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Unable to Boot XP from new build


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#1
bycoverofnight

bycoverofnight

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So I've put together a new system, with a blank 500 GB SATA Seagate drive. I put a bootable XP disc in my CD drive, set the bios to boot from CD, and have not been able to get it to work.

Sometimes, I get a message on the top of the screen right before it freezes saying setup is inspecting your computer hardware configuration, indicating that it is able to read the XP disc. This XP disc works in other computers that I try it with.

I tried putting in my old IDE drive from my other computer, that has windows loaded on it already, and that got me to the windows splash screen, before an almost instant blue screen of death (it resets before I can read the error message, like in 1/10 of a second).

Any ideas as to what the problem could be?

The computer recognizes the RAM, and the Harddrive and the CD ROM drive in the BIOs. Usually it just hangs on "Boot from CD", occasionally, I get the "press any key to boot from cd" option, but then nothing from there. The CD drive makes a lot of noise (working hard) during all of this.

I put in a Rosewill 500 W Power Supply which should be enough to power my EVGA 640-P2-N829-AR GeForce 8800GTS SSC at least to load windows, right? All fans are spinning fine.

Does this sound like a hardware issue or some sort of configuration snafu, or neither?

I've tried pulling out the RAM, no different result. CPU is secure, heatsink on tight.

Board: GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz
VGA: EVGA 640-P2-N829-AR GeForce 8800GTS SSC 640MB
RAM: CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA
PSU: Rosewill RP500-2 500W ATX12V v2.01 Power


I'm just about at my wits end here. I would tear out my hair if I weren't bald already.

Oh, and this is my 2nd build, but first in 5 years, some components have changed obviously. So it's possible that I'm missing something obvious.

Unfortunately, my old computer doesn't have SATA, so I can't preload the operating system there. But like I said before, I have a disk with a functioning
XP operating system that will blue screen me on this new build. What does that mean?

Thanks so much.
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#2
Troy

Troy

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Hi there,

The old hard drive with Windows on it will not work as it is now in a different computer - so it will try and start up expecting the old hardware, and then fails. You can fix this by running a repair install with your disk. If this gets it up and running, then you've pinpointed the problem down to either your SATA hard drive, the SATA data or power cable, or the SATA port on the motherboard.

If that's the problem, then try switching those around and see if you can find a combination that works.

Cheers

Troy
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