new build = kaput

[iamskew]

Okay...something has gone terribly wrong.

Quick System Specs:
Antec Case w/ Antec 350W power supply
Soltek nforce 3 mobo
amd 64 3400+
1 gig corsair value ram
geforce4 mx4000 vid card
Western Digital caviar 80 gig hdd
Maxtor 80gig hdd

Okay...so I was installing windows xp home...did the hard drive format on the WD HDD and all was looking well. Computer restarts and posts. Then I get a message that says "Bios Not installed!"....then another message "Error Loading Operating System." I can still get into the BIOS though. Anyway...I then notice that I forgot to punch out the cover on the floppy drive and that explains why the tray was sitting funny. So i open her back up and fix the floppy drive mishap. I go to turn it back on...and nothing...all that happens is that the fans spin for about a second and then stop.

So there's my two questions..any ideas why windows won't install/it says BIOS is not installed? Is my power supply kaput and do you think it killed everything else?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Check all of the connections, maybe you wiggled something loose when you fiddled with the floppy.

 

[mechBgon]

Initial guess on the shutdown problem: you have a short-circuit situation somewhere. Take the system apart, lay the motherboard on cardboard, install only the essential items needed for POST, and see if it POSTs now.

The "BIOS not installed!" message is commonly seen on motherboards that have a tack-on disk controller such as the popular Silicon Image or Promise controllers. Or if you had, say, a SCSI or PCI disk controller in a PCI slot. If the controller has no disks to control, it puts up the BIOS-not-installed message and lets the system carry on.

The "Error Loading Operating System" message is due to the motherboard looking on the wrong controller for the boot drive after the CD-ROM phase of Windows Setup had completed.

 

[iamskew]

thanks mech...i'm going to try all of that as soon as i'm done playing this game for a bit...thanks

 

[imported_Kensai]

mech said it all. And if you can't fix it, I'll take the system for you.
Check your bios settings to make sure that it will boot to the HD and if it still doesn't boot, just reinstall Windows.

 

[iamskew]

Okay...I cut it down to the basics - motherboard, power switch, video card, cpu...keyboard on top of some cardboard like you said mech...it posted...so we know the psu isn't dead....any suggestsion on the next move?

 

[compusaguy]

Build it slowly until you find out what harware is causing problems???

 

[iamskew]

well...it posted...i connected the hard drives....i've installed windows twice...and I cannot figure out why it won't find the operating system. I've tried to boot from both drives and nothing...???wth?????

 

[gabemcg]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Check all of the connections, maybe you wiggled something loose when you fiddled with the floppy.

:thumbsup:


May be a memory Issue, If there a bad part to one of your sticks, it could be currupting the install of winxp

run Memtest86 from floppy