K8N - Cannot load O.S. Is this a dead board?

  • Thread starter Thread starter mh_l
  • Start date Start date
M

mh_l

Brand new board K8N (not Deluxe)
Athlon 64 3000+
2 x 512Mb DDR400
new 450W PSU
Maxtor Diamond Plus 9 80Gb IDE


Trying to load XP Pro and failing. The CD starts fine. I partition and
format the new hard drive. XP setup program continues and all is fine
until the reboot.

The machine then reboots and I see "Press any key to boot from CD.."

I do NOT press any key, and expect the installation to continue to
run.
However, I get "A disk read error occurred" and I have to reboot.

It seems as if the mb does not see drive C.

I have reduced the installed hardware to a minimum using only one HDD
one optical drive, a graphics card, no wireless card.

I have swopped the memory and used a different HDD but still no
progress.

I have downloaded the latest bios.
I have booted from a floppy using a memory utility test.
I have checked the Maxtor drive using PowerMax and the drive is fine.
The drive works on another PC anyway.

Bios settings are fine. I have used the default settings.

Do I have a faulty motherboard or can someone point me in the right
direction to make this thing work?

Many thanks folks.
 
Brand new board K8N (not Deluxe)
Athlon 64 3000+
2 x 512Mb DDR400
new 450W PSU
Maxtor Diamond Plus 9 80Gb IDE


Trying to load XP Pro and failing. The CD starts fine. I partition and
format the new hard drive. XP setup program continues and all is fine
until the reboot.

The machine then reboots and I see "Press any key to boot from CD.."

I do NOT press any key, and expect the installation to continue to
run.
However, I get "A disk read error occurred" and I have to reboot.

It seems as if the mb does not see drive C.

I have reduced the installed hardware to a minimum using only one HDD
one optical drive, a graphics card, no wireless card.

I have swopped the memory and used a different HDD but still no
progress.

I have downloaded the latest bios.
I have booted from a floppy using a memory utility test.
I have checked the Maxtor drive using PowerMax and the drive is fine.
The drive works on another PC anyway.

Bios settings are fine. I have used the default settings.

Do I have a faulty motherboard or can someone point me in the right
direction to make this thing work?

Many thanks folks.
Click to expand...

Have you:

1) Tried both Pri and Sec IDE ports ?
2) Tried a different cable ?
3) Put both drives on the same cable and used cable select ?
(You need an 80 wire cable for cable select, AFAIK)
4) At the point you get "A disk read error occurred", leave
just the Maxtor connected, select the Maxtor in the BIOS
as the boot device, and try booting without a CD drive ?

Maybe the "disk read error" isn't even coming from the IDE
interface ? Could it be accessing the floppy drive at the
time ? Perhaps it thinks there is something in the floppy ?
Disconnect the floppy cable and try booting from the Maxtor
again. Remove the floppy from the boot order as well.

Do you have one of those 8-in-1 USB card readers connected
to the computer ? Sometimes that will foul up a boot.

You will find dead IDE interfaces on motherboards, but there
are a number of other possibilities, as you note.

Using the hardware monitor in the BIOS, how do the power
supply voltages look ? Are the voltages within 5% of nominal ?

Does this still happen if the motherboard is sitting on a
piece of cardboard ? Sometimes an extra standoff installed
underneath the motherboard, will short out something.
Unlikely, as you've managed to get the install process to
begin.

If you run out of things to try, there is always the
all purpose "clear the CMOS" option. Unplug the computer,
then carry out the procedure, as listed in the manual.
Clearing the CMOS seems to fix the most unrelated issues.

HTH,
Paul
 
Paul said:
Have you:

1) Tried both Pri and Sec IDE ports ?
2) Tried a different cable ?
3) Put both drives on the same cable and used cable select ?
(You need an 80 wire cable for cable select, AFAIK)
4) At the point you get "A disk read error occurred", leave
just the Maxtor connected, select the Maxtor in the BIOS
as the boot device, and try booting without a CD drive ?
Click to expand...
(snip)

5) Changed the boot sequence back? (ie HD0 before CD)
 
Brand new board K8N (not Deluxe)
Athlon 64 3000+
2 x 512Mb DDR400
new 450W PSU
Maxtor Diamond Plus 9 80Gb IDE


Trying to load XP Pro and failing. The CD starts fine. I partition and
format the new hard drive. XP setup program continues and all is fine
until the reboot.

The machine then reboots and I see "Press any key to boot from CD.."

I do NOT press any key, and expect the installation to continue to
run.
However, I get "A disk read error occurred" and I have to reboot.

It seems as if the mb does not see drive C.

I have reduced the installed hardware to a minimum using only one HDD
one optical drive, a graphics card, no wireless card.

I have swopped the memory and used a different HDD but still no
progress.

I have downloaded the latest bios.
I have booted from a floppy using a memory utility test.
I have checked the Maxtor drive using PowerMax and the drive is fine.
The drive works on another PC anyway.

Bios settings are fine. I have used the default settings.

Do I have a faulty motherboard or can someone point me in the right
direction to make this thing work?

Many thanks folks.
Click to expand...

All points in the direction that your drive is not bootable.
Either not 'active' or not set as bootdevice in the bios.
(You can read/write, but you can not boot from it)
Have you checked the bootsequence screen and does the
drive appear in the list? If not, your bios settings are not
correct to be able to boot from this controler to wich the
drive is connected.

Nickeldome
 
Paul,

Many thanks for your help.

I had done much of what you suggested, apart from....

"Clear the CMOS"

Well done. Thank you so much. I am now up and running and am getting
to know my new 'working' K8N.

Thanks also to Roger and Nickeldome.
 
Maxtor makes some very good installation and analysis software for
their drives. You can download it from their website if you don't have
the CD that comes with the boxed version. You can boot from the CD and
run the software to verify the drive. The website has an exhaustive
validation program that you can run as well.

Arnie
 
Back
Top