1st Computer Build: experiencing problems

[bruin05489]

Well 1st boot went as advertised. Disconnected everything and started over. Booted fine again. 2nd boot is a totally different story. Boots up but after exiting bios goes to the screen asking how do I want to boot windows. Safe modes or normal. No matter what I choose the computer automatically starts reboot process all over again.
Motherboard: Asus P4P 800S-SE
Processor : P4 2.4 GHz Prescott
Hard Drive : Seagate 120GB U-ATA
Floppy : Sony 3.5 1.44
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2
Any help would be great. Also I am in the process of repairing Windows XP Home Edition as I didn't realize a clean Hard Drive is a happy drive when doing a fresh build. Thankyou for any help.

 

[Trashman]

Did you try booting off your XP cd to do a repair from setup?

 

[bruin05489]

Just finished doing that. Installed XP. Wanted me to reactivate it. So I tried and after a long line of digits the automated support told me that the product wasn't approved by microsoft. I just wiped the drive and am going to start it from scratch. Hopefully that will work. I will post the results. Thankyou for helping.

 

[mechBgon]

Suggestion: when you start Windows Setup, get to where it shows the partitions, delete all the partitions, then press the F3 key twice to exit Windows Setup. Now run Windows Setup a second time, create your partitions and proceed.

Doing it this way alleviates you having a menu with two WinXP's to choose from at boot-up. Also, click the Secure Is Good link in my signature for some tips on keeping worms out while the computer is in its vulnerable just-built condition.

 

[bruin05489]

Computer is up and running. Reformatted hard drive and everything is working great. Even got the cable modem working. Overall I think this build went well. Next one will be simple. Thanks for the help.