A couple of problems booting with brand new DFI Ultra D

D

dbaldus

Gawd
Joined
Jul 12, 2005
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563
Just got my new DFI Lanparty Ultra-D with an eVGA 7900GT freshly RMA'd. First time I turned it on, it went just fine but told me that the CMOS Defaults were loaded. After hitting F1 to continue, it tried to boot from CD and gave me a "INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER" message. However, I put in the DFI driver disk, I could hear it spinning and the lights on the CD were going, but it kept coming back with the same message like it was unable to read it.

I tried restarting, only to find that the 4 red lights in the bottom left of the board would only go down to 3 red lights (I think that means that it is detecting the RAM) but would just hang there while everything else spun up.

I then tried clearing the CMOS, which fixed the RAM problem, and noticed that the the board is not detecting any Primary or Seconary IDE (I have a Maxtor IDE Hard Drive hooked up to it, which has Windows, games, etc. on it from before and was not reformatted). Does this sound like a bad IDE cable or why wouldn't the motherboard be detecting it?

Oh, and then when I restarted again, it would hang on 3 lights again detecting the RAM. So basically, I'm good for one boot but then any restarts and I need to clear the CMOS for it to get past detecting the RAM. I have a 2 x 512 TwinX kit of Corsair 512-3200C2PRO if that makes any difference.

What should I try to get these things fixed?
 
First, just put one stick of RAM into your primary memory slot and boot. Make sure you get into the BIOS to check all settings.

1. Make sure the IDE controllers are enabled
2. Check your RAM voltage and timings. This board will default to 1.8v for the memory and I am not sure what this Corsair memory requires for voltages. Also, try loosening your memory timings a bit for now.
3. Since your BIOS is always loading defaults. You may need to setup your date and time.
4. Change your boot order to floppy (if you have one), then CDROM, then HDD. Sometimes the defaults are just your HDD.

If the BIOS is showing that the IDE controllers are enabled and it is still not detecting any devices to your IDE. STart removing non-essential hardware from your system (ie: remove secondary HDD's and CDrom to see if it will detect just the primary HDD) but make sure you remove the power as well, not just the IDE cable.

If this still does not fix your problem. Get the board checked out. If everything worked without the Non-essential hardware and once you start adding the other hardware (One piece at a time) and you get the same problem, it could just be a PSU problem.

Hope this helps a bit.
 
inZane said:
First, just put one stick of RAM into your primary memory slot and boot. Make sure you get into the BIOS to check all settings.

1. Make sure the IDE controllers are enabled
2. Check your RAM voltage and timings. This board will default to 1.8v for the memory and I am not sure what this Corsair memory requires for voltages. Also, try loosening your memory timings a bit for now.
3. Since your BIOS is always loading defaults. You may need to setup your date and time.
4. Change your boot order to floppy (if you have one), then CDROM, then HDD. Sometimes the defaults are just your HDD.

If the BIOS is showing that the IDE controllers are enabled and it is still not detecting any devices to your IDE. STart removing non-essential hardware from your system (ie: remove secondary HDD's and CDrom to see if it will detect just the primary HDD) but make sure you remove the power as well, not just the IDE cable.

If this still does not fix your problem. Get the board checked out. If everything worked without the Non-essential hardware and once you start adding the other hardware (One piece at a time) and you get the same problem, it could just be a PSU problem.

Hope this helps a bit.
Click to expand...

1. Is there just a setting in the BIOS that enables IDE controllers? Or how do I check to be sure that they are enabled? On the first screen I see when booting the computer, it says:

Primary IDE (something, possibly device): Not Detected
Seconary IDE (something, possibly device): Not Detected

I only have one hard drive running, a Maxtor IDE 120gb. I also have 1 CD-ROM and one DVD-ROM that it IS detecting.

2. I kept the timings at defaults but raised the voltage to 2.8volts (memory specs say 2.75 but that is not an option in the BIOS)
3. Yes, I believe the BIOS date was set to Jan 01 2005 if I remember correctly. How would this help anyway? Just curious?
4. But I want it to boot to the HDD because there is a Windows install and all of my other stuff on there already. I've been running this hard drive for about a year now... should I still change it? Why?
 
In the bios, it may be listed under Integrated periperals or something like that. (Have never been in that BIOS before). You would see Primary IDE controller as well as other devices like your onboard LAN, sound, etc.

I just thought of another thing too. Doublecheck your jumper on your CDrom to make sure it is set to Master if this is the only device on the controller.

Changing the date would be for after you get past the BIOS load successfully. It may mess up previous installed software.
 
So now I am hearing that I need to plug a molex into the FD and HDD power connectors on the board AS WELL AS powering the floppy and hard drives separately. Is this true? Or can I just power the FD and HDD on the board and then not connect any molex to the actual floppy and hard drives?
 
There are four power connectors on the board if I remember correctly. All of them are needed to run the board. They have nothing to do with providing power to the hard drives or CD drives.
 
ilikecake said:
There are four power connectors on the board if I remember correctly. All of them are needed to run the board. They have nothing to do with providing power to the hard drives or CD drives.
Click to expand...

Fuck...

Y-Splitters here I come!
 
Okay, well now I've got everything hooked up and everything is being detected correctly, including my hard drive. Now all 4 lights in the bottom left go away but then I it continually reboots automatically. Does this mean that I need a larger power supply? I only have a Seasonic S12 430...
 
I seem to remember that the people at DFI recommend a >=500W power supply. I dunno if this is absolutely required or not. I suppose it depends on your power usage. I assume you are booting with a bootable CD in the drive? Can you get into the bios to check the boot priority?

Edit: I just noticed you said you are trying to boot an old windows install. I have not had good luck switching motherboards and using the same windows install. Try to boot with the windows CD in the drive (or any other bootable CD) and see if that works. You man have to reinstall windows.
 
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