Windows XP Bios Config for Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H Motherboard

[saint4hire]

Hello,

I've just put together my own computer and I keep receiving an error when the machine boots up. I'm trying to install Windows XP to an empty hard drive and I Keep receiving the following error:
Hard Disk Boot Failure, Insert System Disk and Press Enter

Now thus far I've nailed down some things:
1. That the hard drives (brand new) are good b/c I can connect them (via SATA/USB adapter) to my HP Pavilion dv7 Windows Vista laptop and have reformatted the hard drives and my laptop has no trouble whatsoever accessing these hard drives.

2. I'm getting a good BIOS single Beep (music to my ears).

3. I've changed boot-up config to boot from the CD ROM w/ the xp operating system disk in the drive, but it doesn't appear to get to that xp screen before I get the error.

4. Here's the rub, I'm fairly certain it's some sort of BIOS configuration I'm missing but haven't quite nailed it down yet. Here is the list of (all brand new) hardware I have installed:

Motherboard/CPU Package deal from TigerDirect:
1. Gigabyte Motherboard - GA-MA785GM-US2H
2. AMD HD885BWCJ3BGH Phenom X3 8850 Triple Core 2.50GHz Socket AM2+, 1.5MB L2, 2MB L3 Cache, OEM Processor

3. 2 Western Digital 500 GB SATA / 32 MB Cache Hard Drives (WD5001AALS)

4. RAM - A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model AD2U800B2G5-DRH

5. Thermaltake SpinQ CPU Cooler CL-P0466

6. Graphics Card - ATI FireGL V7100 256MB

7. Case - Cooler Master Storm Scout SGC-2000-KKN1-GP Case

Is it possible to gain some sort of BIOS configuration setting list to enable me to verify the BIOS settings are correct to install an XP Operating System?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank You,
Very Respectfully,
Dan

 

[PaulR08]

Check the CD/DVD drive cables and for proper opening and closing when at the POST screen. It sounds like the motherboard/BIOS is not reading your OS disk.

 

[saint4hire]

Right on...so I found the cable wasn't seated correctly. So I pulled the cable and much to my dismay I found a couple of the pins are bent just a bit...I'm carefully bending the pins so that the cable can be re-seated correctly...will follow up as soon as that's done...wow...I feel dumb...hopefully that was it...thanks!

 

[saint4hire]

alright...got the pins reset and it's now prompting me to hit any key to boot from CD...Awesome right....however, I press any key and then I get the original error yet again....
So, I popped the drives out and verified Master/Slave PIN settings....they were correct...popped the 2 drives back in...attempted to boot again w/ no success....popped disk into 2nd drive just as a shot in the dark thinking it might boot from that...no dice...disconnected the slave drive and tried that...no luck....popped out cd drive and popped in a different one...nothing happened w/ that one...mind you, I think the other cd-rom is so ancient....so who knows if it would talk anyway....I'll try troubleshooting w/ some other cd-roms I've got lying around and get back if anything new comes up...but being prompted to hit any key to boot from cd is definitely a step in the right direction....

side note...the cd roms are the only thing is this build that are not brand new....fairly old...never heard of a cd rom going bad before...but I don't doubt it's possible...the machine they came from experienced an utter and total breakdown...I was never able to determine if the older computer's motherboard died or CPU...didn't matter though, b/c it was old and I had no intent of using it anymore anyway...besides, the motherboard is no longer even built and additionally, trying to buy the older CPU was not even worth the effort....

Anyway, will check back when I've something to report...

Thanks!

 

[PaulR08]

Purchase/Install a SATA DVD/CD drive. If there is still an error, I would use another OS disk or burn a new one.

 

[saint4hire]

I think it was a combination of a bad dvd/cd drive and I wonder if it might also have been the fact that windows xp sp2 had some sort of issue w/ recognizing a sata hard drive.?
Anyway, installed windows 7 w/ no issues utilizing a different cd/dvd drive (mind you, one I had tried before w/ windows xp sp 2).
So I suppose in closing to say what the actual fix was is whether or not windows xp sp2 is capable of recognizing a sata HDD?

Thanks for your help!

 

[PaulR08]

It could be the BIOS settings for your SATA drive are not set right. For example, sometimes selecting the IDE/Legacy option will detect the HDD and install. Try AHCI or IDE instead of SATA and see if that works.

 

[saint4hire]

Initially I did have an issue w/ that...I had it set to AHCI and I changed it over to IDE so that was one problem dealt w/...

Anyway, I did manage to install Windows 7 and not XP...not for certain if it was an XP operating system disk problem or a combination of XP OS disk problem and a bad CD ROM.

I'm going to say for now the issue was a bad CD ROM and choose that as the best answer b/c as it stands, the original CD ROM I was using is now installed as secondary, and it's not working....So for sure the CD ROM was bad...

So I'll select Bad CD ROM as the solution...

Thanks for all your help!
V/R
Dan

 

[saint4hire]

Best answer selected by saint4hire.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey