new pc...cant get os to install

[delmer_1]

i need help.

i just assembled a new PC and i cant get it to install an OS. First: here are teh specs:

Asus P4C800 Deluxe motherboard
Intel P4 3ghz processor
1gb pc3200 ram (2x512mb)
Asus Geforce 4 mx440 64mb agp
lite on 16x dvd
lite on 48x24x48 cdrw
maxtor 30gb ata100 HD
WD 80gb ata 100 HD

the drives are leftover form my old PC...anyway..i cant get this thing to work at all. this board has two serial ata ports, plus a promise raid controller with 2 more serial ata ports, and an ata133 ide port.

i have tried many configuraions, but no matter how i have this set up, i cannot get xp to install. I boot from the CD and i get to the first screen with the blue background and it says Windows Setup in the top left corner, but no matter how long i let it sit, nothign else happens. the little gray bar at the bottom where the text is usally displayed never shows up. if i put boot to that disk in my old PC, it works fine. i also tried booting to a redhat 9 CD and it looks like it is going to start, it goes through the hardware detection and then it gets to IDE0 then IDE1 and it just sits there.

i did manage to boot to my knoppix CD and i can see the hard drive, but since it runs from the CD, that doesnt really help me.

i have tried teh following configurations.
--
30gb drive as Primary master
DVD as primary slave
--
30gb as primary master
dvd as secondary master
--
30gb on primise controller
dvd as primary master
--
80gb as primary master
cdrw as primary slave
--
80gb as primary master
cdrw as secondary master
--
30gb and 80gb on promise
dvd as primary master
cdrw as secondary master
--



and i beleive a few other combinations. no matter what i do, it doesnt work. the sees teh drives when they are on primary or secondary IDE. if i have the promise controller enabled, it also shoes 3rd master/slave and 4th master slave. but they are empty. i set the IDE mode to both enhanced or compatible. set the promise to IDE instead of RAID. i set it to p-ata + s-ata, and also just p-ata Only. sometimes i disable the promise controller and just have the drives on the normal ide channels. but it just doesnt work. i can take the drives and cd and put them on my other PC and they all work just fine. (abit kt7a-raid, athlon 1.4, 1.5gb pc133)

when i turn the PC on...it beeps 4 times. two high pitch short beebs, followed by two lower pitch short beeps. it doens thsow any errors on the screen.

any ideas what i can do or try?

[3D Prophet III]

Have you tried disabling the onboard NIC and sound in BIOS? Putting both hard drives on primary IDE and CD drives on secondary IDE? Disable the onboard serial ATA in BIOS. Then try to install XP, if the installation goes well then you can enable one thing at a time in BIOS, first the onboard sound, reboot, let xp detect the onboard sound, then reboot and enable onboard NIC in BIOS, reboot and then let xp detect the onboard NIC. If you don't have serial ATA drives and if you don't have any USB devices, disable them in BIOS. You can always enable them later.

[confus-ed]

...when i turn the PC on...it beeps 4 times. two high pitch short beebs, followed by two lower pitch short beeps. it doens thsow any errors on the screen...

Whatever this is we want it stopped before we even think about trying to install windows

Keep taking stuff in & out & checking connections order etc until you just get plain old 'beep' (post)... here I'd only use minimal kit (turn any onboards off ) & leave the serial controller off (I don't see any serial devices)& the RAID for now ...

[gazzak]

Ram, ram, ram and maybe then it's the ram!

Remove one of the 512mb sticks, try again. If no joy replace with the other stick.

Trust me on this, I know them bleeps!!!

[asm481]

Ram, ram, ram and maybe then it's the ram!

Remove one of the 512mb sticks, try again. If no joy replace with the other stick.

Trust me on this, I know them bleeps!!!

Isn't ram the problem child in most install problems?

[gazzak]

Isn't ram the problem child in most install problems?

YES!!!

[delmer_1]

well, i desabled a bunch of stuff and now it is installing. i dont think ram had anything to do with it this time. i took your advice and disabled:

NIC
sound
firewire
usb
and everything else that didnt seem necessary.

i connected both hard drives to primary IDe and both CDs to secondary ide.

it is now working and i am no longer getting any beeps. thank you all so much.. inever had so many problems with a new build. but then again, this is my first board with alot of integrated features. i usually avoid boards with everything integrated.

windows is installing now, so as soon as that is done, i will start enabling stuff and hopefull figure out what the problem was.


thank you all so much.

[confus-ed]

So nobody gets to know what the beep that was all about
'Fixed' anyway

[delmer_1]

sorry i didnt post back sooner...i was messing with it. It turns out that the usb controller is what was doing it. I enabled everything one at a time..but as soon as I enabled the usb controller, it starts beeping again. I then tried reloading windows again, with everything enabled. it didnt work. i then disabled just the usb controller and it went right through.

this was a pain, since i am using a usb mouse, so i had to use the keyboard only to set up windows (cause i was too lazy to go find my usb to ps2 adapter)

Once windows is installed, i enabled the usb. it still beeps like that, but it boots up fine and the usb works. but i cant get it to use USB 2.0. i have a usb 2.0 mp3 jukebox, but when i connect it, it tells me that a high speed device is connected to a non high speed controller. From what i understand, SP1 has to be installed in order for this to work. however i recall having problems the last time i installes SP1.. so is there any way to get usb 2.0 working on XP without SP1?

[Gollo]

You did download the latest bios and mobo drivers right? Also does your case have front usb? If so are you sure you connected the proper? If all this stuff checks out return that board and get one that works. Sounds like it's bad. I'd understand it giving you grief on install or whatever but right at boot? That ain't right.

[delmer_1]

i have not updated the bios yet. there are no updated drivers for the usb controller for xp. in fact there are no drivers at all. just a text file that says: Use SP1.

i do have front usb, and i am pretty sure i connected them properly. but even with them disconected it still beeps. i even went in and set it to 4 usb ports in the usb setup. (there are 4 ports on the back panel) but it still beeps. also, i cant seem to get the front usb to work. i havent tried a while lot yet, but they dont seem to respond.

returning the board is probably not an option at this point. Someone else ordered it several months ago and just sat here, while other parts were ordered. eventually i was told that i could have this stuff to play with.

this computer hasnt cost me anything yet. it is all parts either given to me, or stuff i had. SO i cant really complain. I would just like to get the usb 2 working. if i have to disable the usb controller to install windows, i can deal with that. i would just like to get to take advantage of the usb 2.0 speeds.

[delmer_1]

Did a clean install of XP, and SP1.

changed usb wake up jumpers on motherboard. checked that front usb were attached properly, according to manual.

I still had to disable usb to install windows. but after i got windows running, i did a bios update (man..the asus bios update process rocks)

and now it appears to be working well. USB 2.0 is workign. front USB ports are working and since the bios update, there are no more funny beeps at boot.

thanks for all of your help on this matter. I just got it up and running last night, i downloaded a program called Performance Test from passmark.com which i used to run on my old system. i ran it on this one and i did see better performance...which is a good thing. on my old PC, the best score i managed to get was 262.7. that was with it overclocked slightly, and with the two hard drives set up in a stripe.(RAID0)
this one with default settings scored 315.1. so with some tweaking i am sure i can get a much better score than that.