PC Problem

[steveanderson11]

I've just bought a new build PC from an ebay shop, but i cant get it to fully install Windows XP SP2.

It has a GEforce 7050 motherboard, with 4gb ram and a 300gb HD (not SATA) in it.

When i boot with the XP disc in, it run through as it should (accept license terms and installs) until it gets to the first restart, after which the PC wont boot from the HD, it will only boot from CD which of course starts to overwrite XP.

I've tried deleting and re-partitioning and have checked boot sequence in Bios is as it should be. I've emailed the seller for support but he is slow to respond, and so far his suggestion has been to leave it with the boot disk error on for a few seconds, which unsurprisingly didnt work.

Can any of you guys suggest anything else (other than returning for a refund...)

Cheers

[BertRoot]

Try flopping two gig of RAM out for now and then start again. I had a board that wouldn't deal with 4Gb on install but was fine afterwards. Well not quite fine as 32 bit XP will never see all that RAM anyway without a frig.

[steveanderson11]

Cheers mate will give it a go...

[BertRoot]

It is only a first try thing. Could be totally wrong but should be reasonably easy to try.

[stimpy]

Might be worth checking that the HD is set to the Primary Master. Vista will install regardless of what it is set to but it won't boot if not on the Primary Master.

[steveanderson11]

Given that go, but still exactly the same

Any other suggestions?

Cheers

Meant to say it is set to primaary master in bios, but could it be jumper settings?

[marcode]

u tried removing the disc after the first reboot and waiting to see if it asks you to insert it when it actually needs something off it.

least that way it should default to usiung the files it just stored on the hdd before the reboot.

[steveanderson11]

Yeah,

It just comes up with system boot error insert boot disk and press enter as soon as it powers up and has got past the initial system screen.

Beginning to think it's fooked TBH

[TotallyRandom]

change the Drive operation in the bios should have a setting for it just switch it the other option should install from there

if not install the RAID drivers for your sata mobo Controller on start up you have the F6 option so check your mobo's web site for drivers.

[steveanderson11]

change the Drive operation in the bios should have a setting for it just switch it the other option should install from there

if not install the RAID drivers for your sata mobo Controller on start up you have the F6 option so check your mobo's web site for drivers.

I'll try changing the drive operation. It's an IDE disc though, so would the RAID drivers have an impact? Don't really know all that much about this type of thing, but any help is appreciated

Cheers

[steveanderson11]

Still no joy with this, no chanage to error message, even when CDROM is removed from the boot sequence after the first part of the install, i'm still getting

Boot from CD:
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

When a windows CD goes in the windows install just starts from the start again.

Just wish the guy was replying to my emails. Support has been awful from the company i got it from, and i'm sensing a battle to get a refund looming...

[Eddie101]

Is sata enabled in the bios ?

[elephantsoup]

Has it got a floppy drive? if so go here and download a win98 bootdisk boot from the floppy and run fdisk.exe. Delete all partitions on the c: drive. Then take out the floppy put the cd in reboot the pc and boot from the xp cd and do a reinstall.

[Gungadin]

boot from xp cd then from menu choose the recovery console and when there type...
fixmbr

fixmbr is a command that writes a new master boot record to the hard disk drive

you could also try...
fixboot

the fixboot command writes a new partition boot sector to the system... both the above are worth a try, I would guess that if none of this works then the HD is faulty, have you tried another HD just to test?

[steveanderson11]

No floppy, but would i be able to run this from a usb stick?

i have been able to format from the XP installer, but once its done this and loaded the initial setup files (drivers.cab etc) then it restarts and wont see the HD in the boot process despite seiing it in BIOS.

SATA is disabled too...

[BertRoot]

Possibly. Try and get Hirens Boot CD and run through the diagnostics on that.

[TotallyRandom]

sounds like its installing fine but just not being able to boot from it check your boot order in your bios. make sure its SATA0 that your hard drive is on too. and make sure you have no USB keys in floppy's.

Some motherboard you can hit F12 and chosse what you want to boot too
i.e
CD
FLOPPY
USB
Or Internal HDD
Have a look at your post screen for Additional options.

[Eddie101]

In the bios make sure that raid is set to IDE ,and the enhanced controller is used ,also try going to the drive and disable 32 bit ,sounds like a raid issue in the bios ,had this happen a few times on asus boards (newer ones) ,once the bios is updated its normally fine .

[steveanderson11]

Cheers to everyone who replied here, i couldn't get it up and running in the end, but the seller has got back to me after 2 days, and it's being picked up for repair tomo

Thanks

Steve