BIOS issues

[buenaventura_d]

- Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail
- GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
- G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail
- EVGA 512-P3-N954-TR GeForce 9500 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
- Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
- Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply - Retail
- SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S223Q - OEM

as of today, the aforementioned rig is booted and ready for BIOS setup! since the tutorial on the website is for a different setup, should i just use fail-safe defaults?


also, i can't get the diagnostics i downloaded (Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2 for DOS) errors. it boots, says "starting caldera dr-dos... skipping configuration files... No command interpreter specified..." huh?

[The Wise Monkey]

I've never used those tools, so I don't really know about that error message... Where did you get them from?

It is always a good idea to load the BIOS defaults, then look through everything and change what you need. Don't worry if you can't understand most of it - just try and pick out a few things here and there, such as the boot order and temperatures.

[chunkylover53]

also, i can't get the diagnostics i downloaded (Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2 for DOS) errors. it boots, says "starting caldera dr-dos... skipping configuration files... No command interpreter specified..." huh?

Did you burn a CD with the iso file you downloaded from Western Digital? When you created the CD, did you create a data disc or an image disc? Was it a blank disc, or was is an RW disc that might have had something else on it?

[buenaventura_d]

got the image for the diagnostics disc from this site: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&sid=53&lang=en

it downloads as an .iso which i burned as an image with roxio. i burned and tried another this morning the same way - same result.

other questions that've arisen: the vista OS disc i'm using is a reinstallation disc, does that mean i can't use it to start from scratch? when i tried inserting it, after aborting attempts at HD diagnostics, it gets to a point where you can see the mouse on a black screen and then the computer restarts, ad infinitum. wtf?

also, need I use vista? i was told that xp can't even accomodate the ammount of ram i'm using (4 gigs) and that i'd need vista to run at full capacity. if any of ya'll know different, i'd love to learn i can downgrade to xp without compromising my system's speed.

[chunkylover53]

Two things. First, just to confirm, you downloaded the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS (CD) iso file, not the "tools" right?

Second, where did you get the vista re-installation disc? Did you buy a copy of vista and that came with it?