Need some help - interesting computer problem

So ever since I built this comp (back in January), it's been acting quite weird. Originally, I used an older cd-rom since I didn't feel like buying one at the time (and I had an external one that I wanted to use on it, anyway). Well, it didn't want to boot up unless the XP cd was in the cd drive. Take it out, and it has a boot failure. It's set right as far as master/slave is concerned, so not sure about that.

It's also believing it has two monitors hooked up to it, even after I've told it that it doesn't. Using a GF 5200 on it (why am I not surprised???). Now it's wanting to lock up because the Nvidia Twin Viewer decides to bug out.

Another issue is it's speed. It's an AMD 2600+, 512mb pc2100 (I know this is low, but this comp should not be running like it's a p3 with 256 in it), the GF 5200, with a 40gb 7200rpm HD in it.

any ideas? Thanks!

 

A complete format, bios settings to default, change boot priority, these are the only obvious things I can think of. Try borrowing a more modern cd drive (although i cant see why it would make a difference). Windows XP can be a devil sometimes, especially if you have a pirate copy, not that I own a pirate copy .

However, this is a most perculiar problem. I've always used ATI so my experience with nVidia is limited.

 

I'm thinking it might be the CD drive - would make sense since I wasn't sure it even worked to begin with, LOL! Was just going to use it temporarily then use my USB drive. And I know BIOS is set correctly, looked at it a TON of times when I first built it - but I'll check again, just to be sure things didn't change. And yes, this is an extremely STRANGE problem that I've never run into.

Not a pirated copy, it's OEM. $83 yay. Anyway - I'm gonna drag along a hard drive with me to see if that fixes it.