New PC Intel Or Amd

Hi,

Just bought the 2 systems and put the first one together. My first
imprssion is that it takes a long time until the system boots from the
HD. Until the screen with the processorspeed, hardware info, etc and
pool (or something like that) appears takes a few minutes and i think
thats slow. I didn't get te latest drivers andso yet.

Is this always so slow our do i need to compleet the installation with
new drivers etc? Or do i need to change something else?

Configuration:
A7N8X-X
333Mhz Dane Elec (girl friends pc, and she didn't want to spend more
money on Ram)
WD 80Gb 8Mb cache
Geforce MX400

Klaas

 

The HD caused the problems. To solve it i need to connect the HD on
the connector on the other end off the flat cable. The connector in
the middle doesn't work proparly. Also tried other cables, but all the
same result. So now i have the CD-player in the middle and the HD on
the end off the cable. It works but it shouldn't be this way and the
cable is a bit tight now.

Any ideas on why it only works this way? Problem with the mainboard
connector or so?

klaas

 

Is it an ATA66 cable? (80 wires instead of 40)

If so, you should use cable select for each drive.

Otherwise you should be aware that the 13th wire is generally cut somewhere
in the ribbon, and that the end connector is master, and the middle one
slave - setting the jumper on the drive to master and then plugging it into
the middle connector (for example) could cause problems. Additionally, the
cables have a motherboard end - they are not reversable like the old 40 wire
ones.

If cable select causes you problems, use the jumpers to explicitly set the
master/slave relationship, but beware the rules above.

Additionally some devices just don't like to be master, or slave. So
swapping them round can help. (I have a Sony burner that doesn't like to be
master, I think)

Ben

 

I noticed How the ... could i have known? there is nothing in the
manual from Asus. I Thought it didn't matter never experinced this
before.

I tried that the hardway and found out it didn't work How can you
tell what the motherboard end is and what not?

Its a bit short but it works correct now. Why don't they make those
cables a few inches longer

That wasn't the problem. It had a hard time discovering the HD and
after formatting it wouldn't boot proparly. The store took a look at
it with Partion Magic and saw that everything was messed up. Multiple
primary stations mixed with logical stations.

I'm about too put together my own system:
A7N8x-x Deluxe
2500+ (Already mounted on the Mobo)
512 corsair mem (already mounted)
120 Maxtor SATA
Radeon 9600 Pro
NEC DVD burner
Asus DVD player

Any issue i should be aware off before starting assembling? Any
suprises like the above?

tnx
klaas

 

Since the problem is that the SATA host adapter on the motherboard is
not supported by the standard ATA driver that comes with XP, it is
obvious where you need to look. If there is not a driver on the ASUS
site then try the manufacturer of the SATA chip.

 

Then the rest of my comments aaren't relevant.

The 80wire ones are colour coded.

Signal quality. There's a lot of noise inside a computer case and long IDE
cables can pick it up - the 40pin ones are quite good at that - I think the
spec said a max of 18" at one point.

Stations? You mean partitions?

You are allowed up to 4 primary partitions per drive. Usually with a
Windows setup, you have one primary partition and then one extended
partition, with logical partitions in the extended one (if you want 2 or
more partitions). However, you can have 4 primary partitions, but only one
can be active at any one time.

Dunno! Difficult to think of all the little snippets of info I know, that
you may not

The SATA drive may require different power connectors... sometimes they have
a 4pin molex connector as well as the SATA power connector (my WD Raptor has
both power connectors)

Ben

 

Hi,

I think i run into one off those snipes.

I put the system together. On boot time it sees the SATA drive, but
not as the primary disk. Windows XP can't find it now and says that
there is no Hard drive in the system. Booting from floppy works, and
fdisk can find the drive and put partitions on it, but off course
thats not what i want.

How can i get system to see the SATA disk al primary disk and install
XP?

tnx,

Klaas

 

Hi,

(second attempt, first one has disapeared somewhere).

Put my system together but I can't install XP. The SATA drive is
there and found by the controller but isn't the primary disk (and any
other disk either) Installing XP now stops because it thinks there is
no Hard drive. Booting from floppy works and fdisk can find the drive
and put partitions on it, but thats not what i need.

How can i correct this? What should i do to show the SATA disk as an
primary disk so XP can find it and be installed?

tnx

Klaas

 

What do you mean "primary disk"?

When does it say that? During setup? Did you install the Driver by hitting
F6 on setup startup?

You need to set the boot order to SCSI. And you need to install the driver.

Ben

 

In one off the first screens ide is detected and the master and
slaves are shown. In my case only the DVD-rom and DVD-burner are
shown.The SATA isn't. Also in the BIOS setup it isn't shown as an
drive. Only in the Raid setup from the SATA controller.

What driver? where from? should it be in the box? F6? never read
anyware i should do that.. Going to look in the box and see if i can
find't anything.

XP starts from the CD and when i "enter" to instal it says there is no
harddrive.

Great.. never read anything about it. Where is that documented?

Klaas

 

Ok found/saw the F6 in the XP installation. Pressed it and now i get
the option to install a driver from the flopp. Only problem is: What
floppy? what driver? there is non in my box from the mobo, only an cd.

Klaas

 

Hmmm my SATA HD came in sealed plastic no floppy/drivers either. Where
should it be? ASUS for the mobo or Maxtor for the hd? any location on
the internet where i can get it?

tnx
klaas

 

yep there was something on Asus. in the readme file they also said to
use the enclosed disk, which i don't have. Put one together with the
provide drivers andso and inserted it into the XP installation. XP
then said it had a driver and if the manufacturer didn't give a good
reason i should use it. So i'am going to. Or is that a bad idea and
should i use the driver from Sili instead?

Klaas

 

Driver linked from my FAQ:

www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html#Drivers

Will need to extract the files in the zip onto a floppy and use that.

Ben

 

Ok, next time i will use this one. I put one together from the update
on the asus site, but the cat file and some others where missing. It
worked however and the system is now up and running. Need to install
the local network and do some more testing and then... overclocking
time.

klaas

 

Hi,

I fucked up the system badly and had to reinstall xp. I used F6 and
accepted the software from the diskkette. When XP installed the driver
it said (again did that also yesterday) that it wasn't an official XP
tested driver (something with no logo) and asked if i wanted to use it
anyway. I choose no this time and went on with the installation. I was
suprised xp could start from the hard disk without that drivers.
Perhaps it was just one off the components. Any ideas on this?

The reason i fucked up the system was very simple. I inserted a web
cam on one off the USB ports to test if they worked. The cam was
detected so i pulled out the usb-cable and... got a blue screen. After
that it wouldn't restart from the hd. Seems like the boot record was
messed up. After installing xp again i tested this again and.. this
time a blue screen but it would restart. After restart it give an
notification that the system recoverd from an sirious error and if i
wanted to transmit a report to Microsoft. Testing the same thing on
the other computer wiht an A7N8X-X in stead off the deluxe version
gave no problems. How can i fix this problem? (exept from shutting
down the system before removing usb cabels)

Klaas

 

So on my new pc now.. seems to work fine.. now its time to overclock.
saw once a brief note here what the best way to start was.. can't find
it back now. Whats the best way / steps to overclock the system?

tnx
klaas

 

Going by your knowledge of pc's so far I would suggest you dont overclock
the pc until you learn a little more about it, especially what the "bios" is
and what the "os" is