On my second 775 Duel-VSTA

[cleloid]

Hi folks - been a keen Aria customer over the years - anyway I'm looking for some help. I'm on my second Asrock motherboard coupled with a LGA775 C2D E6400 - wnat to keep using my AGP graphics card - problem being that so far both of them wont boot into the o/s. I have tried quite a few combinations to troubleshoot:-

When I set the boot sequence I get an error message \"reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media and press a key\" . The BIOS is set up correctly i.e correct boot sequence or only booting from CD (A knoppix live CD boots the machine succesfully! :?: ). The IDE channels are enabled and raid is switched off. I have tried 3 different optical drives and two HDD's, changed the memory also tried to boot from floppy using the XP startup disks (this fails on the first disk - step 6). I have also flashed the BIOS to the latest version but still no success. I would appreciate it if anybody has any sugesstions as I'm running out of ideas! Could it be a bad batch of motehrboards? does anybody else have this combination?

Again any help appreciated
Cheers :D

Edit - Just saw the post below re Duel VSTA problems - sounds like problems with the boards

[Sleepy]

Hi folks - been a keen Aria customer over the years - anyway I'm looking for some help. I'm on my second Asrock motherboard coupled with a LGA775 C2D E6400 - wnat to keep using my AGP graphics card - problem being that so far both of them wont boot into the o/s. I have tried quite a few combinations to troubleshoot:-

When I set the boot sequence I get an error message \"reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media and press a key\" . The BIOS is set up correctly i.e correct boot sequence or only booting from CD (A knoppix live CD boots the machine succesfully! :?: ). The IDE channels are enabled and raid is switched off. I have tried 3 different optical drives and two HDD's, changed the memory also tried to boot from floppy using the XP startup disks (this fails on the first disk - step 6). I have also flashed the BIOS to the latest version but still no success. I would appreciate it if anybody has any sugesstions as I'm running out of ideas! Could it be a bad batch of motehrboards? does anybody else have this combination?

Again any help appreciated
Cheers :D

Edit - Just saw the post below re Duel VSTA problems - sounds like problems with the boards[/quote:1e2ce046f7]

The problems with the earlier post re. Dual VSTA problems, are not the same as yours it would seem, different board/system/problems, etc.

Can you tell us exactly what it is you are trying to do? Is your problem that you can't access a Windows XP CD to start a fresh XP installation? Or, is it a preinstalled XP already on a hard drive that won't boot?

If it is the first option, then there is something wrong with your XP CD disc, seeing as you can load a Knoppix Live CD. If it is the latter, then it would depend on what system you had this preinstalled XP based upon. I assume that all of your hard drives and optical drives are found by the BIOS POST at the begining? If you enter the BIOS setup, are they all listed correctly?

According to the Asrock website, there are issues with installing XP depending upon the type of memory you have. Here is a response to a quick search i did on their website:

[quote]Answer:Please refer to following steps to fix this problem.

1. Please set the \"DRAM Frequency\" as \"[333MHz (DDRII 667)]\" in BIOS setup if you use DDRII 667 RAM. (BIOS/ Advanced/ Chipset Configuration/ DRAM Frequency)

2. Please enable the \"Flexibility Option\" in BIOS setup if you use DDRII 533 RAM. (BIOS/ Advanced/ Chipset Configuration/ Flexibility Option)

3. If the problem still remains, please update the BIOS to P1.80 or later version.
http://www.asrock.com/support/download.a...el=775Dual-VSTA#bios


I did notice that the latest BIOS on the Asrock site for your board is 2.10, which is required if you have the latest E6400 (L2) version of this CPU.

Give us some further information if i am barking up the wrong tree, then we can go from there!

[cleloid]

Thanks Sleepy, :) Its a fresh installation - all drives appear correctly in theBIOS.

Tried the XP disc and WIn2k disc and they both work in another machine, I have flashed the BIOS to 2.10 to no avail. I have generic PC3200 DDR so don't think that memory adjustment would apply?

[Anonymous]

You are supposed to have DDR2 with Core2duo systems, that is one thing that would be causing problems. That needs to be corrected.

[cleloid]

Thanks for the tip about the memory - Knoppix live booted though so I don't understand why I would have to change it for Windows?

[cleloid]

i set the mem frequency to DDR400 and also set the flexability option in BIOS and its works :D thanks all for the help and and have a great Xmas!!

[Sleepy]

So glad you got it sorted!

A Merry Xmas to you too.