[BInarY]

I have just finished bulding my own computer, piece by piece. I double checked all the connections and made sure everything was good. I turned it on and everything was running fine. I began to install windows xp, only to realize that it was the upgrade, and not the full installation version. So i quit from the initial setup by pressing F3 as indicated and the computer does a self shut down. i tried turning it back on and nothing is happening at all. i get the pentium 4 logo and then it goes to a black screen with cursor. what do i do? is my computer fried. is my bios not working..

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doubt it...seems much more likely you have a bad power supply...

Hear any fans? Check the rocker switch on the back of the power supply.

(btw, you can install windows xp from scratch using the upgrade...the install routine will stop, ask you to insert an earlier windows CD, then restart after confirming you are eligible

[gerryf]

doubt it...seems much more likely you have a bad power supply...

Hear any fans? Check the rocker switch on the back of the power supply.

(btw, you can install windows xp from scratch using the upgrade...the install routine will stop, ask you to insert an earlier windows CD, then restart after confirming you are eligible

[Major Payne]

1) How long did you wait after black screen with cursor blinking? Mine has done that and it took about 5 minutes before the boot process started again.

2) Since you are going to upgrade to Win XP anyway, try installing an older version of Windows which I hope you have. At least one where you have the Product Key for install.

Not much help at this point, but it's a start.

Ron

[BInarY]

hmm, i trouble shot the system read manuals, did research and i came the conclusion that i interupted the bios. i manually shut it down, after the the quit screen. maybe it was rebooting...im looking into now resetting my bios, which is now a problem since i need to find a power cord for my floppy drive and download the recovery bios files from intel. then i can trully hope that my computer will work. and i dont think its a bad power supply, all the fans are running fine and everything looks good, sounds good, and smells it too.

[BInarY]

i dont think i can install anything at this point, seems like the bios has no info loaded to it to direct the cpu into doing something. i dont even get the info screen that show the bios detecting the computer hardware, like i got the first time i turned it on. its just --- INTEL PENTIUM 4 then blank and cursor....

[gerryf]

if you were flashing the bios, and shut it down, I would agree with you....but you were installing windows....the CMOS is stored in non-volatile memory...it is unaffected by installing an OS....

If you want, pull the cmos battery to reset it to default settings, but I don't see that as an issue.

[fellowplanetdweller]

Try clearing CMOS.

To do this, unplug the PC from power, etc. Pull the battery from the mainboard. Wait a few seconds. Put the battery back in. Plug the computer back into power, etc.

Check that all of your cables are properly plugged into hard drive, cdrom drive, etc. Make sure your RAM is seated in the slots. Basically double check over everything.

When you power the machine back on, when you get the P4 screen you are talking about are you receiving a POST (power on self test) boot BEEP? If not, you may not have the speaker plugged in correctly. This is especially the case if you are receiving video / the P4 screen etc.

After this, double check your BIOS settings. Like boot order of drives... CD/DVDROM drive, primary hard drive, etc.

Hope that helps,

fellowplanetdweller

[BInarY]

k, thx, i tried that and plugged in the computer, without a monitor and i heard the drives going and heard just 1 beep. That means its going good, right?

[Doby]

Hi,

Yes most likely clearing the cmos did work you should be ok to install the os again.

Use gerry's good advice

(btw, you can install windows xp from scratch using the upgrade...the install routine will stop, ask you to insert an earlier windows CD, then restart after confirming you are eligible

Rick