ga-7n400 -- won't boot from cd

i'm setting up an xp-home system based on the ga-7n400 pro 2 (rev2)
mobo. the system will not boot from a bootable cd on either ide
channel 1 or 2. the drive is recognized during the post, however, the
bootable medium (xp home cd) is not recognized. (yes, the bios
settings are correct: cd-rom is the first in the list of the bootable
devices.) if i connect the cd to one the giga-raid channels, the
medium is recognized as a bootable cd but the system will still not
boot from it. undaunted, i thought perhaps a upgrade of the bios to
rev FJ (shipped with rev FH) would help. no change.

i then created a set of xp installation floppies, but it BSODed on
diskette 6 with an error that the h/w is not fully acpi compatible.
checked the bios settings, rebooted with the floppies: same BSOD.

has anyone purchased one of these boards lately (a rev 2.0) and
successfully booted from a cd-rom? what to do at this point? replace
it with another pro2, or another brand altogether?

"kimnach" wrote in message
oups.com...
i'm setting up an xp-home system based on the ga-7n400 pro 2 (rev2)
mobo. the system will not boot from a bootable cd on either ide
channel 1 or 2. the drive is recognized during the post, however, the
bootable medium (xp home cd) is not recognized. (yes, the bios
settings are correct: cd-rom is the first in the list of the bootable
devices.) if i connect the cd to one the giga-raid channels, the
medium is recognized as a bootable cd but the system will still not
boot from it. undaunted, i thought perhaps a upgrade of the bios to
rev FJ (shipped with rev FH) would help. no change.

i then created a set of xp installation floppies, but it BSODed on
diskette 6 with an error that the h/w is not fully acpi compatible.
checked the bios settings, rebooted with the floppies: same BSOD.

has anyone purchased one of these boards lately (a rev 2.0) and
successfully booted from a cd-rom? what to do at this point? replace
it with another pro2, or another brand altogether?


So .. the start process goes until it is time to get OS loaded.
The BIOS screen shows the CD drive but when it gets accessed there is no
response.
What do you know about this CD-ROM? Is reasonably new? Correct jumper
(master/slave). 32X or so.
The error message about ACPI seems curious, are other cards plugged into the
PCI slots?
Do you know if it will boot to DOS with an old Windows 98 boot disk?

This all looks to good for it to be a major problem.

JPS

jpsga wrote:
"kimnach" wrote in message
oups.com...
i'm setting up an xp-home system based on the ga-7n400 pro 2 (rev2)
mobo. the system will not boot from a bootable cd on either ide
channel 1 or 2. the drive is recognized during the post, however,
the
bootable medium (xp home cd) is not recognized. (yes, the bios
settings are correct: cd-rom is the first in the list of the
bootable
devices.) if i connect the cd to one the giga-raid channels, the
medium is recognized as a bootable cd but the system will still not
boot from it. undaunted, i thought perhaps a upgrade of the bios
to
rev FJ (shipped with rev FH) would help. no change.

i then created a set of xp installation floppies, but it BSODed on
diskette 6 with an error that the h/w is not fully acpi compatible.
checked the bios settings, rebooted with the floppies: same BSOD.

has anyone purchased one of these boards lately (a rev 2.0) and
successfully booted from a cd-rom? what to do at this point?
replace
it with another pro2, or another brand altogether?


So .. the start process goes until it is time to get OS loaded.
The BIOS screen shows the CD drive but when it gets accessed there is
no
response.
What do you know about this CD-ROM? Is reasonably new? Correct jumper
(master/slave). 32X or so.
The error message about ACPI seems curious, are other cards plugged
into the
PCI slots?
Do you know if it will boot to DOS with an old Windows 98 boot disk?

This all looks to good for it to be a major problem.

no, it gets as far as "disk boot failure, insert system disk and press
enter."
it will boot from a floppy, it will even boot from an ide harddrive on
which i have dos installed, but not from a cd-rom. again the cd-rom is
selected as the first boot device in the bios.

the cd-rom drive is a samsung sm-352 (combo cd-rw + dvd-rom/ram ), and
it is the only device on the ata interface. i've tried booting from it
on all four ata interfaces, when jumpered as master, slave, and cable
select. i've tried a variety of cables, including one from my P4
system.

the system sees the samsung, it just will not boot from the xp home cd
(or any other bootble cd for that matter).

there are two sata drives connected. other than the gigabyte radeon
9200se agp card, there are no other expansion cards installed. i've
attempted disabling all non-required features (sound, usb, etc.) to
have a minumum set of IRQs used. nothing helps.

yes, it will boot from a dos floppy and then i have access to xp cd.
(of course, i cannot run the xp setup in dos mode.)

the acpi problem is rather suspicious.

me thinks that it is a faulty board.

i just checked the retailer's website and found that to get an rma, i
first must have gigabyte verify that it is a non-working board. only
after gigabyte gives me a replacement verification code, would the
retailer issue an rma. all this within 20 days of the original
purchase date!

just discovered this:

if a bootable floppy and cd are in the respective drives and the only
bootable device option selected is cd-rom, then the system boots from
the floppy. if no bootable device is selected in the bios (all
disabled), then the system gives a "disk boot failure..."

it seems to me that the bios cd-rom setting is being misinterpreted as
a floppy. could that be? i've never run across this before!
i'll try reflashing, but i know that will not help.

thanks in advance.

"kimnach" wrote in message
oups.com
just discovered this:

if a bootable floppy and cd are in the respective drives and the only
bootable device option selected is cd-rom, then the system boots from
the floppy. if no bootable device is selected in the bios (all
disabled), then the system gives a "disk boot failure..."

it seems to me that the bios cd-rom setting is being misinterpreted as
a floppy. could that be? i've never run across this before!
i'll try reflashing, but i know that will not help.

thanks in advance.

set the CD as second boot device and it might work.
Press Enter when its waiting(...doting) for the CD - it wont boot
automatically from CD

"kimnach" wrote in message
oups.com...

jpsga wrote:
"kimnach" wrote in message
oups.com...
i'm setting up an xp-home system based on the ga-7n400 pro 2 (rev2)
mobo. the system will not boot from a bootable cd on either ide
channel 1 or 2. the drive is recognized during the post, however,
the
bootable medium (xp home cd) is not recognized. (yes, the bios
settings are correct: cd-rom is the first in the list of the
bootable
devices.) if i connect the cd to one the giga-raid channels, the
medium is recognized as a bootable cd but the system will still not
boot from it. undaunted, i thought perhaps a upgrade of the bios
to
rev FJ (shipped with rev FH) would help. no change.

i then created a set of xp installation floppies, but it BSODed on
diskette 6 with an error that the h/w is not fully acpi compatible.
checked the bios settings, rebooted with the floppies: same BSOD.

has anyone purchased one of these boards lately (a rev 2.0) and
successfully booted from a cd-rom? what to do at this point?
replace
it with another pro2, or another brand altogether?


So .. the start process goes until it is time to get OS loaded.
The BIOS screen shows the CD drive but when it gets accessed there is
no
response.
What do you know about this CD-ROM? Is reasonably new? Correct jumper
(master/slave). 32X or so.
The error message about ACPI seems curious, are other cards plugged
into the
PCI slots?
Do you know if it will boot to DOS with an old Windows 98 boot disk?

This all looks to good for it to be a major problem.

no, it gets as far as "disk boot failure, insert system disk and press
enter."
it will boot from a floppy, it will even boot from an ide harddrive on
which i have dos installed, but not from a cd-rom. again the cd-rom is
selected as the first boot device in the bios.

the cd-rom drive is a samsung sm-352 (combo cd-rw + dvd-rom/ram ), and
it is the only device on the ata interface. i've tried booting from it
on all four ata interfaces, when jumpered as master, slave, and cable
select. i've tried a variety of cables, including one from my P4
system.

the system sees the samsung, it just will not boot from the xp home cd
(or any other bootble cd for that matter).

there are two sata drives connected. other than the gigabyte radeon
9200se agp card, there are no other expansion cards installed. i've
attempted disabling all non-required features (sound, usb, etc.) to
have a minumum set of IRQs used. nothing helps.

yes, it will boot from a dos floppy and then i have access to xp cd.
(of course, i cannot run the xp setup in dos mode.)

the acpi problem is rather suspicious.

me thinks that it is a faulty board.

i just checked the retailer's website and found that to get an rma, i
first must have gigabyte verify that it is a non-working board. only
after gigabyte gives me a replacement verification code, would the
retailer issue an rma. all this within 20 days of the original
purchase date


I had the same problem, due to the sata drives, it is like trying to install
xp with no hard drive.
You have to install the sata drivers by a special procedure, you will get a
clue at the bottom of the install screen if you are watching VERY closely.
Several minutes later if you hit the proper function button when given the
clue, you will be given one chance to install the sata drivers. Good luck!