Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

booting issue

by cheeseus Oct 23, 2012 9:09AM PDT

i have had this computer for about 4 years and haven't had any boot issues until now. In the past it has had Win XP, Win 7, and Ubuntu installed on it... currently there is no OS installed.

The motherboard is an Abit SG-80DC

this has never booted from the Sata dvd/cd (even though it booted fine from the Sata hard drive)

until recent, i have used an IDE dvd drive to install windows from bios, and now the issue...

When i try to boot from an IDE dvd drive, the computer will randomly restart while reading from it (it has reset before the push any key to boot from cd prompt and afterwards, it has also reset on me in the middle of installing windows) which makes me think maybe there is a power supply issue.
(but the following paragraph there doesnt seem to be a power issue)

I also have tried a sata - IDE converter, this actually allows my computer to boot from the sata dvd drive, and reads it as an IDE.. now... it doesn't randomly restart like it did with the normal IDE connection, instead it tells me that BOOTMGR image is corrupt and cannot start (after i "push a key to boot from cd" ). with the converter installed it will also sometimes freeze instead of loading the dvd.

i have used multiple IDE dvd drives, and cables and yes it is set to boot from the cd drive. am also trying to install Windows XP or 7 back onto the machine (would prefer XP but at this point i will be happy with anything)... if anyone can offer any information (a way to boot from sata dvd with this motherboard, or any other solution) it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Discussion is locked

2 Posts

- Collapse + Expand Details

- Collapse -

Clarification Request

Don't know what your BIOS is but ...

by Edward ODaniel Oct 23, 2012 9:42AM PDT

most SATA boards allow you to configure each SATA channel. If set to AUTO it should show your SATA DVD drive as a bootable device or it might call it a SCSI drive that if selected as first boot device will work.

Your motherboard manual should show the process or you can see for yourself by accessing the BIOS and looking through the settings. I can't guide you as the online manual for the board only tells you how to access the BIOS (DEL key) and what the initial menu screen looks like.

- Collapse -

by cheeseus Oct 24, 2012 3:27AM PDT

i have seen nothing in the bios for SATA channels, there is master / slave (primary / secondary) for IDE channel. when it is set to boot from CD with only the SATA and hard drive installed it just sits at the boot from CD screen and doesn't seem like its trying to read from the drive (its not frozen, but its not doing anything either). i have no manual for the Motherboard as i bought it used from a kid i met, and currently have limited access to a computer / internet.
thank you for your quick response, but im not sure it will boot from a SATA DVD drive, i have other options ( IDE DVD drive) but the computer randomly resets while reading from it, if anyone has a suggestion for that problem, would be great