for some reason i decided to take my insides out of my old computer shell and put them in a nice new case i had brought cheap. it looked easy and was to a degree easy enough. however now i have everything in the new case, when i turn the computer on it starts to boot then says, system error - boot halted. and if i try to check in bios if my hard drive is detected it asks me for a password. i am really stuck :o(

some computers vary but on most of them you can clear the password by using the CMOS battery jumper. This is usually near the battery (silver coin type). unplug computer from power supply. Move the jumper to the other position for a few seconds then move back. In most cases this will reset the BIOS/Setup to the factory default settings and remove the password , but some motherboards need it done in different ways

Sometimes the clear CMOS jumper is shipped in the clear position. Check the manual to see which way is run.

"for some reason i decided to....." What do you mean "for some reason"? You wanted to use your new case, so what not just say that? Obviously you connected something wrong. If it worked before, it *should* work again once you get things sorted out. Do NOT clear CMOS just yet. Double check all your connections 1st.

(a ham30 favorite) A common mistake when you put a mboard in a case, especially if it's used, is to have one or more of the metal posts the mboard mounts on top of in the wrong position, which will sometimes short circuits on the underside of the mboard to the case. If you can see where all the mounting posts are from the other side of the case when you take off the other side cover, you can determine whether they are all in positions that line up with the holes in the board where screws retain the mboard on the top side. If you can't see where all the mounting posts are from that side, or you're not sure, un-mount the mboard and make sure no posts are in the wrong places. "system error - boot halted. " The bios will halt the bootup depending on settings in your bios Setup - all it takes is for the keyboard to be unplugged, if the bios settings specify that - that doesn't necessarily mean there is something serious wrong - make sure the keyboard is plugged in all the way into it's jack. You can also remove the password by removing the mboard battery for a few minutes with the AC power removed from the case. If you clear the cmos by moving a jumper then moving it back, or if you remove the battery, the first time you boot you will get a "Cmos Checksum Error...." or similar message. You will either be prompted to enter the bios Setup or you will automatically go there. Enter the bios Setup, set the time and date - save settings, reboot. If you have AGP video, after you flash the bios make sure your AGP video is enabled in the bios, has been assigned an IRQ (if there is a setting for that), and AGP video is initialized first - if those are set to PCI, with some mboards you will have no video once Windows starts to load. If you have a fairly recent (~1999 or later)model scanner or printer connected to a parallel (LPTx) port, you also need to make sure it is set to EPP, EPP/ECP, or ECP mode in the bios - usually EPP is fine - ECP mode also requires you use Add Hardware in Windows to install an ECP port if it is not already there in Device Manager.

The fact remains that if all he did was transfer the hardware from one case to another, everything *should* work as it did before, UNLESS something was reconnected improperly. I see no reason why clearing CMOS or flashing the BIOS would be necessary in this instance.

Oops. That last part was a modified copy and paste. "...after you flash the bios..." was not supposed to be in it.