dukfarmer

First post.
I have a new Abit AN52 mobo, all new components: Raidmax case with 500w RaidMx ps, (sorry, no super ps yet), Diamond ATI 2600XT graphics card w/ 512MB GDDR3 dram, 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC mem, Seagate 320GB SATA Hdrive, Phillips 20x SATA DVD-RW , no floppy.
Status: all fans and drives spin up.
1. After I clear cmos, (I don't pull battery), after power up, after I hear 1 beep and see "abit" logo, with tab to view bios setup (installed components and version) or DEL to enter bios.
After I choose either TAB or DEL, the abit logo clears, I see a quick flash - rastor at top of screen, and then blank screen. It looks like it's trying to display something but cannot (screen looks like it's lighter).
I have a Win XP Pro "New Systems Only" CD in SATA DVR drive, but I get no drive access. No blinking cursor, no messages to insert disk, nothing.
Press reset, same thing. Power off, clear cmos, same thing.
2. Replace new ATI PCI-Exp16 vid card with old ATI standard PCI interface card - I get much farther, but still no bootup. In this case, after clearing cmos, powering up, I see abit logo (tab to view POST; DEL to enter setup) I press tab, and I can see all installed components (both sata drives, 2GB mem, CPU - AMD 64 X2 5600+) and bios version (6.0.22 I believe). Then I press DEL and enter BIOS setup. Everything looks good so far. I change boot drive to CD ROM, remove floppy and all IDE components, including RAID (change to SATA but leave other RAID options disabled), leave all other CPU and mem settings @ default). I press F10 to save, then exit. Then Nothing. No beep. No abit logo. Tab and Del have no effect. Reset. Same. Power cycle. Same. Power off @ rear switch. Power up. Same thing. Once I change those items in CMOS and reset or power back up, I can never see anything on the screen. The only way to get back to seeing the abit logo and getting back into bios setup is to power off and clear cmos and start over. Also - once the bios is changed, and the system restarts, when I expect the DVD drive to access the boot disk, I do see a blinking cursor in the upper left corner. But nothing else. It stays like this until I reset, then it will return to this same state on every reset or power cycle.
Is this MOBO screwed? Everything in this system was factory sealed and brand new as of a month ago.
Anybody have any suggestions? I'm dead in the water.
Repeating - I can only get to the bios setup using an old standard PCI vid card. With the new vid card, after I see the abit logo, and press tab or del, I don't even get to the BIOS screen (tab) or bios setup (del) I remove the new card when I use the old, standard PCI vid card.

HELP!!

Thanks!
-dukfarmer.

kodi

The CD drive will need sata drivers installed for it to work
Just as a test do you have an IDE cd drive you can attach and try

dukfarmer

THANKS!!
AHA!
Questions:
1. You mean the sata DVD drive cannot be a one-for-one replacement for an IDE drive for initial system install and bootup?
2. Yes I have some IDE drives in storage that I can try. I'll re-enable IDE in bios, and see if that helps.
3. I appreciate your fast reply.
4. Any clues as to why the high-end graphics card goes blank after I press Tab or Del?
Thanks again.
I'll update my status after I try the IDE DVD drive.
Dukfarmer.

kodi

Not sure with XP but With Vista it gives you the option to install drivers for the sata DVD