# Computer won't start after SATA install?



## amed (Sep 12, 2004)

Hi, recently I had a hard drive start slowing down on me, so I bought a new one yesterday. Before I had a 160GB maxtor IDE drive, now I am tryint to install a 250 GB WD SATA hard drive (just 1). I plugged it into SATA0, as well as power from the 4 pin connector.

My problem is when I package everything together, plug everything in, and try to turn it on, I hear normal sounds and lights on my box, but no video is sent to my monitor. There is just a steady orange light next to the power switch on the monitor. 

My questions:
I have a CDRW and a DVD player in the system, do I need to have them the primary or secondary IDE channel?
I do not believe it is a bad video card, because I have had no problems with it up until now. What else could be wrong with the system?

At first I thought it was that the motherboard was not receiving power, but I can see the standby power light on. Now I am thinking it is the SATA drive, and I don't have it installed correctly. 

If push comes to shove, I can try to start it with a normal IDE HD just to be sure its the SATA drive. But what are your thoughts on fixing this? Should I reset the CMOS?

My current setup:
Asus P4C800-E
2.8 GHz P4
1 GB SimpleTech 3200DDR (2x512)
ATI Radeon 9800Pro
Built in Ethernet
1 250 GB SATA Hard drive (currently plugged into SATA0, should this be in SATA1?)
52x CDRW 
16x DVD player (both drives on a single channel, currently in IDE2)
Soundblaster Audigy sound card
Envision flat panel monitor (can't remember exact model)
I will be installing Windows XP when I get this working.
I also bought a brand new 450 W power supply : ATX A+GPB P4-12V

What can you help me with?


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## caldonia (Jul 22, 2004)

I'm having a similar problem. The SATA is the only HD in the box, and if I power up with the drive connected it gets stuck at "verifying DMI pool data". I guess it just can't verify if or something.

If I disconnect the SATA drive, the boot up proceedure is normal and it begins the process of installing WinXP. Of course, there's no HD to install it on, so the point is moot. However, it sure points to the SATA drive being the problem.

I guess the only thing I can suggest is to disconnect the SATA drive, and see what happens from there. If the computer detects the rest of your stuff and begins trying to install XP at least you can be sure the issue is with the SATA drive. Sorry I can't offer much more help.


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## CB. (Jul 31, 2004)

Hi, 
-Did you enable the SATA ports in the BIOS?

See also thread

http://www.techsupportforum.com/showthread.php?t=13889

Christian


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## twajetmech (Jul 1, 2004)

First thing, there are 4 SATA ports on the mobo SATA1-SATA2 and SATARAID1-SATARAID2....so which one are you plugged into ? If you are not running a raid setup then the HD should be in SATA1. You will need to check that the promise raid controller is disabled in the bios and you will have to go into the boot section of the bios and set the boot priority to CD-ROM:HD:Floppy, or something like that (I'm not at my home computer to check) Also be very careful of the SATA cables they are very thin and do not like to be bent sharply....the ones that come with the mobo are known to be suspect ( several people including myself have had issues with the Asus supplied SATA cables) also if your HD has recepticles for both the 4 pin molex power connector and the new SATA connector use only one. If the PSU has the newer SATA power connectors use them, try not to use a molex to SATA adapter. It is very easy to dislodge the new SATA connectors (both power and data) so be careful when moving stuff around inside the case. XP will not recognize an unformatted HD so if you did not format the HD XP cannot recognize it....if you are using a Maxtor SATA HD it should have come with the correct version of MaxBlaster to format and partition the drive (NTFS is highly reccomended for XP)
You can place your CD on the primary and the DVD on the secondary (reccomended setup !)....make sure to check the jumper pins on the back of each unit. ( if you do put them all on a single channel the DVD should be the master and the CDRW the Slave.) hope that answers your question and gets you going....twajetmech


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