Too much trouble with installing Win XP

K

Khaydarin

2[H]4U
Joined
Dec 13, 2005
Messages
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I just put together a new PC for my friend. The specs of the system are:

-Athlon XP 1800+
-PC3200 512 MB of RAM
-SOYO SY-KT400 DRAGON Ultra Motherboard
-Western Digital 80 MB hard drive
-Tagan 480W
-GeForce4 64MB video card
-Thermaltake Xaser III


Ok, so I put this interesting setup together for her, because she blew her old one by yanking the plug (and her HD was shot too). I know its an odd mix of high-end parts with fossils, but whatever. Anyways, I put that all together, then needed the WinXP CD to install the operating system. When I was given the CD's by her dad, they didnt work because they were made for HP PC's. It just doesnt read the disc, period. I try another CD that she had lying around, and that was made for her e-Machine, so it didnt even get past me telling it to partition the [brand new and never used] hard drive. A few days later, I am given a Corporate Edition Windows XP Pro disc. I pop that in, and it wont let me get past the menu of:
- To set up Windows XP, press ENTER
- To repair Windows XP, press F2 (or something)
Then there was a third option.
I pressed Enter, and it told me that it had to restart.

This has been increasing more of a pain as I try to simply install Windows XP. Should I just try a "normal" WinXP disc? I havent installed the Corp. Edition before, and I'm pretty damn sure that all my connections work. I think. The reason I sound a little hesitant is because in the POST screen it says:

PRIMARY MASTER: NONE
PRIMARY SLAVE: NONE
SECONDARY MASTER: NONE
SECONDARY SLAVE: NONE

Unless I hooked something up wrong, I shouldnt have any of these issues. Or is it the CD's that I'm using? Any suggestions?
 
it's not detecting the hard drive. and I can't see how it's recognizing the winxp cd if it's not detected in the bios either.

hope the hard drive is bigger than 80MB .... like 80GB ... 'cause it just wouldn't work otherwise!
 
J Macker said:
it's not detecting the hard drive. and I can't see how it's recognizing the winxp cd if it's not detected in the bios either.

hope the hard drive is bigger than 80MB .... like 80GB ... 'cause it just wouldn't work otherwise!
Click to expand...


Right right.....yes.....its "GB". But thats a bit odd - about the harddrive I mean. If I can find a cheap/spare HD lying around I can test that out.
 
I had a friend that went through about 4 of those Soyo Dragon motherboards, every one of them a stinker. He had endless lockups and crashes and random reboots.

He eventually gave up on it and got an Asus A7N8X and all was good.

As long as you have a Soyo motherboard, the system can not be trusted.

Other than that, make sure you have your drive cables plugged in properly. Remember, the red wire is Pin 1. On the drives, it points toward the power connector. Pin 1 on the motherboard should be marked.
 
HaMMerHeD said:
I had a friend that went through about 4 of those Soyo Dragon motherboards, every one of them a stinker. He had endless lockups and crashes and random reboots.

He eventually gave up on it and got an Asus A7N8X and all was good.

As long as you have a Soyo motherboard, the system can not be trusted.

Other than that, make sure you have your drive cables plugged in properly. Remember, the red wire is Pin 1. On the drives, it points toward the power connector. Pin 1 on the motherboard should be marked.
Click to expand...

The system was a compilation of some of my spare parts, some more parts bought by her dad, and then the mobo was my older bro's (that he wasnt using anymore.) He didnt seem to have any problems with it - that I knew/know of at least. The whole point was to help my friend and her dad out as much as possible. It wouldnt be impossible for him to get a new mobo, buuut.....he wont be so thrilled to dish out more cash if it comes to that.

On that note, what would be a good/cheap alternative for a mobo? (socket A, folks)

I dont have the PC in front of me, but I do have the manual (found online from the site). Could you explain the "red wire" and "Pin 1" a little bit more? Maybe its just an evening where my mind is muddled with school essays, but thank you.
 
Ok. If you are dealing with standard IDE cables (ie, not rounded cables with the rubber shrouds), one side of the cable will have a red or pink edge. I have even seen some blue and green edges, but red is standard. This red edge indicates Pin 1 of the connector. The ide cable needs to be plugged into the drives with the red edge (pin 1) closest to the power connector.

On the motherboard end, the connector is almost always marked. The kind of marking will vary, but it is usually pretty clearly labeled in some way. On some boards, there is an arrow pointing to Pin 1. On some boards, there is a small "1" printed on the board. On others, the Pin 1 side of the connector has a white bracked wrapped around it. It varies, and you may need to consult the motherboard's manual to be sure.

A while back, there was an attempt to standardize cable connectors by removing one of the unused wires and plugging the hole, resulting in cables that can not be plugged in facing the wrong direction. Some of the connectors were also notched to prevent this from happening. The problem is that it was never really set as a hard and fast standard, so the implementation of notching or plugging varies from board to board, and from drive to drive, so it is not always a good system to go by.

The red edge rule still applies, though.

If you are using rounded cables (cables that are rounded off and wrapped in a rubber shroud), the problem is amplified by the fact that you can not see the wires, and if you could, there are many different colors. On these cables, pins 1 and 40 are sort-of "etched" into the connector itself. You will need to inspect the plastic connector to find pin 1.

Hope this helps.
 
I would recommend clearing the CMOS. You should be able to find instructions on how to do that on that particular board in the manual.

Once you have cleared the CMOS, and you have verified the cables to be plugged in correctly, and the drives still do not appear, then it is likely that you have a problem with the power supply. It is possible that the drives are all broken, but much more likely that the power supply is not working properly.
 
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