Alright, so I originally began fixing this computer because somebody installed Windows XP on it and forget to validate before 30 days, so it wouldn't let you do anything without a key, which nobody had. I had no choice but to take the hard drive, recover the important stuff, and reformat it.

Well, now that I took it and recovered data and reformatted it, I've been having problems with the computer majorly.

At first it took me forever to get the hard drive recognized and I thought that was the only problem. Now the hard drive is recognized, along with the floppy drive and the cd-rom, but when I go to run the CD-ROM to install Windows everything hangs or fails! Most of it will START, but it fails and takes really long to even do that.

It gets to the point:
"Windows is scanning your system setup" or whatever and then that goes away and hangs at a black screen.

I try to run PartitionMagic and it doesn't work. I try to run the hard drive manufacturer setup off of a floppy it doesn't work and says something about Hardware Failure or something (not sure if it was exactly that, but pretty sure.)

I removed the CMOS jumper (at least I THINK that's what it is, it was the only jumper on the motherboard I could find) and the motherboard battery. How long does it usually take for the CMOS to reset?

I'm pretty certain everything works, because I don't think it would have died in that short period of time, but I really need to have this computer working because I can't very well have someone's computer and say, "Oh well, your computer doesn't work anymore."

a) I would leave of the cmos jumper 24 hours.

b) For a true 'clean start' first low level format the hdd. The program to do this can be downloaded from the hdd makers website.

Then partition it (using fdisk) and format. This could be done using a w98 startup disc.

Good Luck - Keep us posted.

I will try it and I will definitely keep you posted. Thanks again.

Wouldn't hurt to run memtest86. RAM errors can be weird. Reseat/change the ide cables.

"I would leave of the cmos jumper 24 hours"

CMOS will clear in a matter of seconds, provided the power cord is unplugged. All you have to do is pull the plug, move the CMOS jumper to the clear position, count to 5, move the jumper back, plug in the power, & boot up...then go into the BIOS & correct all the settings.

I agree with the above...run memtest86 before doing anything else. If the RAM is bad, you'll never get the OS to install

ASUS A7N8X-X
Athlon XP 1800+
8.5 x 200MHz
1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7
Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB
WinME/WinXP Pro SP2

I suggest that you either run 'Killdisk' or 'DelPart' to remove everything on the hard drive.

http://www.russelltexas.com/delpart.htm
http://www.killdisk.com/

See, I'm having problems running these programs because I will disable LAN on or whatever because PXE I was told is trying to make it boot from the network, and now whenever I have a floppy or a CD in the drives it says:

"Boot failure: System halted" after it hangs for a little bit of time. But the hard drive, the floppy drive (removeable device), and CD-ROM are clearly indicated as being detected in the BIOS.

When trying to boot from the floppy, make sure it's first in the Bios boot sequence.

Yep, tried that. Still get the Boot Failure message. :(

Jam - I am sorry but you are incorrect.

Perhaps some cmos's clear quickly, but others do not. Hence me advising 24 hours to be on the safe side. However to be truthful I suspect there is nothing wrong with the cmos, but the poster asked the question.

The real object here is to help Nihilive.

Regards - Mike

Good Luck - Keep us posted.

Yeah, it doesn't seem like clearing the CMOS helped any as I'm not getting any further than before. If I were able to run utilities without the Boot Failure message then maybe I can get somewhere, but as of now, I'm trying to get passed that step.

Appreciate all the help.

Try another cd drive.

http://computervitals.com/

"Perhaps some cmos's clear quickly, but others do not. Hence me advising 24 hours to be on the safe side"

"The real object here is to help Nihilive"

Well, I've only been building/repairing PCs for about 10 yrs & I obviously haven't worked with every board ever made, but I don't recall ever encountering one that had to sit for 24 hrs for CMOS to clear.

And I was trying to help by not having Nihilive sitting/waiting needlessly for 24 hrs.

Nihilive,

I suggest you start by removing all but the minimum hardware necessary to boot. Take out all cards but video, disconnect all drives (HDD, optical, floppy), disconnect any USB devices. Then boot up & get into the BIOS. Double check each & every setting...temporarily disable all onboard devices (LAN, sound, etc). Check your temps & make sure the CPU's not overheating. If everything appears to be OK, shutdown, connect the floppy drive, bootup with a memtest86 floppy & test your RAM. Let it run for at least one series of tests before doing anything else.

ASUS A7N8X-X
Athlon XP 1800+
8.5 x 200MHz
1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7
Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB
WinME/WinXP Pro SP2

I agree with Jam. The cmos will clear in 10 seconds if the unit is unplugged and the battery removed.

http://computervitals.com/

Nihilive, I presume you took the hard drive and slaved it to your own computer to recover the important information. Well you could put it back in as a slave in your own machine to run the manufacturer's utility or another wiping program. This would at least give you a clean checked out hard drive.

Thanks for all of the responses. I just got back from a weekend break from working on this computer and I'm going to troubleshoot all of the devices and see if I can get anywhere.

Thanks for all of the help.

K61's advice is good.

I advised same on 10/11.

Good Luck - Keep us posted.

I'm leaning toward the CD drive being defective, because the disk will boot, but immediately after it says something about it failing and not letting it proceed. I'm going to swap another one in shortly and see if that remedies the problem.

Well, on second thought, maybe it's not the CD rom. Swapped it out and I am having the same problem.

I just slaved the hard drive in my machine again and reformatted it again using PartitionMagic, it does not show, however, it being TOTALLY clean. It has some like 14MB or Bytes on the drive. I don't know if these are files that are unremovable or what, but I am assuming it's supposed to be there. Unlike the last reformat, I did reformatted the hard drive to FAT32 instead of NTFS.

I looked for a memtest86 and I could only find a CD-ROM version. Is there a floppy version?

I am totally lost and have no idea what could be wrong with this. I'm swapping hardware in and out and still getting boot failure messages. The CD-ROMs work, but something is making the Windows installation hang.

Wait! I think it was the CD-ROM! It's actually installing Windows XP now. I think it was the CD-ROM all along and I was just overlooking it. I'll keep you updated as Windows formats the drive and installs.

Grrr... seems like the system is still as unpredictable as ever. Now, I got past the reformat and initial setup of Windows, but the first reboot that Windows has in the setup process is not continuing after it reboots. I am lost.

I was maybe thinking that I could setup Windows XP in it's entirety by making the hard drive I'm having problems with a master in my main machine. Then once Windows is installed on it fully, then putting it into it's machine.

I too suggest Memtest86 before going any further. The ISO is small enough that if you are getting xp to start to install memtest should definately work.

Also just for kicks try putting the hard drive on a ribbon all it's own, mabey a new one if you have it, and set as master.

Put the cd rom on secondary IDE on a ribbon all it's own and set it as master also.

Swapping drives you could have messed up your ribbon cable.

I also too suggest removing everything but the bare minimum to start the computer. that means no modems, pci sound cards, or any extra cd roms or hard drives. If it has two sticks of ram remove one, test it with memtest, then test the other.

Also make sure your cpu fan is clean so you can rule out overheating. If you have another hard drive large enough to install windows on try it also.

Mabey try booting a live linux cd in it see how it runs if you don't have a extra hard drive.

You don't give any specifications on the computer either I see. Mabey this computer is too old for xp? you did say "somebody installed Windows XP on it and forget to validate before 30 days"

Look for a model number or motherboard model so we can get an idea of what kind of setup your dealing with.

ASUS A7V8X
Athlon XP 2700+ @ 2.17ghz
768MB DDR 2700
nVidia 128mb FX 5200
WD 80gb SE
NEC ND-3500AG DVD R/RW