Hi folks. My name is Blake and I'm new to the board. Seems like a lot of helpful and friendly people here .

My boss is really into custom building and techy stuff and when I told him I was going to buy a new computer, he suggested I build one instead. I decided it would be a fun thing to try out and it was... until I had to start it up.

ISSUE #1
The first problem I had was my memory not firing up. There was a long continuous beep that went in 10 second intervals. I currently have 4gb of RAM but only 2gb installed (on the B1-B2 slots). It will not boot up when I have all four 1gig sticks inside.

ISSUE #2
I purchased 4, 500gb HDD and wanted to raid them. The problem here is that they are PATA/Ultra ATA hard drives and not SATA. I can string all of them up using the IDE ports inside but that leaves no room to install my DVD drives for Windows installation. I purchased an SATA to PATA adapter for the DVD drive hoping that it will solve the issue but it doesn't seem to recognize an SATA device. I don't want to connect only three hard drives because I want to raid all of them up. How can I get around this SATA problem without buying an expensive PATA PCI card?

ISSUE #3
This one has me concerned the most. I figuired I'd install Windows on my new computer just to play around with it a little until I can figure out how to raid all 4 up and get my DVD drives set up too. When I try installing Windows, the computer powers itself off whenever it feels like it. I managed to get the setup files copied to a hard drive but it is still shutting off. I have a 450W power supply. One of my co-workers thinks it may be a jumper setting or a bios setting causing the power shut downs and memory issues. I have Award BIOS.

Here are my components:
1 Antec Sonata II Quiet Super Mid Tower Case (Piano Black) w/450W power supply
1 Intel® Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe Processor 2.4GHz, 1066FSB, LGA775, 4MB Cache
2 OCZ OCZ2P8002GK 2GB Kit DDR2-800 PC2-6400 Enhanced Latency Platinum XTC Edition Dual Channel Memory
1 ASUS DRW-1612BL 16X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive w/LightScribe (Black)
4 Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630A 500GB Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer
1 Asus P5N-E SLI nForce 650i SLI Socket 775 1066MHz DDR2-800 Motherboard
1 EVGA GeForce 7950GT KO Superclocked (600MHz) 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express Video Card w/HDTV-Out & DVI-I Retail
1 Thermaltake A2218 UFO Fan Series - 92mm Fan (Blue UV)
1 Bluegears B-Cool 80mm Fan (White-Blue)

Hope someone can help me! I'm going a little insane trying to get this working. Thanks folks.

Hello triplehelix,

Welcome to PCHF.

I think I have nothing but bad news for you here.


Issue #1
For your motherboard, have you identified that it is slots A1-A2 that your physically having problems with, certain memory or the amount of memory your using. Swap the memory you currently have in B1-B2 which will rule out memory problems. Try just two sticks in A1-A2. If it's the physical slots, or certain memory then you will have no option but to dig out your warranty documentation. Are all sticks identical, or is it the amount of memory your using (the board does support up to 8gb). There is a BIOS compatibility update available for memory, which can be downloaded from the ASUS web site: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Support-

Another thing to consider, is that if your planning to use Windows XP 32bit, all 4gb of memory is not available. You can however use up to 3gb by adding a /3gb switch in your boot.ini file (using SP2).

Issue #2
The Asus P5N-E SLI has hardware RAID available for SATA, not ATA. There are software solutions available, but they do have the tendancy of being perhaps a little unstable, and do decrease performance. I'm quite suprised after building such a high spec machine you would have selected ATA HDD's in the first place. What SATA device did you purchase?

Another thing to consider here also, is what type of RAID are you looking at setting up? There are many different types of RAID, take a look at what your looking for here: LasCon Storage - Different types of RAID

Issue #3
I believe 450w should just about cover all the hardware you have here, as long as you have nothing more? The are a number of possible causes to power issues like these, including memory you mentioned earlier. Memtest86 is good for testing memory, have a look here: Memtest86.com - Memory Diagnostic , other possible causes are power related problems (PSU or a short somewhere on the motherboard) and overheating are the most likely. Are you able to access Windows at this point? Have you had any error messages or blue screens of death?

Hi there and thanks for the reply.

I am aware of the RAM limitation with Windows XP. I currently have Win XP Pro 32. My RAM sticks are all identical OCZ brand and they all work in the B1-B2 slots. I really hope the mother board isn't damaged. I've tried switching them all around and none seem to work in A1-A2.

Honestly with the hard drives, I saw a good price and jumped at it without thinking. I'm not the greatest hardware guy and I really had no idea what SATA was . I ordered SATA to PATA adapters online. These connect to the SATA ports on the motherboard and plug into a small chip that fits in the back of the hard drive. Will I be able to use a raid 0-1 function with that? If not, I'll have to spring for a PCI PATA raid card :/.

I don't have any SATA devices at this time. I purchased an adapter at a local store for my DVD drive so that I can install the OS and have all 4 HDDs running. I don't think it works unless the OS is already installed though.

For my last issue, I am unable to access Windows. The farthest I've gotten was to the first installation screen where it says "37 more minutes left" and then poof, it powers off. The LED light on the motherboard is still on though so I don't think its a power supply issue. I haven't had any error messages or BSDs.

Interestingly enough, I stuck another CD inside to see what would happen. Ofcourse it skipped over it and went straight to the blank HDD. The power offs seem to happen when I'm in the BIOS or setting up Windows.

Check the slots for any physical signs of damage. If they are not working on A1-A2 then I really would send it back. They really should be working on A1-A2 and doesn't even make a difference what configuration you put your RAM into, it will still work. It makes me wonder what other issues you may have, and could be the cause of your shutdown problems. If you managed to get into Windows, you could well discover further issues.

Using a PCI PATA RAID card is actually a really good idea, any will sort out both your problems using too many IDE devices, and using hardware RAID which you do not have at the moment.

Thanks for that. I'm going to call up ASUS tech support now (I have a 3year warranty) and see if they can assist me. By all counts my RAM itself is fine and not damaged. The slots do not display physical damage. However the A1 slot doesn't seem to click in like the others.

Thanks again!

I would contact the place you bought it from. I've heard that ASUS is a great supplier but has horrible tech support.