New computer, getting started

I dont know what to do.

I have three discs; Window's XP, a graphics card disk, and a motherboard disk.

The only drives I have are a hard drive and CD-ROM, no floppy.

When I start the computer, what do I do?

When I put in the windows disk it acts like something is happneing, then the screen goes blank and nothing happens.

If I put in one of the other disks, I get "Boot failure, insert system disc".

THe instructions I have are pretty general. Is there something I need to be doing in the BIOS screen?

Is there a disk I a missing?

Any help or links would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

You need to boot to your Windows XP CD by entering BIOS and making sure that the CD drive is set for the first boot device, followed by the hard drive. Be sure to save your BIOS settings, put the XP CD in the drive, exit BIOS and the PC will reboot automatically. If the hard drive is new (or totally blank and departitioned), Windows setup should start; or you'll see "Press any key to boot from CD..." at which point you'll press any key; the space bar is a perennial favorite. After that, you should see blue screens with white writing and a 'status' bar at the bottom that basically tells you what's going on, and will occasionally prompt you to press certain keys (like F6 if you're installing Windows to a serial or SATA hard drive). Once you see these blue setup screens, it's just a matter of following the information on the screen. Just read what's displayed, and press the keys it says to press.... it's easy! If you need help, we're here for ya

hd2k

You have all the CD's you're going to need: your operating system (Windows XP), your video drivers, and your motherboard drivers.... that's it!

 

to get into your bios, switch your pc on and tap the F10 key (or Esc or Delete key), different mobo's use different keys but one of them should work

 

If hopperdave2000, and hawklords's instructions don't get you loaded up, just check in the Bios to ensure it sees your hard drive, - if it does not,then I would check the leads to the hard drive, to make sure they have not been pushed out a little, and not making proper contact.

 

Thanks for the replies,

The HD and CD-rom are old. The HD had windows on it (pro) before my computer crashed on me.

I went into the bios and made those changes. There was three boot ups, so I had CD-Rom, HD, and because I had no floppy I changed the third option to disabled.

I also put "none" for floppy in the standard bios options.

When I put the XP disk it, the computer acts like it's going to do something, but then gets to a black blank screen and nothing else happens.

Am I missing something?

Thanks again.

 

It appears that the PC isn't booting to the CD; either the CD scratched REALLY badly, or you have some other issue. Power down, unplug the power cord from the tower, open it up and make sure all cables (both power and data cables) are fully and securly attached to their devices and to the motherboard. Be sure the RAM is firmly seated; maybe pop each stick out, and then pop 'em back in. Be sure all your cards (modem, NIC, video card, etc) are firmly in the slots, and pushed in completely. Some motherboards have more than one spot to plug into the power supply; make sure any and all motherboard power connections are connected. This applies to some video cards also: some have their own power requirements and must be connected to the power supply. If this applies to you, double check the connection. Check the jumpers on your hard drive and CD drive; if they are each on their own cable and on their own IDE channel, then they should both be jumpered for Master; do NOT use cable select! I think that just about covers it. If your BIOS has a "load fail-safe values" setting, use it, but be sure to change the boot order back to CD first, HD second, and disable the floppy controller.... If you still can't get the CD booting, there may be a hardware issue. Does the BIOS recognize all the RAM? Does the BIOS recognize the hard drive and CD drive correctly? Do you have the video set correctly- if you have an AGP or PCI or PCIX video card, the BIOS should be 'told' to initialize the appropriate video source; if using built-in on board video, the same setting applies: tell the BIOS to use the on board video.....

hd2k

I think I've pretty much covered the bases here....

 

Alright everything is tight.

I see now that when I go into Standard CMOS features under the IDE channel0 Master and Slave it says none.

When I try and auto detect, it says "Detecting Hard Drive" and when it finishes, it still says none.

Is it not recognizing the hard drive?

As far as the connection goes, I'm using one of the ribbon's to connect the hard drive, CD-Rom and mother board.

Is this correct?

I didnt think this would be so hard. I figured I would just follow the directions but the directions blew.

Thanks again for the help.

 

The harddrive should be on one IDE lead, and cd/dvd drives on another. You have also to connect the 4 pin plug from your power supply to the hard drive, and cd/dvd.
If you disconnect the cd/dvd drive, and start up, go into Bios, and see if it sees the hard drive- if it does not, it is very likely that the hard drive is at fault, as this can give the same trouble, as you are having, with Windows not loading.
If the screen goes black, as Hopperdave says, check that the bios setting for video is set correctly.

 

Ok thats the problem.

BIOS recognizes both the CD-Rom and the hard drive when they are plugged in by themselves but not together.

Now the problem is I only have one plug on the mother board for both of them.

The only other connection is for the floppy.

How am I supposed to make that work. And if they both can't be conntected at the same time, why is there three connections on the ribbon?

Thanks again for the replies.

 

Connect the hard drive, with the jumper in the master position, and the cd/dvd to slave position (the little plugs on the rear of the hard drive and cd/dvd drive.

 

You might also find it helps, if you go into the Bios, and on the IDE channels, set to auto detect.

 

Alright got it.

I had to switch the HD over to master. It was on a SC setting or something.

Thank you guys for the help. Really appreciate it.

 

Yeah- the HD was probably on CS (Cable Select) and the CD drive was probably set to Slave which would cause neither to come up correctly. Now you're rockin' and rollin'!!! Just boot to your XP CD, and you're off to the races! Install the motherboard drivers immediately after the Windows install is done; reboot the PC and install the video drivers last. Then go to Windows Update and install ALL of the high priority updates (there's about 75 or 80 for XP SP2). Personally, I uncheck IE7 from the list as I don't consider a buggy browser to be a high priority update, but that's just me Feel free to post any other questions you may have....

hd2k