First Build Booting Problems

[solidshaun44]

Hey guys, this is my first post so please be gentle. Anyway, I've been building my first comp for a while now from new parts and the remnants of dead system. My problem is that after the initail post, mem check and whatnot when it boots, it goes to a blinking cursor in the topright corner and no where else. It detects the memory at start up (512), recognizes the CPU (not correctly, it sees it as a Athlon XP 2200+, it is a Sempron 2400+), and regonizes all the drives attached to it. The CPU temp hovers around 55 C. Here are the specs:

CPU: Sempron 2400+ running at 166mHz (new)
RAM: 512 of 266 mHz (1 stick new, 1 stick old)
MB: K7VME-2AA2 (new)
HDD: Samsung 120 GB (old)
PS: 350W (new)
other: DVDROM and CDRW (old)

So yea, I can get into the bios fine, it boots fine, recognizes all drives and memory fine. Yet when it tries to boot into something, it will just give me a blinking cursor at the top left hand corner. Any thoughts on this or any ideas for CDs to boot to would be really appreciated. Thanks!

*edit* top left corner!

 

[loic2003]

Have you checked the boot sequence in the BIOS - is it looking for the CD drive first? Are the master/slave settings all correct on the drives? Has the hard disk been wiped or does it have an old install in it?

Try unplugging all the drives and seeing where it gets to like that. IT should complain about there being no boot media. Next you can try just having one CD drive plugged in with a HD or just a HD by itself, basically you want to eliminate possibilities until; you find the source.

Good luck and keep up posted with the results!

 

[solidshaun44]

Yea, the HD has an old install of windows XP on it, the cd RW drive is working for sure though, im just running memtestXP off a cd. Everything seems to be in working order, so far 12% test passed. Umm, does that mean that the HD is borked somehow, because the motherboard and CPU must be doin ok for the CD drive to be able to load memtest86? Thanks.

 

[loic2003]

Well bear in mind that the old install of XP will be expecting your old motherboard/other hardware so it could be this that's annoying it and stopping ti from booting.

Have you checked the BIOS settings? you want it to boot from the CD-drive first. Sounds like everythign else is working fine if memtest is running ok.

Is there any way you could take the hard drive out, set it as slave, and try it in a second machine to check that it's all working nicely?

 

[solidshaun44]

Yea, you are probably right. I should get ahold of the WINXP install CD and skip the HD all together. I could ask my buddy to test the HD as a slave, if hes not too scared of my opening his system (COMPUTERS ARE WIZARDRY TO HIM). Anyway, memtest86 is at 71% passed. Once this is done, Ill try to track down an install CD and test the HD. Dammit, I was hoping that I could just use the existing install. Thanks for your help.

 

[tshock22]

Originally posted by: solidshaun44
Yea, you are probably right. I should get ahold of the WINXP install CD and skip the HD all together. I could ask my buddy to test the HD as a slave, if hes not too scared of my opening his system (COMPUTERS ARE WIZARDRY TO HIM). Anyway, memtest86 is at 71% passed. Once this is done, Ill try to track down an install CD and test the HD. Dammit, I was hoping that I could just use the existing install. Thanks for your help.

You still may be able to use the existing install. When you get to the xp setup, skip the prompt for the 'recovery console' and keep going. Eventually, it will detect your previous install and ask if you would like to repair it. Select this and it will go thru and reinstall drivers, detect hardware, etc. When it's done, you may be good to go. If not, you'll have to do a fresh install.

BTW -- the 'smart' thing to do is to do a fresh install when changing major hardware, BUT i've kept a previous install in several cases and had it work OK. Just make sure to do thorough driver updates.

 

[solidshaun44]

Alright, memtest86 passed. So I will try just inserting the winXP Cd and going from there? From there I can always try the existing install, and if it is unreliable, I could just wipe and start fresh. I think ill try the CD and go from there, thanks alot for your guys' help.

EDIT Cant find a stupid winXP install disc, so Im using debian... MOO HAHA! This is going to be interesting.