Experiences with upgrading to PCI-E graphics and SATA hdd without a manual

[Frank N. O.]

Well since I have the parts I gets it not that much of an emergency it requires the main forum, I did avoid the tech forum since no-one ever uses it it seems.

As some of you know I'm upgrading from a Ultra ATA hdd and AGP graphicscard to a SATA and PCI-E ditto. However after assembling the machine there is no video-signal and no hdd activity.

The poster that followed with the graphicscard, Asus Extreme AX850Pro, did very little to explain how to install the card, because it just mentioned there might be a extra powerplug and if so then connect it to the PSU. Well there was not one but two plugs and neither of them looked like the one on the drawing on the poster and no other info seems to be available even on the manual CD's. The large plug has two rows of three large round pins a bit like the molex 4-pin power-plugs for normal hdd and CD-drives and there was a converter plug that fit into the forementioned plugs. The small plug has 4 tiny flat pins, a bit like the power-plug for a floppy drive, but it can't be since it doesn't fit and seriously it could hardly use that plug for power for the whole card anyway, and having two power-plugs is just insane.

I did however figure out what kind of plug it was, but I can't believe it's right, it's the CD Audio plug like from a CD-Drive that connects to the mb. It fits perfectly and clicks into lock. I do know this card has extensive video editing and capture functions, and bundled programs to match too, and there' s a feature allowing webcam and voice-chat over games but I still can't see the point in that audio plug, or that it could be why there's no video signal.

Now for the hdd, it's a Western Digital Caviar SE (I think) SATA-II 120gb unit and the PSU already has a SATA power-plug and that was inserted and the SATA data-cable was fitted and plugged into the mb SATA plug 1 for boot-drives.

When I turned the machine on there was no activity and I can't understand why.

The rest of the specs are:
New Asus P5GPL-X motherboard
1 year old Pentium 4 530 LGA775 3.0GHz CPU with hyper-threading, 800MHz FSB and original cooler.
1 year old 2x512mb Kingston PC3200 (3-3-3) RAM-blocks selected for Dual Channel 800MHz operation
1 year old Chill CP-510A 510W PSU
unknown age but probably around 1 year old Asus DVD-ROM
Roughly 1 year odl CoolerMaster Centurion 5 ATX-tower

Btw, I had bought a new Chill CP-520A2 PSU with the extra 24-pin mb plug and 6-pin PCI-E plug but the thing didn't fit so the screw-holes would line up, weird.

I touched the chassis/PSU before handling cards and made sure never to scratch or drop them or touch anything but the card-edges (this is common sense since the IC's can be ruined, but in several computer-stores I've seen the techinical staff just grab them like a cardboard box or newspaper, just grab the whole hard over it).

I checked that all cards were secure, including the motherboard and that they are not in tension (this is specifically the motherboard when I installed the sound and graphicscard and screwed the frame to the chassis backside to secure the plug-panel in the back). I also checked that no wires touched the fans or circuits.

Frank

[FIATLOVE]

Try read your mb manual, you may have to swap some slots on it to enable SATA (and maybe pcix also), also you maybe have to change some bios settings.

Hope you make it work soon!

:Peace:

[Frank N. O.]

I just read this in my mb manual and I can't believe if it's true
Important notes on on Serial ATA

- Install the Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 or the Windows XP Service pack 1 before using Serial ATA.

- Plug your Serial ATA boot disk on the master port (SATA1 and SATA2) to support S3 function. Refer to the table below for details.

How can I install the OS on the hdd when I need to install the OS before the hdd can be used???

On the other subject, I noticed I'd made a small error in the position of the power-LED plugs that are seperate unlike the hdd LED, I had placed them side by side when there's supposed to be a unused pin inbetween, but of course that can't make it not boot.

And regarding the bios setup then yes maybe there's something, but just before I was going to check the bios then I remembered something, how can I check the bios to see if PCI-E is enabled when there is only a PCI-E graphicscard and port? ROFL (I'm not making fun of you, I didn't think of it until I was about to try it and I've done many similar things in the past and most likely will in the future as well).

There are no jumpers that appear to be moved for the card and hdd so that's out but what did you mean by moving slots? What I know as a slot is that thing that's grafted into the mb, and there's no mistaking a PCI-E and a std. PCI slot (respectively graphicscard and soundcard).

Thanks for the help and good wishes, I can't wait to drive again! :racer: Or listen to online comedy-radio, watch car-videos, play any other game that requires a 3D accelerator, or watch carpictures, talk to Chey, work on 3D models etc. etc. (I did something to screw up the 3D driver on this PC's GeForce 2 MX so NFSII+III and Lost Eden is all I can run, and then solitaire of course).

Frank

[FIATLOVE]

Ehh I ment jumpers slots.. :blush:

Huh about the mb manual saying those things regarding SATA &(
I guess you can fix that by e.g do a manual update of SATA drivers or something?

[Frank N. O.]

Uhm Mads how can I update drivers for a drive when I can't get the drive to work?

Update: After pulling it in tight with the screws I finally got the PSU to fit, although it really took some coordinate screw-pulling. The proper cables are all on directly from the PSU without converters, all units have seperate wires so nothing is shared, and it still doesn't work at all!! In fact it switched itself off after 10-15 seconds of running. I also noticed the power-LED was very weak but it didn't work when the twin LED plug was turned the other way around (it doesn't have + or - signs on it so I can't match it up as shown in the manual). The hdd lamp seems to work though, it did blink actually, and the power and reset button work so I'm really in the dark as to why there's no video-signal, but I'm deeply concerned. There are no jumpers to set that would give this problem, there is only 1-2 sets and they are their proper default setting for my system and all power-plugs are fixed and in place where they need to be so no idea what to do.

I tried to look at Asus' site again, this time with Firefox and still got database error and then at the last try they were updating so I can't see if there is any troubleshoot files for either the mb or graphicscard since both are from Asus and as mentioned earlier the graphicscard manual was extremely non-existant as to these things.

On a good sidenote, the flu seems to have gone away finally.
On a undetermined sidenote, we just got an offer for a new place to live just outside of Odense from jan 1st, but we don't know if we can afford to get a loan for the deposit and move so fast and there's 3 months here we need to pay before we can cancel it.

When it rains it pours.

Frank

[Frank N. O.]

Chaul was so kind as to spend time in the chatroom earlier to search for forum threads that might help my situation and also suggested loosening the screws on the mb. I tried this, very loose, still no dice. I also tried to connect the speaker but not sure what way to turn the 4-pin plug, that only has 2 wire, 1 black and 1 yellow, and when I tried booting up then no beeps came.

On a bad sidenote, the flu is back but at least after hours I got a little heat in my feat again, but still pain. The temperature setting on the electric radiator was turned up to around 28 C but the room still got colder despite the outside air getting slightly warmer.

On a good sidenote, I tried to re-install the 3D drivers for the GF2 MX and they seem to work, at least in PU, dude it hasn't looked this good in ages, even medium quality looks better than high with the scrambling the Radeon 9600 did for the textures. NFS3 still can't load several tracks despite a full re-intall, I wonder if the CD is damaged, I bought it when NFSIII was brand new.

Frank

[Frank N. O.]

I've tried to boot with the speaker wire on both direction, no beeps or anything. I pulled the LED and the forward USB plug from the motherboard to the tower's front USB plugs just in case, still nothing.

I read Asus' help pages, not worth anything. I tried resetting the PSU as they wrote, nothing, and I already made sure all cables are secure and oriented correctly. I can't clear the CMOS because I simply can't get the battery out but it can't understand why I'd have to do that anyway with a brand new never-been-used-before mb.

My brother suggested re-installing the old mb to make sure it's not my CPU that's been damaged but with fever, cold-sweat and headaches I simply can't gather the strength to dismantle the mb and PSU and all and replace the old ones, it's too physically hard and I can't move my hands so precise I don't risk banging parts together.

Sidenote: The house we were offered will be turned down, my brother went there today and it's just next to the meeting and party-room and the rooms are damaged as it seems it was an eviction so we'll pass on it.
I re-installed NFSIII with minimum files on the hdd and I can now load Redrock Ridge so maybe I can play some knockout challenge a little again, it's been a while.

I'm really getting desperate trying to figure out what to do. I don't want to return it if there is a chance it's just a bad setting, although it does look like something isn't working, but what? The GPU, CPU or MB? Or maybe the RAM were damaged?
The other problem is that getting it back in the boxes and then in the big box and sent back is a lot of trouble, and not just because I can't remember all things that went into each box for the mb and gpu because there was a lot, there's also the problem of having to sail with the ferry and go into the bussiest part of town and haul a big crate in freezing temperatures a fair distance crossing a busy road after trying to find a parkinglot to get to the post-office. And then the waiting to hear news. I hate not knowing what to :( I feel so dumb and helpless.

Frank