New to OSx, having problems getting it running

[Dr.stevil]

First I want to say hello, I'm new to the Apple community... I look forward to playing around and learning the apple OS via this website. I used a mac a little bit back in HS and in College for graphic design... been on a PC otherwise though aside from my iphone. I have had OSx Tiger running in Vmware along with PearPC but neither really did "it" for me. More than likely because it wasn't running full speed nor taking advanatage of the video card to it's full potential (nor all the other hardware).

 

With the intro out of the way, on to the problem.

 

Here are my system specs.

 

Intel Core2Quad Q6600 overclocked to 3.0Ghz

DFI Blooniron T2rl

4GB G.Skill DDR2 800mhz

PNY nVidia 8800GT 512mb

Hauppauge HVR 1800

Samsung DVD+/- R/RW

Samsung Blueray/DVD

LG DVD ROM

Logitech Wireless mouse & keyboard combo

 

and last but not least, WD caviar 300gb SATA HDD. All other HDD's & pariferals were/are unhooked. I have another 750gb drive for Vista and XP that I will just swap the cable when I want to switch os's (better than dealing with a boot loader imo).

 

 

So, upon initial install it took a little work to get the DVD to boot. I had to set "SATA" in my bios from "IDE" to "AHCI" and run -v -x strings. With that set, it boots the DVD and installs without so much as a hiccup (delelted the current partition and created a new one for OS in GUID... also tried MBR). Without it, it gives me the "waiting for root device" error (in verbose mode... in regualr mode, it shows the grey apple screen with a white icon with a line through it)

 

So, now that I got it installed I try it out and it goes to the grey apple screen I just mentioned, then a white icon comes up with a line/slash through it. I tried re-setting the computer and doing the -v option. It starts loading and then gets to the old "waiting for root device" error.

 

I tried setting "sata" back to IDE, no help... I tried using gpart to set it as boot, with no luck either.

 

Tried installing OSx yesterday from 5:00-12:00 and just couldn't get it running. Can anyone offer some suggestions to try? I remember reading that the bloodiron worked great OOTB. The guides I've been using , I've followed to a "T".

 

This is fustrating.