Reformatting headache

[JetaJam]

Hello, I just helped a friend out and upgraded his computer. Installed a new motherboard, ram, video card, and processor. We used his old harddrive, a WD 60 gig, so after first start I reformatted his HDD. Everything was going perfect, right up to the point where the windows xp boot screen comes up with the indicator bar. It just stopped right there. There was no indicator bar, so I let it do what it was doing, (which is nothing). I tried this several times to no avail. I used the WD data lifeguard tool and wrote all zeros to the drive and tried again, nothing. Does anyone have any ideas what might be happening. The specs are ECS 848p-a v 2.0 motherboard with Award bios, Celeron D 2.66ghz cpu, Corsair pc2700 ram 2 sticks of 128mbs, Nvidia geforce 4 agp 8x. Please note that everything works fine upon post. All is recognized and operating. I have to think it may be a bios setting that is not letting me load the OS. I apologize for the long post. Thanks in advance.

[Panama Red]

I'm guessing you have front usb ports in the case and have them connected to the motherboard. If so, disconnect them until AFTER the os is intalled. Same advice for any usb connected device. Keep the hardware to the minimum required for setup until the os is fully installed.

[JetaJam]

Hey Panama, you are correct, there are front usb connections and I did hook them up before loading the os. I was also using a usb keyboard and mouse. Should I disable those in the bios before installing windows?

[Panama Red]

It's probably the front usb's causing the problem. It has been my experience that some machines won't even load the os with anything other than PS/2 mouse and keyboard attached. Some keyboards with Hot Keys won't work cuz the F8 key isn't active and won't allow you to accept the EULA. I keep one standard keyboard and a usb to PS/2 adapter for my setup mouse on hand just for those reasons. You could try it with the front usb's disconnected first and if that isn't it, then try a different mouse and/or keyboard.

[JetaJam]

Thanks again Panama, I'm at work right now so I'll give it a go when I get home. I'll post back with the details.

[JetaJam]

Well, where should I start? First I removed the front usb wires from the motherboard and then I changed from a usb keyboard and mouse to ps/2. I then connected the power cable and powered up the computer. I then went into the bios and disabled the usb keyboard and mouse setting. Everything posted correctly, and I started a clean install of xp. The first part of the install went fine, but when it got to the xp boot screen there was no indicating bar and there she sat. So, me being me I thought that maybe clearing the cmos jumper might help, (wrong). When clearing the cmos jumper I removed the power connector to the motherboard cleared the cmos and reinstalled the power connector. Now it won't power up at all. I get some slight movement out of the case fan and the heatsink fan, but that's it. I now seem to have 2 problems and it's killin' me. Could some one please advise me on what I might try next. This is taking an incredible amount of time and my wife is starting to become iritated with me and my kids are wondering why I'm in such a bad mood, (just a little humer). Thank you all for any advise.

[Panama Red]

Did you have the power supply power cord removed when you cleared the CMOS?

[JetaJam]

Yes I did. That's what I can't figure out, I followed all the rules, disconnected power, grounding strap, I even took my watch off.

[Panama Red]

Might be time for a visit here:

http://www.badflash.com/

[JetaJam]

Do you think the bios is damaged? I haven't flashed (yet). Could the power supply be the culprit? It's a cheap 400w Hurcules. I think is weighs almost as much as a cotton ball.