New PC Wont Boot

Burwood · 22 Jul 2006 at 15:48

Just go my new PC today and it gives me the message "Please apply correct Boot Media and restart the system". When I start up.
I called the seller of my PC and they said it was because one of the cable from to the Hard Disk where the Boot media is stored may have come un-plugged.
I check it and found a lone plug that fit a lone socket in the Hard Disk but I still get the same error.
The shop has not closed for weekend so I thought id post here. I have checked the common problems thread but this did not really help.
Has anyone got a diagram or something of what cables should be where on the Hard disk because there are so many coming from the power supply Im not sure if I've used the correct one.
Please help anyone Iam desperate to run my new PC today

Curio · 22 Jul 2006 at 15:58

Is it the system in your sig?

You should have a 4-pin power lead from the power supply and then a SATA cable, both going into the back of the drive.

Oh, and your sig is breaking the rules I'm afraid - only 4 lines of text allowed I believe

Street · 22 Jul 2006 at 16:15

Some harddrives have both molex and sata power connectors, watch you haven't plugged both in!

Have you checked in the BIOS to make sure the primary hard drive is selected as the first boot device?

Burwood · 22 Jul 2006 at 16:56

Yes it is the system in my sig.
I have set the 1st Boot to the HD and have a had a look at whats coming out of the HD, its just the flat red SATA cable. The straight cable from the power and two others coming from the power and also going out to the floppy drive and a unit at the rear, but still getting the same message.
What does the molex cable look like?

EDIT - I have a loose pin from one of the power cables that goes into the HD but it seems ok when just pushed through into the female socket the other side through the housing It has slightly bent at the bottom so it doesnt lach on inside the housing. Is this a major matter?

Burwood · 22 Jul 2006 at 18:21

Any ideas anyone?
It also makes 1 short beep at start-up which suggests a peice of hardware is not functioning propaly?
I have tryed different connection configurations which all the output leads from the power unit but same message everytime or system wont start atall.

Street · 22 Jul 2006 at 18:54

Most systems beep once at post, so thats probably nothing. Any chance of a photo of the connectors you are using? Is it picking up the drive in the post screen when it boots?

Burwood · 22 Jul 2006 at 19:38

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v310/plmnko/?action=view&current=pic.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch1

The socket circled in Red is the power cable.

Yellow is the SATA cable.

Blue is the other cable from the power going out to here there and everywhere.

Here you can see the 4 un-attended leads coming from the power unit.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v...urrent=DSCF0010.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch1

Tell me if u need any more pics.

TheVoice · 22 Jul 2006 at 19:43

Unplug one of those power cables (either the red or the blue), you don't need both.

Can I also just say that the cabling in that PC is an absolute mess. Not good at all.

Burwood · 22 Jul 2006 at 19:51

TheVoice said:
Unplug one of those power cables (either the red or the blue), you don't need both.

Can I also just say that the cabling in that PC is an absolute mess. Not good at all.

Nope. Didn't change anything and ofc the cabling is just like that now because iam fidling with it to try and get it too boot.

TheVoice · 22 Jul 2006 at 19:54

I fear the hard-drive might be dead (due to the reason I mentioned before).

Is there any chance you can try another hard-drive, or try that drive in another system?

Burwood · 22 Jul 2006 at 20:05

TheVoice said:
I fear the hard-drive might be dead (due to the reason I mentioned before).

Is there any chance you can try another hard-drive, or try that drive in another system?

Dont think I can as my old PC isn't a SATA motherboard. But I got the PC brand new this morning. Didnt touch the inside atall booted it up and it gave me this message. Also that second power lead wasnt inserted when I opened it up.

Street · 22 Jul 2006 at 20:20

I've plugged both power connectors into my Raptor before by accident, had it running like that for a week as well before I noticed! :eek:

But didn't do any damage thankfully..

Burwood · 22 Jul 2006 at 22:52

Have un-plugged one power cable just to be safe now, although still same problem. Iam starting to doubt if the HD is even in-correctly installed!
PC Specialist have let me down too many times now! Im gunna have a good chat with them on Monday! :mad:

Street · 22 Jul 2006 at 22:54

Does the PC pick up the hard drive in the post screen?

Burwood · 22 Jul 2006 at 23:39

How can I tell? I think it does though because in the Boot settings it has all the details of the HD but when I dc the HD it just says Hard Drive.

TheVoice · 22 Jul 2006 at 23:42

Did the company install Windows and test the machine for you? If you have a Windows CD, you could use that (put it in the CD drive, restart and make sure the CD drive is at the top of the boot priority list), and it should be able to tell you if there's an existing XP installation there already.

Street · 23 Jul 2006 at 00:00

If its showing up the details there that means its picking up the drive ok

HAz · 23 Jul 2006 at 01:17

i got a simular msg like thaty when i left my usb mp3 player ataced into the usb port.

make sure you havent got any external usb Hardrives or any other crap connected.
Also cheak tehre no floppy disk in the floppy drive and that in the bios the boot settings are set to boot from HDD first.

Burwood · 23 Jul 2006 at 13:55

Yeh I've checked all that now and its fine. As the HD is installed correctly and being recognized it must just be missing the Boot Media?
Can I just dl this from somewhere and run it off CD?
Windows was installed by the shop and they tested it and everything. Cant call them untill tommorow as its weekend.

Burwood · 23 Jul 2006 at 15:07

Im starting to think to re-install the OP or just wait till tommorow morning and have a good chat with the shop about it.