Computer Problem

Joebeme2 · Post by **Joebeme2** » Fri Dec 13, 2002 2:11 pm

Hello,

I just got new parts for my main computer and decided to use my old parts in my older computer. This old computer was a dell that consisted of:

800mhz p3
256pc100 ram
2 cd-roms
sound card
geforce 256
ethernet card
250w psu

The parts that are replacing the above consist of:

1.4 ghz amd athlon
abit kt7a motherboard
512 pc133 ram
1 cdrom
geforce 2 mx400
sound blaster live
ethernet card
same 250w psu.

I hooked everything up inside the old dell case and when i went to power it up, nothing happened. I checked to make sure the power button was plugged in. The only thing that happens is that the psu makes this high pitched sound when i push the power button. The high pitched sound stays on until i push the power button again. Any suggestions as to what may be wrong? Thanks.

Joe

yikes · Post by **yikes** » Fri Dec 13, 2002 2:32 pm

may not bee enough juice, coming from that power supply, in fact id bet on it that its not enough.

YiKeS

Joebeme2 · Post by **Joebeme2** » Sun Dec 15, 2002 1:52 pm

I got a new power supply. However now when i try to start the computer up, it says disk is corrupted and to insert a system disk. I am currently trying to reinstall windows xp by booting off the cd but, at the blue screen in the windows setup, the bottom says "Windows is starting setup" or something like that and it just freezes on that. The cd light doesn't blink and the cd is in mint condition. Anyone know what could be wrong?

Forgetful · Post by **Forgetful** » Sun Dec 15, 2002 2:16 pm

Not sure what the problem is but try booting from a floppy with cd support then switch to the cd and run winnt from the i386 folder to see if it will setup that way.

cy · Post by cy » Sun Dec 15, 2002 2:51 pm

did you fdisk/format ur drive yet?

jumpingrat · Post by **jumpingrat** » Sun Dec 15, 2002 3:09 pm

New mobo and the original HD and CD right? Have you checked in your BIOS to make sure that everything is seen and is ok? Have you tried cable select for your jumper settings on the HD and CD? No bent/broken pins? Yikes..Could you have had a power surge or something of that nature. Boy, so many things can go wrong. Wish I had an answer...

Joebeme2 · Post by **Joebeme2** » Sun Dec 15, 2002 3:53 pm

Yes, new motherboard but original hard drive and cd. I checked the bios and everything is seen ok. I can't fdisk/format because i have no floppy to get to a dos prompt. The hard drive recognizes that i have xp still installed from my old computer. It tries to load windows but, just before it loads, i get a blue screen that says something about me having to do a chkdsk /f or something. I can't get to a dos promt though to do that so i tried reinstalling windows but it just freezes on that screen. Thanks.

Joe

jumpingrat · Post by **jumpingrat** » Sun Dec 15, 2002 4:14 pm

By any chance were you running a dual boot system in your old setup (win98 & xp for example)? Can you run chkdsk at all through the recovery console in xp (The recovery console does not look like a regular dos prompt, it has a blue background ect..) If you can, run chkdsk from the console and use the R switch (chkdsk/R) to repair the system files.

Joebeme2 · Post by **Joebeme2** » Sun Dec 15, 2002 4:45 pm

Yes, I was running a dual boot...98 and xp. What is the recovery console? I tried going into safe mode and i think every option that was in the boot options menu. No matter which one i went to, still got that blue screen with the chkdsk /f before anything loaded up. Thanks.

jumpingrat · Post by **jumpingrat** » Sun Dec 15, 2002 5:11 pm

Ta da! The old dual boot set-up is your problem. When win xp is installed with another OS present it does something which I can't stand. Win xp puts the system boot files in your existing OS (disk 0) and then installs the xp OS into the new disk/partition (disk 1). As a consequence xp must have win98 (or whatever) present to boot up. Basicaly xp is looking for the boot files, but the old paths no longer exist (or have changed), so xp cannot boot.
As for the console, start here http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;307654 and work your way through the knowledge base at MS. They can explain how to do it much better than I can. Good luck.

Immortal · Post by **Immortal** » Sun Dec 15, 2002 5:36 pm

Dang jumpingrat! dang!

nice work!... I'm going to keep that in my head...

always learn new things

Joebeme2 · Post by **Joebeme2** » Sun Dec 15, 2002 11:31 pm

I decided to make a boot disk and fdisk/format since i couldn't figure out how to get to that recovery mode thing. I used the bootdisk to try to install through the i386 way... it copies the first set of files...then when it says it's copying more files it freezes there. I have no idea what could possibly. Any suggestions? Thanks for all the replies.

Joebeme2 · Post by **Joebeme2** » Mon Dec 16, 2002 2:01 pm

Last night I tried something different with the boot disk method. I run winnt.exe from the i386 folder of windows xp but, before that i copied the whole cd to my hard drive. When it asked me what folder the i386 contents were in, i pointed it to the hard drive and it still froze in the same spot as before. The "Setup needs to copy files to your hard disk" part. I am stumped at what could be wrong.

Forgetful · Post by **Forgetful** » Mon Dec 16, 2002 4:08 pm

Not familiar with the ABIT boards but does it have the latest bios?

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Mon Dec 16, 2002 4:28 pm

when switching mobos and CPUs always format and reinstall

Forgetful · Post by **Forgetful** » Tue Dec 17, 2002 7:05 pm

Are you using a win98/me boot floppy? If so try to download the winxp floppy from http://www.bootdisk.com This installs a ramdrive, (i think), makes the process much much shorter and may solve your problem. Keep us informed.

Joebeme2 · Post by **Joebeme2** » Wed Dec 18, 2002 8:22 pm

Yes, I was using a windows 98 start up disk. I installed windows 98 for temporary use but, I will download that XP bootdisk and to see if that works. Thanks for everyone's help.