XP Problem with Black screen

I just reformatted my brothers hard drive and put it in my comp. Installed XP Pro-which seemed to go okay, but when it tries to load XP Pro the screen just goes black. No curser or anything. The only thing I can do is restart and then it just does it again. It only gets as far as the XP loading screen. I've tried reformatting and re-installing XP but it hasn't helped.Can anyone help?

 

Can you boot using safemode ?

 

No I can't

 

What is the system specs?
Also did you have XP installed on this system before?
-if NO, does the BIOS recognizes and displays your system specs accurately?-if NO, is motherboard BIOS up-to-date?
Have you upgraded or changed any of the Hardware components?
(especially RAM, the most common cause of Windows installation errors due to a hardware component)
Any error messages during the installation?
Do you delete the previously created partitions and create/format from scratch?
....let us know...

 

Okay. I tried reformatting after deleting the partition this time, which didn't help. I can't get into the BIOS because there's a password when I start the computer. After entering the password, pressing delete doesn't get me into the BIOS. My system specs are: 1.7GHz AMD, at least 512MB DDR RAM, 20GHz Harddrive, 64MB TNT2. This is a computer I've put together with my husband this weekend with a harddrive we were given which previously had XP PRO on it, but it wouldn't work in the new computer. The processer, motherboard and RAM were just given to us from another friend. Thanks for helping with this.

 

Generic components should not alert you as many of the geek clan put their machines together, hence the term 'generic' as long as the critical components like, power supply, RAM and HardDisk are quality brand names.
Back to your problem, it made me uneasy to hear that there was a BIOS password...not saying that is the cause but I would like to know that you could get in the BIOS settings, reset the settings and re-configure it according to your CURRENT Hardware (Hard, CD-ROM drives, etc).

IF you do have a manual for your motherboard check to see if there is a jumper that you could use to reset your BIOS settings, if yes use it as instructed in the manual. IF NOT then turn off the system, unplug the power cord from the back of the Power Supply Unit, open the case before you touch anything touch the PowerSupply unit just to make sure you have no ESD build-up that could damage the components (assuming you been working on this frustrated you could probably kill a cat by touch so make sure you dont overlook this step! )
After you done all the above, look for the BIOS battery, it is flat & metal and looks like a big wrist watch battery. Remove it carefully and after 30 seconds put it back in. Close the case, plug in the power cord and fire it up and see if you can get in the BIOS, if YES check your BIOS settings to confirm they are correct. If you need further help at this stage let me know.

 

Actually, my husband just tried switching video card to a 32MB TNT2. Don't know why, but it seems to be working. Lets cross our fingers....

 

Interesting but then again, without knowing what info is entered in the BIOS, anything could have happened. Also I don't know what type of video card you had in there and what type is the new one (AGP, PCI)?

Either way I am happy it is working but I would suggest you reset BIOS one way or another for future needs and upgrades.