No, i'm on about the tower power light stays on, the cdrw works as normal,flashing when the disk,any disk's inserted,then the cd light goes off,it's not stuck etc.

and yes i've tested the cd in this 'old' puter and it works fine

getting fed up with this now,it's a brand new tower.Fair enuff i'm no techie,but i'm not totally computer illiterate either..How's everyone else cope buying a tower with no operating system?!!
The blurb clearly says 'just needs an OS' -Yeah,when you can't load 'coz of this damn sata!!!
and i know it's designed for vista,but 50% of people i know also prefer xp,so that's loads of people buying these towers, who can't get an os on the flippin thing!jeez

might have sourced some re writeable cd's,will try again,what a pain in the ass

Sorry for your frustration and you might want to contact the retailer you bought from.

But that being said:

At this point you have one basic problem:

You cannot boot a CD.

You can go no further until you can boot a CD. It doesn't matter what CD it is. If it can't boot you can't load.

Yup,that does indeed sum it up lol

What do you think to me plugging a FDD to it,with either these sata drivers i may have found on the mobo cd,

or an xp startup floppy,which i've used before,just to get to A:\, Fdisk , E:\setup etc

would that not load the boot files,allowing me to run my xp cd,or is it still this sata file that's the main issue?

Failing that, dobhar's link if i can use these rwcd's i've found?

Thanks for your continued help jephree

If you setup a floppy drive then the best bet is the Microsoft XP 6 boot floppy program as seen here:

How to obtain Windows XP Setup disks for a floppy boot installation

Note you need to match your version of XP as there are variables. XP Home: Pro: SP1; SP2; etc.


At this point SATA is not an issue. SATA only becomes an issue after you boot up an OS CD.

Again your only issue here is that you cannot boot a CD.



I have another BIOS setting for you to try if you wish:


Standard BIOS Features

IDE Configuration


I cannot give you settings as it depends on how it is set currently.

Yet here is another interface to address the CD/DVD drive as it is your only IDE device.

Standard BIOS Features > IDE Configuration

> Onboard PCI IDE Controller [ primary ]

Primary IDE Master [ ATAPI CDROM ]
Primary ide slave not detected

SATA Channel 1 [ HARD DISK ]

SATA Channel 2
SATA Channel 3
SATA Channel 4 Not detected

I'll checkout my options in a bit re the floppy etc.

Gotta find a home for this pup now, damn bloke was gonna drive to a remote location and leave it!! some people...nice dog as well, American bulldog, but we've a big ol mean german shepherd/alsation, so alas she has to go

Mind you,must be early morning over the pond Jephree?

Cheers, Dave.

*edit to save posting* 'Highlight > IDE Master [ ATAPI CDROM ]

Then choose Type then Auto'

yes it is already set to auto

Highlight > IDE Master [ ATAPI CDROM ]

Then choose Type then Auto


Yes it is 4:45 AM here. I'm in an all nighter trend as my day jobs have fallen into the global void.

I prefer to live at night I guess. But I am off to bed now. Back tomorrow.


Cool pooch! Hope you find it a home.

Just to let you know don't save posting by editing.

The problem with editing posts is there is no notice given.

In other words I would have never seen your edit except I went back to look at the dog again.



Anyway I am off to my pillow.

I suggest hooking up a floppy drive and make those 6 floppies.

See you tomorrow (later today).

Okey dokey,but at this rate it'll be a 28 page thread lol

I'll sort this puppy out and have a go with the floppy's or rwcd later
as this flu/sickness has really wiped me out

Cheers Jeph

hmm, just been messing with this pc.Hooked a floppy up, xp cd invalid system summat,press, 'any' lol.
Before,on other pc's, i've had to install win 98,via the floppy,then straight upgrade to xp....

so i put the win98 floppy in,it clicks away and tries to start,but won't load MSCD001 (the cdrom drivers) so starts without cdrom support.So now i can get to fdisk, but there's no point really as i've no cdrom still lol

Oh and i've got a 700mb i think rwcd and will look at those 6? boot disks
you just put them in one after another,when prompted?

Yes just follow the prompts. After 6 it will ask for CD.