[bonusballs]

I appologize for my lack of knowledge in the computer world but I will try my best.

I recently got a new mobo due to my previous motherboard crapping out. RMA'ed it and got back a refurb A8N SLI PREMIUM mobo (no user manual included, how nice of asus). I just hooked up all my hardware (which I THINK I did correctly) pressed the power button everything seems to be lighting up fans spinning - except my hard drive light - I didnt plug in some of those real small wires (HDD LIGHT & LED) mainly because w/o a manual I dont know where they go. But I get nothing showing up on the monitor. I turn the computer off and restart a minute later and I end up getting a signal on the monitor.

NOTE: I have Windows XP loaded on my HD - basically all i did was swap out my old motherboard and put in a new (refurb) one.

First the motherboard cool graphic screen pops up then it disapears and asks me to enter a raid utility?. I dont touch anything.. screen disapears and all seems to be going well. Then a screen comes up that says i didnt shut down windows right - start windows normally or in safe mode stuff - tried it all. I see the normal down scrolling DOS screen system check jazz... everything seems fine. Then i see the Windows screen with the logo and loading bar. BANG! its gone and a blue screen pops up and disapears (too fast to read) and the computer reboots all over again. At this precise moment I hear the hard drive make a "CRANK CRANK CRANK" sound.

NOTE: I can access the BIOS upon bootup and surf around without anything bad happening.

All input appreciated.


System specs:
Windows XP Service pack?
Asus A8N SLI Premium Mobo
AMD Athlon 3000+ processor
1GB Patriot memory
GeForce 7600gt
? Hard Drive

 

[ThorXP]

Welcome to TSF....

With the motherboard you have a manual and that shows where the connectors for all of the leds ahnd such are conencted to. THe lights are actually LED's and only work connected one way and you have a 50% chance of getting it right the first time, if you do not then just turn the connector the other way and plug it in, they will work eventually.

As for the hard drive and operating system when you replace the motherboard you have to do a repair-install of windows so the operating system can pickup all of the info about the motherboard and after that you have to install all of the special drivers from the driver disk you got with the motherboard.

When you have done this post back with any error messages and we will help some more....

 

[bonusballs]

thanks for helping me out ray:

but, all asus gave me was the motherboard. I have no manual or driver disk. I checked asus site and all the driver choices seem overwhelming. I have no clue which one(s) i need.

I just want to run windows xp with an amd cpu.