The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

that's crazy maybe if you pull the battery on the mb it will reset everything in the bios back..that thing starting up in ms-dos mode..lol..i never had that problem b4..Disable the floppy if your not using it in the bios also change it to none..

 

Its got a CLRTC_SW, Would that be the same as ;pulling the Batt.

 

Make certain that your Rom was not among those that were disabled. YOu can set bios back to default without pulling the battery by just selecting set everything to default in bios. You might also have to move the pin on your DVD Rom to single drive until things are done. If it still doesn't work then there's a chance that it can't read from you CD rom. Is you copy of Windows a full version or upgrade?

Bill

The only time your really need to pull that battery is if the setting in the bios won't allow it to post. On most new boards there is a small shorting pin sitting on the left two pins of three pins. To reset bios just turn off power move the pin to short the right two pins and then move it back to the left two before posting.

 

yes clear the cmos pull the battery for 10mins

 

not that you will need it (I never have) but there is a clear cmos switch/button on the I/O panel on the back of the rampage formula.

I would follow Sophs directions. unplug all but one ODD drive and set it to master. reset bios to default. set boot priority ODD drive 1st hdd 2nd. disable flopy. should work no prob.

btw: if only using a dual/single core cpu the 4 pin power connector will work but for quad cores the 8 pin power connector is required. good luck. that should get ya going. I'll stay out of the equation. plenty of chiefs already.

 

Set my Drive to master, detects drive. Now I get a black screen with the Cursor flashing. But seems to stop their, I would think that after a couple mins something should happen

 

once you have the bios set to boot from ODD 1st, install the OS cd and reboot. do not go back into bios. follow the onscreen directions.

 

What is the OS CD, all I got is Win XP & the Rampage Disc

 

he is referring to the windows xp install disk.

 

Sorry, just an idiot. Its still sitting idol at the blk scrn for the last 4 mins, shouldn't something be happening. Bad Disc, unable to read, error, Something, anything

 

The process of learning sometimes makes idiots of us all.

What version of Windows XP do you have IE OEM, upgrade, retail, one that is supplied with a commercial PC.

For some reason the boot information on your install disc is not kicking in. The fact that it gets to a point where all you see is a flashing white icon means that it is not reading your disc but the ROM is recognizing that something is in the drive.

Do you have any older versions of windows on hand such as Win2K? If so give one of them a try and see if they're recognized. Then if they are recognized just before you request that Win2k begins formatting your disc swap it out with your XP disc, if necessary do a hard restart and if you are asked if you want to boot from disc ignore it and it should return to the format stage.

 

I wanna thank everybody 4 their help...
One more question. Will it be alright to leave the 1st DVD RW at Master, and the second Drive when I put it back as Cable select or should I make it Slave, or should I put them both at Cable Select

 

abuzar1,

I really wish you would get your facts straight! You do not need all 8 pins! That's why they ship it with the plastic cover over the other 4. It's recommended to use all 8 (DUH!) but will work with just the un-capped 4.

Your statement about ATX/Full ATX is nonsense too. All that refers to is the form factor! There's ATX and Mini ATX, there is no "Full ATX" motherboards except maybe in advertising! The difference is that the Mini ATX is slightly smaller, not that it's inferior to the ATX, as you seem to be implying! The main difference between the two form factors is the location of the screw holes for the motherboard stand-offs. Most decent cases today handle both form factors without issue!

Back in 1995 Intel came up with the ATX for the Pentium Pro. This was the first motherboard to provide the 4 pin plug to directly supply power from the PSU to the CPU. The sole purpose was to relieve the motherboard from having to regulate the CPU voltage, depending on the power supply to do it instead! Less strain on the MB power supply and less heat generated by the MB! The main reason it was designed was because of the rising power demands of the CPU were putting too much load on the 20 pin power plug and connector to the motherboard and would sometimes burn up or melt the power plug and motherboard connection! I've seen a number of them with the MB power plug all brown and black from the heat generated.

Respectfully,
Russ

 

I found an older ver of XP Prof. that I had, but now I seem to be stopped at the licensing agreement screen, I press F8 nothing, I press escape & it reboots

 

At least now we know that the CD is the problme. Do you know if your CD's are upgrade version, OEM version, or what. Then if you know someone who has the exact same version IE OEM Or retail then you get a copy of theirs and it will work with your serial. If your version is an upgrade version you have to start the installation with a disc such as Win98 or Win2k and then swap as I suggested earlier. If your copy of windows came with a commercial PC such as HP then it requires that some of the information is already installed on your hard disk drive because they are not full copies. The important thing is that we have\ to identify exactly where your discs originated to proceed.

 

I'll be honest, I have been stuck here before, and the only occasions it happened, I had a bad CD.

Theone: Indeed, I didn't feel the need to make a big thing out of it, but despite its reduced size, the P35-DS3L for example is still a full ATX motherboard.

 

agreed

and when Ocing its always best to have all 8 pins

 

Guess that's another rule I broke and got away with then...

 

sammorris,

If it meant something from a technical standpoint, it might be meaningful, but it doesn't! The only ones that make a "seemingly" big deal out of it are cheap case manufacturers, in their specs! I guess they figure "Full ATX" in their specs actually means something special, when all it means is that you can install an ATX motherboard in it! ROFLMAO!!

shaffaaf,

Because when you overclock, the power demand goes up and it spreads the demand between both. You could do the same thing with a heavier duty 4 prong plug and heavier wiring! Since it's easier to manage smaller wires and smaller MB plugs, the choice to go with 8 pins makes sense!

Best Regards,
Russ