Soyo Mobo Problem

I just completed my build, and got windows to install and everything was working great. Then I started messing around with the bios system and I accidentally overclocked the cpu too much. The system went blank on a reboot, so I shut down the computer and reset the cmos. I then rebooted the computer, and it wouldn't recognize any of the hdds. So I moved them around, by plugging them into different sata ports. Now when I try booting up windows XP again in my cdrom drive, it detects all the hardware, but in the setup menu, it doesn't display any hardrives to install windows to. When I hit install, it brings up a error message on a blue screen and tells me to restart. I have tried all sorts of combinations for my SATA HDDs with no success. Has anyone else had this problem. I am quite unfamiliar with the whole boot process. I may need a different boot disk than the windows XP install one. Any help would be appreciated.

Mobo: Soyo P41875P Dragon 2 V1.0
hdds: both WD
CPU: Intel 3.0 Prescott

It may be caused by either Bios corruption or HDD defect.

But if it can detect CD-ROM and others correctly, it would be HDD itself or cables ditchy.

Download from WD diagnostic and installation utilities. However, you may consider bios upgrade too.

Can you feel the HDD vibrating? Touch it with a glove on.

check to see if everything is right in the bios. Check te agp/pci speeds. should be 66/33.

I may not of been specific enough... the hardrives are both spinning, and are both recognized by my bios, It is just that Win XP setup isn't finding any drives. One of my HD already has windows setup on it, I just had to clear CMOS, so all the initial stuff is screwed up.

Just a guess. Maybe XP setup is looking for a blank partition and since it sees XP already set up, it doesn't want to overwrite it?

Is the XP CD the only problem? Does it boot and work fine otherwise? Why do you still need to mess with the XP CD?

I have tried booting directly from the hd that has winXP on it, and it says "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer." Then it tells me to "check for viruses, remove newly installed hd or hd controllers, check hd to make sure it is properly configured and terminated, run CHKDSK \F."

Unfortunately, I can't run CHKDSK.

I also tried a new hd and ran the winXP booting through cdrom. The cd ran, and WinXP ran the hardware detector. After pressing enter to install WinXP, the licensing agreement come up. Then I hit F8 to agree, it runs setupp.ini and says that there is no disk in this drive. Hitting enter causes an error to come up. It says the "A problem has been..." thing again. It also says the problem is in setupdd.sys
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA. And says to restart comp.

I am really frustrated with this, I don't know what else to do. I will keep plugging away though. Thanks for your help in advance.

wow, what a freak problem. I would try going to the manafacture's website and grab some utilities and try them. I'm thinking that there are some bad sectors on the hard drive. Try a reformate via the utilities, and if they have any check for bad sectors or anything like that.

whoops

I fixed the problem, boy was it a roundabout way though.
I finally found a configuration where my blank hd was found and was able to install winXP on it. Then I started installing the drivers, when I wanted to try something out. I decided to unplug this HD and plug in my other one on the same SATA drive. It then allowed me to load windows in normal mode and everything was okay. I guess something in BIOS just needed to be added by the install. I really have no clue how it actually got fixed.

Does anyone know where I can get a good program to check all my frequencies and some other cpu diagnostics?

Thanks for all your help!

Good going.

sisoft sandra

you can get the light version at download.com