Help! First build.

[disfilam04]

Hey everyone, i need some help. First off here are the parts i have

ECS Geforce6100sm-m+ mobo
Amd athlon 64 x2 4800+ dual core processor
Corsair 2gb ddr2 ram
Western Digital caviar se 160 gb eide hdd OEM
and a simple dvd rom.

Well on my first boot trying to install windows i get this error message after i put the windows xp pro disc in.

pxe-e61 media test failure, check cable
P0f:exiting nvidia boot agent.

Also: My cd tray keeps open/closing whenever the disc is inserted..

My boot sequence is: First: Removable, Second: Cd-drive, Third: Hard disk

Hope ya guys can help me out...

[ARMYUK]

Your boot sequence needs to be set to your cd drive

[disfilam04]

so first is cd, then hard disk, and third is removable..

[ARMYUK]

does not matter whats 2nd & 3rd its cdrom 1st so as your win xp can boot

[disfilam04]

no luck.. i dont know whats wrong with this thing...

[ARMYUK]

Had similar ages back , its trying to boot from network media I think , in the boot sequence is there an option to not seek other devices or diable other devices after the initial 1st 3 cdrom/hd/floppy .

[ARMYUK]

Maybe says try other devices if so diable that option

[ARMYUK]

Has your hd been detected .. check in the bios & is it set as master
are you saving settings before exiting the bios

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Has your hd been detected .. check in the bios & is it set as master
are you saving settings before exiting the bios

And while you're there, is the HDD recognized and identified? Same for your DVD ROM?

Also: My cd tray keeps open/closing whenever the disc is inserted..
Does the tray open and close repeatedly? This is oftentimes caused by a virus. Is this a brand new HDD without anything on it? If so, you may want to try it in another pc and also verify that the OS CD is OK as well. Is it a copy?

[disfilam04]

everything is new.. uhmm it is a copy of the xp, but i still get that error message even when the disc is not inserted.

wait.. except for the dvd-rom

[disfilam04]

i was thinking of getting new ide cable and or cd -rom

[Fruss Tray Ted]

So did you look in BIOS to see if the drive is being detected as we've ALREADY ASKED? If it is, you'd already know if the cable and possibly the drive is OK or not. Is it jumpered properly?

Puhleeze! Follow the advice given and answer accordingly.

i still get that error message even when the disc is not inserted.

With no disk, and no OS on the hard drive, it is normal to get this message as there's nothing to boot 'to'.

[disfilam04]

ya bios does detect both the hard drive and the cd-rom. i went again into bios and set everything at default. same shiet... maybe the motherboard crapped out... im pretty sure the jumpers are fine... cd-rom set as slave i believe the hdd is also

[disfilam04]

well heres some new news... i went into bios disabled boot from other device, saved and exit to cmos, now it asks please insert system disc then press enter, it does not contain that error message any longer

[disfilam04]

* disk boot failure, please insert system disc and press enter

[Whyzman]

im pretty sure the jumpers are fine... cd-rom set as slave i believe the hdd is alsoHDD needs to be set as master.

I would suggest you add a floppy drive to the mix. Then, run Memtest86 followed by the harddrive diagnostics. The harddrive diagnostics can be downloaded from the manufacturer's website.

Both of these items are self-booting and will let you know not only that you make it through POST, but that the RAM and motherboard are operating...and the HDD diagnostics will make sure you've not got a lemon for a HDD...

[disfilam04]

well i got the hard drive as oem at pc club. the jumper is set all the way to the right, is there a site i can go to and figure out where the jumper goes? there are four rows

[disfilam04]

heres what i found out, when i set the hard drive as master bios didnt read it so i put it back as slave. i dont think im going anywhere with this thing...

[Whyzman]

If this is the HDD that you plan on installing the operating system onto and booting from...you want it set as Master.

What you are probably experiencing right now is that the HDD is not partitioned and formatted...

Floppy drives are around $10...I would again suggest adding one to your system. Then, run Memtest86 and the HDD diagnostics...

[disfilam04]

okay, how would i go and partition and format the drive, its a brand new one, would the memtest86 do that for me?