[dolphinwolf]

Hi. We just started building a new machine (not our first, but as usual, there are issues)...
Gigabyte GA-8I945P-G
(originally)Geil Ram 1gb DDR2 667 -- switched to a guaranteed RAM DDR2-667 by a different company after we had the same problems with the Geil as other people posted.
SAPPHIRE 100119L Radeon X550 256MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive
BenQ Black IDE DVD Burner Model DW1625 BLK
NZXT NEMESIS ELITE BLK Black 1.0 mm ALUMINUM ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 400 WATT PS2 ATX 12V Power Supply
Intel Pentium 4 630 Prescott 800MHz FSB LGA 775 3.0ghz
ASUS Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E616A


We can't get it to boot frpm cdrom and install operating system. It checks the IDE drives and finds both dvd rom drives. Then, it says "Bootable CDROM detected", and it switches to a totally blank screen with blinking line at top left corner and does nothing else. Can't even try to type in a drive letter or anything. Tried both dvd roms, tried a few different bios settings, have never had this problem. ??? Please help.
Also, we're noticing that the power seems to be "fluctuating". The case's bright blue lights flicker about every 5 to 10 seconds like the power's hitting a hiccup or something, but that doesn't seem to affect the boot process as everything continues smoothly up until the point where nothing happens. Is 400 watt PS not enough for p4 3ghz?

Super appreciate any advice anyone might have.
Thanks a bunch.

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Hi there

To be honest, if the PSU is a generic one (as opposed to good quality brand) then I suspect that 400W is probably not enough to comfortably run your system, especially given your system specs.

As a temporary solution, you could try disconnecting the second (slave) DVD drive & any other non-essential hardware you have (such as PCI cards etc). This may just be enough to allow it to boot properly.

[Samm]

Hi there

To be honest, if the PSU is a generic one (as opposed to good quality brand) then I suspect that 400W is probably not enough to comfortably run your system, especially given your system specs.

As a temporary solution, you could try disconnecting the second (slave) DVD drive & any other non-essential hardware you have (such as PCI cards etc). This may just be enough to allow it to boot properly.

[dolphinwolf]

Thanks for trying to help.
We got a completely new Antec 550watt psu, and the problem isn't as dramatic, but still exists, and we still can't get it to boot to the hard drive. We even installed the os from a different machine, but still no boot. We've disconnected the dvdrom drives, the video card, even the power to the cpu and still we get the hiccup . ??? Any other ideas? We're thinking maybe the mobo's bad, but it's brand new. Could it be a jumper setting somewhere? Will be reading alot tonight.

Again, any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks a bunch!

[warriorscot]

Well electronics manufacture is a black art really they throw away more boards before they even ;eave the factory than they sell, and some get through the screening process if you contact the manufacturer and organise an RMA you send them the bad board and they send you a brand new one(usually they have double checked it is a working one as well). It does sound like the power regulation on th motherboard has been damaged possibly by the first PSU.

When you switched to the new PSU did you try reseting the CMOS(not that i think it would do much good just worht a try).

[Doby]

Just a thought, could you try a crom drive in stead of a dvd drive I have seen troubles on occasion when trying to load a OS from a dvd drive.

Rick

[dolphinwolf]

Hi again. Thanks to all for trying to help. Will try clearing cmos today. We actually disconnected both dvd drives since we already got the os on by connecting the hard drive to a different machine. We tried getting the new hard drive to boot, and also tried a hard drive that already runs in a different machine , but no luck still. This mobo has no beep sounds to even tell if something's wrong - not even the single beep for successfull startup. Our hd is ATA133-parallel(not serial), and we're wondering if there is some funky configuration that it doesn't specify in the manual or something. I think we must've tried everything by now between the ide connectors to the bios settings, but we'll see if we can contact any Gigabyte support today I guess.

Thanks to all for continued help!

[dsenette]

with xp you won't be able to boot to the o/s if it was configured on another board, unless it's the exact same motherboard..make, model, etc..

[warriorscot]

Well, if you are sure that there is a speaker connected for you to hear the beeps, try and boot the pc without any ram or gfx card and you should hear some error beaps if you dont get any their is a good chance the board is a duffer.