first boot problem

Hi

G31T-M9 v.1 mobo
seagate 500gb sata hd
intel celeron dual core 2.4 ghz
2gb ddr ram

I'm building a PC for only my second time and I'm having one hell of a problem getting it to boot.

First time i switched the power on everything seemed fine, and my winXP pro was detected in the drive - i realised the keyboard wasn't plugged in so i plugged it in along with the mouse and shortly after that everything froze.

on reboot i could only get the bios screen then a blank screen with a flashing curser. this kept happening for some time...

So i unplugged everything from the motherboard and connected the dvd drive and loaded a live cd of knoppix - no problem - so the drive was fine... and when i incerted the winXP cd i went beyond the blank screen and into the installation process but with nowhere to put it because the hd was disconnected, of course.

when i plugged the hd into the motherboard i went back to only getting the bios screen then the infuriating blank screen and the cursor (top left)

I suspected the hd was faulty and replaced it with another today - connected it up with the dvd drive and hey-presto! windows started it's installation, so i shut the power off, reconnected everything on the motherboard and when i swith it back on i'm back to square one! - bios screen then the blank screen again (arghhh!!!) i've even gone back to how it was - only dvd and hd connected and i still have the blank screen! (what??)

Again when i disconnect the hd the blank screen with the cursor disappears and installation of winXp starts again, suggesting the hd is the problem. But the chances of having 2 faulty hard drives??

does anyone have any idea what's happening - is is a faulty motherboard?

during my attempts to fix the problem i've tested the first hd in another pc and it didn't show up, confirming the fault. I'll test the 2nd hd now and let you know what happens there. maybe something is causing the hd to malfunction?

before that i've cleared the cmos according to the mobo manual instructions

checked the ram was installed firmly

I'm starting to think this life isn't worth living!

your help very much needed please
thanks in advance
temple-Lobe

 

just an update - the hard drives have been tested more carefully and are both working fine in another pc.

so still scratching my head over why, when i plug the hard drive to the motherboard the blank screen with the cursor is as far as the boot sequence goes..??

OK hope to hear from you soon.

temple-Lobe

 

Did you try and bring up the boot menu list and select cd drive drive or change the boot priority in the bios?

 

Thank you!!

problem solved, can't believe i overlooked that one! i loaded the default settings and assumed the mobo manual was telling me right. but i guess it has to boot from cd first, install windows then swap the boot order back to hd, then cd?

is that right?

thanks again, you should be knighted :cool

 

Glad I could help

You could do that and increase boot time a bit however it doesn't matter. If no cd is in the drive it will just go to the second boot option.