well, i hate to complain on my first post but i wanted to at least say "hello" and glad to be here. the reason i am here is i was installing a new OS on my system (windows xp pro). and it goes thru the setup process alright but when it should go to the install portion, it never makes it. it just keeps rebooting to the setup screen. and then my only option is to try the process all over. caught a loop from hell. i have tried two different hard drives and two different power supplies. no avail. oh, and i had to replace a ribbon cable. but that leaves me with the cpu and motherboard. possibily the bios. i'm not sure what is going on. done a bit with computers before and have never had this happen. wonder if someone could try and help me troubleshoot my problem. i have put the two hard drives into another computer and they work fine. i also will probably have to do this via DOS. my system is:

athlon 3200 emachines
1 gb of ram w/dvd burner and cd reader
nvidia video card seperate from the onboard
bios is phoenix award version TCB420J

hope i didn't leave out anything, and thats about how it went (hours of frustration)

Hello Waybrane and Welcome to the Forum!

I've no doubt our talented Tech staff and helpful members can find an answer for you!

Thank you for your patience

thanks for the quick response. i hope so. it shouldn't be this difficult, it usually isn't............

That is so often true Waybrane!

The simplest things are often the right ones.

Here's something you can do for us.

Go to the User CP link at top or bottom left of this page. Once in there, click on the Edit Options button, slide down to Thread Display Options. In there, place a tic in the box allowing members to view your system specs then fill in all that you can.

What this does is place that info right under your name so that each time you post, it is easily available to whomever may be helping you, rather than having to go back to the beginning of a thread to find it. You can click on mine now to see what I mean.

Thanks

ok, the slow kid finally got it right i think. hope this will help others to view my details. sorry i haven't posted lately but i had to get some sleep. i was up til 6:00 a.m. EST United States time, and man i needed some sleep. but back up and trying to get some coffee. i was thinking if i couldn 't reflash the bios to fix my problem (which i don't even know how to do yet) what motherboard would be compatible? i'm on tight budget and anything i can do to save a dollar. anyhow, just some more thinking. thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to help.

What settings exist in the BIOS for the HDD?

i not sure what you mean. and are you talking when the system boots up? if so, the system recognizes all of my drives. when i get the boot up screen for the bios information. hope that is what you are talking about.

p.s. i have tried to go into bios and reset the sequence of the boot order. to no avail. also tried to reset bios to default and that didn't work either..