Question : Problem: Installing a MAXTOR 80gb Drive - SATA. Got a few problems

Hi

I do hope someone can help.

Ok i am building a PC for a mate, the spec is ASUS p4p800-x, PIII3.0ghz, 1gb ram,  Radion 9800Se and Maxtor 80GB Diamond 9. The h/d is SATA !. I built the machine, installed WinXP, now when installin WinXP it asked if i wished to installed some drivers, by pressing F6. rightly or wrongly i ignored it and let WinXP complete the installation process.

Shortly after installing WinXP, it became apparent that the VGA was faulity, so i replaced it this morning and hoped to continue with the installation.

NOW, here is the problem, for some reason when i boot the machine up is hanging during the boot process 'Auto Detecting 3rd master',it will stay like this for 15mins. If i leave the SATA h/d connected, the machine will NOT boot from floppy. SO i have no way of fdisking it and starting again.....or do i ? I can also not get into the BIOS, unless i reset the jumpers on the CMOS and at the next time of booting i can access the BIOS,  the h/d is recgonised as Maxtor 80gb etc... but then when i exit the BIOS, its still the same problem....'Auto Detecting 3rd master'.

What have i done/doing wrong...?
How do i resolve this problem... ?

Answer : Problem: Installing a MAXTOR 80gb Drive - SATA. Got a few problems

Who made the Graphic card?  I had a problem once where an ASUS MOBO and an ASUS Graphic card were not compatible.  If you have the new board in and installed the MOBO driver for the AGP, try switching (in the BIOS) to PCI on boot instead of AGP.  Sounds wierd, I know, but worth a try just once.  If that fails, get a new Graphic card!  Evidently the system was FINDING the 3d Master the whole time, but couldn't take THE NEXT STEP!