Hi, folks. I'm putting together a new system from scratch. The hardware is 
new from Newegg. The system POSTs just fine and I can get into the BIOS, 
but
I can't boot from the floppy or DVD.

Equipment list:
Abit AB9 QuadGT, BIOS 10
CPU Intel Q6700 Quad-core, with a Zalman cooling fan (arctic silver used)
Memory is Kingston HyperX 8500 1G sticks - 4 pieces = 4G total
Floppy is Sony 1.44M
Hard drive is Samsung HD501LJ, attached to SATA connector 1
Optical is Samsung TSSTcorp CD/DVDw x 2, attached to SATA 2 and 3
Power supply is a Zalman 600 watt water-cooled
Video is MSI MX8500 GT

The problem is that while the system powers up and POSTs fine, it refuses 
to boot. It will not boot from the floppy, and it will not boot from the 
DVD
(either of the DVD drives). The lights flash as if it is reading the media. 
I can hear the protective cover being withdrawn on the floppy. But I still
get

DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

The floppy boots on another machine. The DVD is Windows XP MCE, brand new. 
Here are the BIOS settings:

The floppy shows up as Drive A, 1.44M
Floppy 3 mode support is disabled (I have tried it both ways)

HD Boot priority is the Samsung before bootable add-in cards (of which 
there are none)

Boot 1: floppy
Boot 2: SATA CD ROM
Boot 3: hard disk

Boot up floppy seek is disabled (I have tried it both ways - it lights up, 
and I hear the cover retract)
IDE Bus Master is disabled (I have tried it both ways)
SATA mode is IDE (I tried AHCI with no visible difference aside from extra 
text)
JMB363 SATA controller is disabled (enabled only gives the amusing "no any 
drive found" message)
The onboard FDC is enabled

I have tried the fail-safe BIOS defaults. I have tried the optimized 
defaults. Neither work.

The floppy is for flashing the BIOS to 13. It will boot in another PC, but 
not the new one.

The Windows install DVD does not work in either optical drive. I even tried 
disconnecting one drive, but the only benefit is that it didn't try to get
booted (only one "Boot from CD:" message instead of two).

So I appeal to the community: what could I try? What might be wrong? I'm 
helping a friend put this together, so I don't have a spare floppy to try 
(I'll
do that next), but that would solve only one problem if it worked. Like all 
the other posters, I'm at my wits' end. I need help.

Thanks in advance!

Steve

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