having a problem...

[The American Infidel]

recently i bought a bunch of new parts, intending to build myself a computer. I have everything put together, but when i start the computer and tell it to boot from the XP disk, it wont. I took the hard drive out of my other computer, which is only a couple years old, and works very well, and tried to boot from that drive, it tells me i need to activate windows (which i have already done on that comp) and then no matter what i tell it to do, it gives me the BSOD.

so, im wondering if its a problem with my hardware, or with something else, like the BIOS maybe. Does anyone know what i might do to determine what the problem is exactly, and in addition, if there is any way for my to fix it, or if i need to return the part.

Any other information that you need to help me, just let me know and ill get it for you, ive never had this happen before, so im a bit lost...

Edit: i tried fixing the boot order, nothign happens, the screen will flash a few times, and then nothing, ive tried this with the old hard drive in, the new one, and both. no matter what combination, i always seem to be ****ed. and the BSOD only happened with the old hard drive, the new one just flickers a few times, and then nothing for about 10 minutes. after that, everything restarts...

Edit: Something i just noticed, it doesnt do it all the time, but sometimes the words "detecting drives please wait" then the drive name flashes really fast, it says to press any key, but it just leads to the same thing its been doing...

[pam123]

You're going to have to tell us what parts you bought.

[The American Infidel]

Well, im using an ASUS P5E3 motherboard, Intel core 2 extreme processor, WD 500GB harddrive, and GeForce 8800 GTS.

[pam123]

Originally Posted by The American Infidel Well, im using an ASUS P5E3 motherboard, Intel core 2 extreme processor, WD 500GB harddrive, and GeForce 8800 GTS.

The older hard drive has chipset drivers for your other system and, unless you're willing to run a repair install of XP, it will not be able to boot with the new motherboard.

Now these are the steps for new build problems : http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409

Since you can get to post and enter the bios it looks like the basic parts are OK.
The Bios recognizes your hard drive and optical drive?
If the computer keeps freezing when it has to detect drives then either something is wrong with the drives or they're hooked up incorrectly (This is more likely then the motherboard having both connectors fail.).
Pull out the manual and make sure your SATA drive is hooked up to SATA 1 if your optical drive is IDE it should be hooked up as Master or, if you have an 80 wire cable, as cable select.
If it's SATA it should be on SATA 2 .

How are the drives hooked up and if they're IDE how are they jumpered ?

edit : It's always a good idea to post full specs.
If the new parts are compatible with the older system try them in it rather than risk your working hard drive.
Also you must have a retail copy of XP, not one that came with an OEM (that's Dell, etc.) system.