursday, June 02, 2005

Quote:Save $211.00 get this VC

NVIDIAÂ® GeForceâ¢ 6600 GT PCI Express 128MB DDR3 w/Digital and S-Video Out

Your Total $1,328.00 <...the price of a good UpgradeÂ :w00t:

in 2 years upgrade this VC to the New generation card for 2007

add $50.00 for WinXP PRO

Help me with my upgrade please - Alram - 06-26-2005

I am typing this post on the new computer. It runs really spiffy. Fast! I am able to run WoW with all the visual settings ramped up to the maximum without any sacrifice in performance. There really is a qualitative difference in the game's appearance. The CPU temp is 46 degrees--5 degrees cooler than with my attempt at upgrading.

Here is the story behind how I got it working.
I shipped the motherboard and power supply back to NewEgg and they sent me replacements. After doing some comparison shopping I decided to bring the components to Laboratory Computers, a local shop, for them to assemble. They charge only $35! Of course I needed to buy some stuff from them; fortunately their prices are very close, almost identical to NewEgg.

This is what I bought:
1. A new case-- Of course I didn't really need this, but without the power supply it was only $15! And it looks really nice.
[Image: 1150-P4-BKUSB.jpg]

2. Samsung CDRW drive and DVD ROM drive--$62 for the two.
3. Here is where I went crazy--Western Digital Raptor WD360GD 36.7GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
4. Well if I was going to go all out then why not toss in more--Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JD 160GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive for storage.

Total including installation and tax: $353.98 Yes, I went way over budget, but I am working a lot more hours now and I can afford it.

As for the old machine and the optical drives which would not work when I did my upgrade--they work fine in their old box. I have no clue why they would not function before.

Thank you to everyone who gave me helpful suggestions.