Pri Master ATAPI CDROM

[Mei_Mei]

okay... so i had a friend put a list of computer parts together for me.. n then he put it together but when xp pro was installed the first time it was not installed correctly therefore it lead to random shut downs. so we reinstalled it n put in a big power supply as a result a week later i happened to leave the computer on overnight n in the morning the power went out. when i checked it all it said was:

Rebot and select proper boot device
Or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key_

before that when the computer is first turned on it says:

Auto-detecting Pri Master.. ATAPI CDROM

uhhh.. im very frustrated, what does this all mean???
is my hard drive the problem? from random shut downs n the possible power shortage?
someone plz help me btw im also new to this forum lol

[davy]

Sound's like a Hard drive configuration problem usually due to a setting.

You'll need to go into bios and check the RAID setting, possibly, just possibly it might be thinking the hard drive is configured for RAID.... now I can't say for 'your' mobo but check and see if you can see 'Onboard H/W ATA RAID ' listed if so checked that it's disabled if only a single drive is being used, sounds as though it's looking for the hard drive.... any changes in bios must be saved followed by a reboot.

Before delving into bios ensure that you have the mobo handbook to hand if possible and look for this setting. Do you see a little bar going round while it's trying to boot, if so then this more likely the problem.

Also check the hard drive configuration pins, a single drive should be set to Master... or Cable Select marked CS, there's usually a diagram on the top of the drive.

The random shut down could well be a power problem or a hardware conflict the best bet is to check one thing at a time, to check you'll need to go to device manager and see if you can see any yellow warning triangles, here we go....

Click Start, right click My computer, left click on Properties, then left click Hardware tab, in the first pane left click Device Manager and look to see if there are any yellow warning signs, might be wise to leave this problem until last.

Davy

[asoileau83]

There's a Primary and Secondary IDE port on your motherboard (typically), then on each cable you can have Master and Slave. If your CD-ROM is being detected as Primary Master, that means it's on the Primary cable and is being detected as the master device on that cable.

Now, how many hard drives do you have in your computer and are they SATA or PATA (IDE)??

Assuming you have a PATA hard drive ...

For starters, you should have the hard drive and CD-ROM on separate IDE cables. The Hard Drive should be on the Primary slot and CD-ROM on Secondary. If you have just one Hard Drive, check the pin jumper settings and make sure it's set for MASTER. Same for the CD-ROM.

Nowadays, there's no reason you should have two CD-ROM drives. If you do, buy a DVD burner for $20 and get with it. If you have two IDE drives, the one at the end of the cable should be set to master, and the middle drive to slave. Some motherboards don't like master/slave, so you might have to set them both to cable select and it will automatically detect the drive at the end of the cable as the master -that should be your OS drive.

If all that configuration is correct, see if your BIOS or the POST screen shows the hard drives as detected. If it doesn't read your hard drive, make sure the hard drive is power on (feel it and see if it's vibrating).

Since your CD-ROM is being detected, you can swap the IDE cables and make sure the port and cable is good where the hard drive is connected.

Finally, you might want to try another hard drive in your computer.

Give us some feedback and tell us what you find.

As for the random shutdowns, it could be many things. I'd definitely start with a full format and fresh reinstall of windows. It could be power supply, memory, hardware conflict, etc. etc. etc., but let's get you back into windows first :P