Need some help with booting my PC.

[Xenocidal]

This'll probably sound kind of dumb, but at least I'm asking, instead of just giving up.

I've installed all the parts of my computer, hooked up everything I needed, but I'm cautious as to what I'm supposed to do with my hard drive, I bought it OEM and I'm unsure as to what power I'm supposed to hook up. I hooked it up to the SATA1 plug and used the power connector right next to the cord (the one that takes another special ribbon), and originally I had a second molex connector plugged into the other spot that has a direct connection to the PSU cord, then I tried it without, I've plugged in the computer and it does different things. I was wondering if anyone knew the correct way to connect a SATA hard drive... thanks.

Sometimes the computer comes up and tells me to press ctrl+s or f4 to enter RAID setup, and I've gone and done that but it tells me theres nothing wrong there, which I don't understand why it would still come on. I've also had it come up and freeze on the very first screen that says "ASUS etc etc etc", and I've also had it not come up at all and just have one steady beep over and over. The difference in connecting the hard drive doesn't seem to have any affect on it.

I'm not quite sure what's wrong at all, so any help would be VERY appreciated.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, when I do get through the RAID setup thing without it freezing on me, it goes to the setup thing and tells me something like "possible entrance into system" or something like that, and to check the case.

Here's my specs:
NEC Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive
NEC Display Solutions AS900-BK Black 19" CRT Monitor
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard
eVGA 256-P2-N376-AX Geforce 6800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JD 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
NEC Black IDE DVD Burner
ASPIRE X-Superalien ATXA6SW-BL/500 Blue Aluminum Server Computer Case with 500W Power Supply
2x CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory
Logitech X-530 70 Watts 5.1 Speaker
CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS GAMER Limited Edition 70SB035000013 8 (7.1) Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ ClawHammer Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor

 

[paparazi]

Download westerndigitals installation guide for this hard drive here:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=59

Pretty sure it's either one or the other power connector, not both.
A single SATA HDD doesn't need to have Raid enabled in the bios.
Apart from that it's difficult to know what you have done but what I do know is you need to carefully go through the bios setting it up properly ie: disabling raid etc etc
I will just point out these boards are picky on memory and I think the Corsair Value select is one we had problems with, not 100% sure but I know that stuff is only CL3 so not the best for a quick setup like this.
Other Value brands are often CL2.5 which is better ie Twinmoss but if you really want to do the rest of the system justice look at some OCZ Platinum Rev2 for the future (CL2 with 2-2-2-6 1T timings)
Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[garebo]

Xenocidal, you said "it goes to the setup thing and tells me something like "possible entrance into system" or something like that, and to check the case."

It could be that "chassis intrusion" is turned on in your bios, so you would need to turn that off or learn how to set it up so you dont get the error message. If its your own home computer then perhaps you could simply disable it in the bios.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[Aussie2]

Xenocidal The chassis intrusion is jumpered by default on your mobo have you fitted a switch or removed the jumper also hit esc when when asked to enter raid set up or just wait should then go to asus logo

 

[Xenocidal]

I did take the jumper off but have put it back before I'd made the first post, but I still get the chassis intrusion message.

 

[Xenocidal]

I'm still lost as to why this isn't running right... the jumper's right, and the RAM should still let it come up, right? I mean, it might not be the best for the PC, but it should still work, right? I figured out all the wires and such, but any recommendations? Like I said, most times it has a stead beep with the yellow load light, and if it _does_ come on, which is very rare, it freezes very soon. I don't think it's a graphical problem, though.

Thanks for all your help, though. =)

 

[Aussie2]

Xenocidal
I had similar problems with the same mobo tried everything on closer inspection of the board I discovered a slight discoloration on the top left cnr of the nforce4 chip at first it looked like dust.Hope this is not the case with your mobo hate to be the bearer of bad tidings.

 

[Xenocidal]

I checked the nForce4 chip (very carefully, of course), and there was no discoloration, anything else?