I have just put together a build using a core i7 920, Intel DX58SO (Smackover) 6GB Corsair RAM and the rest of the components from by sig. It will go into the BIOS fine, but once I try and get it to boot the OS on my hard disk nothing (a cursor blinking in the top left) happens. Immediately before this, a Marvell thing pops up telling me no hard drives are installed. The BIOS recognises my hard drive and I have set that to the first boot device. I have tried to update the BIOS by putting the files from Intel on a flash drive and I used something called MKBT to make it bootable (I think - I definitely used the utility, whether it did anything I don't know). My CD drive is currently useless as I hadn't noticed that the motherboard doesn't have IDE but I could borrow and IDE>USB converter if people think that might help. Any suggestions?
I have never had consistent results using a PATA CD-ROM with a USB->PATA adapter. All you can do is try. If you have not been able to install an OS to the hard drive, then I would suspect the drive is not bootable. If it is bootable, then the problem is in the boot order, the BIOS may be trying to boot a different device first. The Marvell message is displayed by an add in controller that handles some extra SATA ports on the board. The utility you mention should make your USB flash drive bootable, but you can always try these instructions from bootdisk.com. The blinking cursor usaly happens when the BIOS is trying to hand over control to a bootable device and waiting for the transfer of control to complete. Sometimes, the BIOS will pause there, but eventually boot, this is because it is trying a number of devices and finally finds one that is bootable.
Right. Thanks for your help. I will try the adapter in the morning (I have just nabbed it but am going to bed!) failing that I will leave it for a bit longer blinking to itself. I should have said - there is already an operating system on the hard drive left over from the previous build which I am using.
I haven't been able to use the adapter yet as I forgot to collect the relevant USB cable and its owner seems to be still in bed. I have however removed my RAID and wireless cards from it, and it now tries to load Windows! Unfortunately it never actually gets there and just seems to re-set itself. I am trying again with a different utility to make bootable flash drives. update edit: I have got the usb adapter working and it has happily booted Ubuntu. Now to update the BIOS and maybe reinstall Windows. update edit 2: much expletives. It started the update then turned off pretty quickly. I have turned back on again and the fans span down as they should but all I have on the screen is a non-blinking cursor. I hope nothing has broken but I fear the worst. Waiting for a few minutes to see if something happens then I will try and use the BIOS recovery doohickey. update edit 3: I am [expletive]ing glad I left it, it is actually doing something now. I really hope this sorts the problem. I should probably have mentioned earlier that the original BIOS splash screen said it was an evaluation BIOS for testing purposes only. update edit 4: it now tries to boot Windows again but crashes after the green bar stops scrolling. I think a Windows re-install may be in order update edit 4: IT LIVES!!!!1111!!oneone!!! I am having a few drivers issue which windows is trying to sort out and the display is set to a silly resolution but I have a working computer yayayayayayayayay! ( I am a little bit happy) thank you to all the people who provided the parts for it
Its OK, I have got it working with the current build. I am going to be installing ASAP but I wanted to copy my stuff onto my array and neglected to do it before my upgrade. Lesson learnt from that!
Glad you got your stuff off OK. Now go buy a copy of ghost and a big back up drive I've sometimes had a new build boot from my old OS, but just as often it refuses. In your case you had to in order to retrieve data, but even if it did work, do you really want that old OS install on your new rig, with old discarded drivers laying around... millions of redundant registry keys and bits of stuff cluttering things up? New rig, new OS.. that's what I say.
To answer the questions - I was using a "new" motherboard (Intel x58 Smackover), processor and RAM. I had Vista Ultimate 64bit which had already survived a new motherboard and RAM (went from a dead nforce 4 to an Abit IP35 Pro). In order to install 7, I had major issues trying to install it from a USB DVD drive (it worked the previous day on someone else's Thinkpad) as it asked for drivers, despite having just booted from it! Eventually borrow the same friend's 4GB flash drive and installed from that. Moral of the story - prepare for reinstalling your OS after a motherboard upgrade and make sure your optical drive will work with said motherboard!!
so you installed windows 7 to get it all working if i understand correctly...i thought you were saying you got a new mobo to run an old os on an old harddrive...
I was using an old OS on an old hard drive, and was having some issues. I am now using 7 on the same old hard drive but have completely got rid of the old install. The hard drive in question, along with the old install of Vista, had already had one motherboard change.
