990FXA-UD3 Won't detect SATA, stuck on splash screen

[TDKenyon]

Hi all. A few days ago I purchased a DIY computer combo from NewEgg ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.793723) and put it all together, but that's as far as I got. No OS or anything, just the pieces put together.

The issue I am encountering is this: when ANY of my SATA drives are plugged in, boot up freezes at the MoBo splash screen. I can't access the BIOS or anything. This sometimes occurs even if my SATA drives are not plugged in, and the only way I have been able to access the BIOS is by removing the CMOS battery for an hour and having no SATA plugged in. Upon exiting the BIOS, or not going into it to start, it will get past the splash and go so far as to state "Loading Operating System," which, of course, there isn't one yet!

I checked the BIOS settings for a few fixes I've found on the net. SATA is set to native IDE. I've reseated everything. I've tried only one SATA drive at a time. I am completely at a loss here.

Any ideas? Sorry if I didn't follow some posting rules or this has been answered elsewhere, I'm on my Kindle Fire and I did the best I could checking into everything before posting. Thank you all in advance!

 

[clutchc]

One quick point: next time you remove the CMOS battery, move to CLR CMOS jumper to the shorting pins, wait a few seconds, and move it back. That way you won't have to wait an hour for the charge to dissipate. (Pg. 29 in the manual)

If breadboarding the system with just CPU/HSF, video card, keyboard, 24 pin and CPU power connected doesn't allow you to get to BIOS... I'd say the board is faulty. Unless the video card is defective and causing the system to freeze. Do you have a know good card to use for a test?

 

[TDKenyon]

I looked at the CLR CMOS before, it only has 2 pins and no jumper, so I wasn't sure what to do, as I've only seen 3 pins with a jumper. I can get to the BIOS, but not when any SATA drives are connected.

 

[clutchc]

I had that same board, but recently sold it. The jumper cap was in the bag of parts. But you don't need it. Just do as the instructions say in the manual. short the two pins with a screwdriver for a few seconds. (The boards that have 3 pins w/jumper attached, use the extra dummy pin just to store the jumper on) All you're doing shorting the pins is grounding a capacitor to discharge it.

If resetting the BIOS to default with the jumper doesn't clear the problem with booting when you have a SATA port populated, it is beginning to look like a bad board. Was this a new or used board?