first build problems

Hi, I recently put together my first computer. When I start it up, everything powers up fine, and it recognizes, my RAM, hard drive, and CD/DVD drive, etc. I changed the BIOS to boot from my CD drive so I can try to install my copy of windows xp. When it reboots, it reads from the CD drive, and the light comes on for a few seconds, then it stops, the drive makes noise for about 30 seconds like it's reading it, but the light turns off. It tries to boot from the CD, but then prompts that it is an invalid system disk, to replace and press enter. Sometimes after that an nvidia boot agent prompt also comes up basically saying to replace the disc some sort of PXE-61 (?) error to check cable. I've ruled out the disc, and the cables are brand new. any suggestions? Any help is appreciated.

 

Try to borrow a cd drive from a buddy or other computer, if its not the cd drive, it may be a faulty motherboard connection...

 

Ya.

Try a different drive, check the IDE cable connections... and this will sound whacky, but I've done this before.

One time I had a brand new XP Pro disc it wouldn't read. Just wouldn't. I ran out of ideas and then made an exact copy of the disc, put it in, and it ran and installed like a charm. It was the weirdest s*** I've ever seen, but it's worth a try!

Other than that, you'd have to let some more experienced people on here help ya out!

 

This is a dumb question, but what is the devil guy in your picture from? Seen it before, but I don't know what it represents. I'm assuming the penguin is Linux? Haha. I don't get outside much

 

have you had a look in bios to see if you have network boot enabled,also try disabling boot up other device if the options are there

 

lol the penguin IS from linux... your right on that one... the devil guy is from FreeBSD another type of Linux....

Also, try checking the IDE cable AND try replacing it with another one that you KNOW works...

 

Argh, I borrowed two different CD drives, changed the IDE cables, rechecked all the setttings and it still get the same error. What's odd is it recognizes the CD-Drive on startup, so I'm guessing it's connected properly. I have it set so it boots only from the cd-rom, and I couldn't find anything oin the bios about network boot. Could there be something else in the bios that I forgot to do or missed?

 

did the computer at any time during boot "press any key to boot from cd"? if so PERSS THE DAMN KEY

 

uhm, yes...and I did. I may not be a computer wiz but I'm not completely clueless.

 

if the cd was mailed like through ebay the person might not have identified it as a electrostatic sensitve item and may have been scanned this causeing missing info on disk and it being useless