[Doby]

Now that I know what cpu you have I can explain some things, you have

Amd model 4 thunderbird socket A cpu 1400 mhz
Clock multiplyer 10.5
Fsb 266
Voltage (Vcore) 1.75

The Abit Kv7 does NOT offically support your model cpu however from what you have described the bios is recognizing it and it seems to be working because the bios sees the drives and other settings but windows don't find the sata drive. I think your problem is you are not loading the sata drivers. I will get back to you on this but for now lets get the bios correct.

In bios soft menu set up
set cpu fsb clock to 133 mhz ( I believe you set this already)
Then under power supply set the cpu core voltage to 1.75
Then under Advanced Chipset Features goto Dram Clock/Drive Controll and press enter now set the dram clock to 133 mhz.
Don't forget to save when you exit.

These are the correct settings for your cpu/mobo.If you are able to set all these just like this then I don't think you will need a new cpu even though the cpu is not offically supported because it will be running at correct speeds. The main thing here is the bios accepts its settings and recognizes it.

I will be back in a bit with more on the sata situation

Rick

[Advertisements]

Did you recieve and are you using a floppy with the sata drivers that came with the mobo?

If so then boot system by Windows XP installation CD, when the message "Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver" shows up, press "F6". Then, press "S" to specify additional device when next screen pops up. Put the driver floppy disk in and press enter to continue., the installation program will ask for selecting driver. Please then select "VIA Serial ATA RAID Controller(Windows XP)".) After SATA driver loaded and Windows XP can recognize the SATA HDD, you can continue to install Windows XP as usual.

You can also try having the floppy in when you boot.

When the intallation program asks for you to select the driver what are the choices?.

Please answer the two questions so I can look into this further

At this point I am 90% sure its not the cpu or psu although I do recommend replacing the psu asap because additional problems will surface after windows is installed. I am willing to bet if this were a ide hdd you would be able to load windows.

Rick

[Doby]

Did you recieve and are you using a floppy with the sata drivers that came with the mobo?

If so then boot system by Windows XP installation CD, when the message "Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver" shows up, press "F6". Then, press "S" to specify additional device when next screen pops up. Put the driver floppy disk in and press enter to continue., the installation program will ask for selecting driver. Please then select "VIA Serial ATA RAID Controller(Windows XP)".) After SATA driver loaded and Windows XP can recognize the SATA HDD, you can continue to install Windows XP as usual.

You can also try having the floppy in when you boot.

When the intallation program asks for you to select the driver what are the choices?.

Please answer the two questions so I can look into this further

At this point I am 90% sure its not the cpu or psu although I do recommend replacing the psu asap because additional problems will surface after windows is installed. I am willing to bet if this were a ide hdd you would be able to load windows.

Rick

[peterrex]

Thanks so much. I have the SATA drivers on the floppy that came with the mother board but at no time yet, of all the times it has tried to load windows, has it responded to the F6 button being pushed, no matter how fast, many times or what ever. I can't boot with the floppy in because it won't complete the boot process and gives an error message to remove the disk and push any button. I will set the BIOS as you have indicated and let you know what the results are in the morning. Thank you for all the feedback.

[peterrex]

Here's the update. I put in the values in the BIOS you defined. Booted up fine but still refused to recognize drives from the Windows start up. Doesn't respond to F6 so there is no second screen to hit the S key from. I tried booting with floppy, not working, tried putting floppy in at F6 rquest, not working.
In the bootable add in device (in the BIOS) I have it listed as Onchip SATA RAID
Setting for Onchip PCI device is set as Onchip SATA RAID BIOS (enabled)
At the start up screen the POST sees: VIA TECH VT8237 Serial ATA RAID BIOS and shows the presence of the Western Digital drive. It seems that it is Windows that cannot see the SATA drive or accept the installation of the drivers for same. Thanks.

[audioboy]

there should be a setting in BIOS to allow it to boot to other device. probably just an enable/disable option. it would be around the area where you set boot order. that will need to be enabled, so the final boot order would go floppy, then CD. then it would check for other (in this case, your SATA drive).
windows may want to format the disc, let it if it asks- assuming there is nothing you need on there! I think you said its a new drive.

[Doby]

Audioboy is on to something here, under advanced bios features check the hard disk boot priority

[peterrex]

I have set everything as you have described. I have the other boot device enabled, I have the CD ROM first, floppy second and hdd third. I have the SATA RAID BIOS enabled and it will not accept the F6 input during setup. It continues to refuse to see the hdd during the Windows set up. Is there some other setting that is not so obvious to me that needs to be made in the BIOS? Thanks

[audioboy]

remove the HDD from the boot option. it is likely hanging on that, as it doesnt see an IDE drive.

[Doby]

I will go over all the bios settings on my Kv7 and see what I can come up with although I have ide drives on it maybe I will see something. I have been over the manual but can't come up with anything, I have also asked for additional help on this so hang in there maybe someone else will respond

[peterrex]

Your'e a champ. Thanks a million. I'll try removing the hdd from the boot option if I can as you suggest. Ciao, until tomorrow.

[peterrex]

So what I did was this: HD Boot Priority is Bootable Add In Device
HDD change message is disabled (or enabled was the same result)
Third boot device was disabled (had been the HD)
Also the default settings for the following if they mean anything were untouched:
IDE Prefetch Mode was enabled
Onchip IDE-1 controller:enabled(DVD is on this channel)
Onchip IDE-2 controller:enabled
Boot other device:enabled.

The result was no change. No response to the F6 signal for SATA driver installation and the same resultant message finally: can't see the SATA drive for installation. Thanks for trying. Any other ideas?

[audioboy]

I'm digging through the manual for your board now. first thing I came across is in BIOS under onboard PCI devices. check to make sure the onboard SATA controller is enabled.
I will keep digging...

[audioboy]

ok, double check again to make sure the onboard serial ATA controller is enabled. it looks like it might be a menu choice under a menu choice...hard to tell with the awful translation of the manual.
I searched the abit forums, and found a pretty good how-to.

http://forum.abit-us...&threadid=37734

you can ignore the parts about RAID. they made some mention of pressing the F4 button to get into the raid configuration utility. that would be worth checking out. also makes me think that on my system, early in boot, I see the SATA disc being recognized by the controller. do you see anything like that?

I am pretty much stumped why this isnt working...its gotta be a setting for the sata controller or something else like that in the BIOS. if none of what is mentioned in that post I linked above works, you might try posting on that forum about your problem. if it comes to that, please post back here with whatever you find that gets it working!
I will of course continue to watch this thread. I am not giving up on you peterrex. now I HAVE to know the solution to this!

[gerryf]

I glanced through here and if I didn't miss it, $10 will get you $20 you have a multimedia/usb keyboard that has an inactive Function row at boot.

Look for a F-Lock key on your keyboard, boot your computer, tap the f-lock key, then tap the f6 key....

Be careful, if you press the f-lock key too soon the pc will turn it off again as it detects the keyboard and you will have to hit the f-lock key again. Generally, most of these keyboards will have a little light to denote the function keys are on or off.

This is why I always carry a spare, good old ps2 keyboard in my tool kit. I hate farting around with these stupid multimedia keyboards....

[peterrex]

BINGO! Well, almost anyway, but now we're cooking. THE KEYBOARD, THE KEYBOARD, I guess it was too obvious to think of that. Yes, I had one of those multi media keyboard that I first thought was cool, then the scroll wheel broke (like I care since it's on the mouse anyway) and I ended up never using the bells and whistles like instant program buttons and so on. Yes, I too have spares and yes I did switch them and YES IT DID get me to a response from the F6 key. However, this is kind of like those myths where the last challenge is which door do you choose to go through because now I'm asked which SATA driver to install. This is way too arcane for me, but the choices are: Intel 82801FR SATA RAID controller for Windows XP or Intel 82801ER SATA Raid controller for Windows XP. Only one letter difference, does it matter?

I've got to tell you that the first time I went to install the floppy, the drive hatch broke and wouldn't accept the disk. I had to swap that out and luckily had a spare on hand. This is like a bad TV drama where they keep cutting to a commercial just before they show you that the killer was a little boy with a lollypop or something silly. Say, don't you guys ever sleep? I await your direction as to which driver is right unless either one will work. After this gets up and running I'll have a bonus question. Thanks, thank you, gracias and so on.