XP Trouble :S (Also new here)

[Leatherneck]

Hi everyone, first of all new here and mainly just want any ideas on the problem i have encounted.

I have built up my own system before from scratch. This proved no problem and most things went smoothly, glitch free. However, I was building another machine today with a problem. I have double checked that i have installed all my hardware components correctly and am pretty much 100% about this. The problem lies when i try to install windows XP. I have changed the bios settings on the system to boot from CD first as I am wanting to install Windows XP Home Edition (genuine verison) from the CD. Once the CD is installed it begins to boot and looks fine until about 2 seconds in when a black screen apears sayin something along the lines of "Scanning the hardware components in your system...". First of all I can't remember this happening when i built my other system and second of all after this screen appears nothing else happens. I left the system for hours thinking it might take time but nothing happened, the CD drive didn't apear to be doing anything, this obviously baffled me and am currently stuck on my second system build and ran out of ideas *hangs head in shame*. Has anyone else got ideas, suggestions or basically more knowledge than i do. Thankyou very much for your time.

[Panama Red]

Do you happen to have a card reader installed and connected to the usb connectors on the mobo? If so, unplug it until the XP install is complete.

[Leatherneck]

Nope, I have only installed the hardware that is basically essential to get the computer running. E.g. Mobo, RAM, HDD, CPU (heatsink and fan aswell obv), i have only inserted 1 dvd drive just so i can boot from the CD. Once again i have double checked everything and it's all in order as far as i can see. My HDD is on IDE Channel 0 and is set to master through the ribbon cable and on the HDD itself. DVD drive is on IDE Channel 1 and set to master on once again both ribbon cable and drive. So it has stumped me?! Any more ideas Panama Red or anyone else for that matter?? lol..

Thanks alot..

[Panama Red]

You would be better off jumpering the HDD to CS on an 80 wire ide cable, especially if it's a Western Digital hdd. WD drives need to be CS or jumpered for Single drive when connected by themselves.

[Leatherneck]

Actually Panama i made a mistake i did jumper the HDD to CS, sorry about that. However its a Maxtor HDD. Still no joy. We contacted the shop who we bought the hardware components from to see if he had any ideas and the guy at the shop said maybe it was the memory. It was only a single stick of 512 Kingston memory, and Kingston has been known to be a good reliable make. Both my machine and this new machine are pretty similar in components so i dont understand why it still isn't working. We got an exchange on the memory stick to a differnet make and still doesnt work. If the spec of both machines will help you please ask and i'll list both.

Thanks again for your time.

[wheredidiputmybeer]

I think im in the same boat as you " Leatherneck " i have wd hdd using sata cable and 1 dvd drive with the ribbon but cant install my win xp home original disc let alone anything else. Stuck on a media test error!

Sorry no help from me! Struggiling

[Leatherneck]

It's deffinately a strange error. Well I say error, however my system doesn't even have an error it just doesn't do anything. lol. I pyhsically can't think of what it can be tho. Surely installing a GENUINE version of Windows XP Home is one of the easiest parts of the system build. Yes, it takes a long time and is tedious but its a walkthrough once you get up to the installation bit. Can't think of anything. Keep in touch if you get any where with your system man.

[wheredidiputmybeer]

Slow progress!!

Fiddled about with the jumper settings on my dvd drive and disabled " on board lan " in bios rebooted with win xp home in the drive. I almost fell over when the it started reading the xp disc yihaaa.

Windows installed some stuff for about 2 or 3 minutes then it told me it couldnt find my hdd, from doing some research i think i need to get drivers for my hdd ( wd sata2 500gig )

You got windows to do anything yet?