Did you also check to make sure that the motherboard was not touching any part of the case and used spacers between the board and case.

hi Rustys,
i'm kind of confused now......
i did use the spacers / standoffs under the MB when i installed it. they are a metal spacer. then i positioned the MB on the spacers, and screwed it into place.
so the spacers are metal, and are screwed into the metal case, then i used metal screws to hold the MB in place.
wouldn't this be just like the MB touching the case ??
please don't think i am trying to be rude, cause i'm not. i'm new to this stuff, so i am trying to learn / understand everything i can....
i will check the MB to see if it is touching off anywhere else on the case.
i know the MB ports are touching the metal I/O back plate. is this a problem ??

thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts to try to help me solve this !!

You did perfect just needed to clarify that was done. Did not mean to get you confused.

Which ones are you talking about. If it is the cards or where you plug in the keyboard, mouse ECT... Those are sealed and are fine.

When you had the hard drive in the other system did you try to format it to see if it would format faster?

What happened to the original RAM that was in the system?

Possibly.

hey Rustys,

yes, it is only the plug in's for the mouse, keyboard and such that is touching the I/O plate. close inspection showed no where else is touching off. you got me thinking about this too, and a stand-off / spacer in the wrong place under the MB would certainly cause problems too.....something i never really thought about....

no i didn't try to format the drive in the other system. but i think i will !! i only ran the western digital drive test on it.

I'm doing two things with these computers. one is trying to learn about them, and the second is, I'm setting up all of my family members with a computer so they can learn to use them, or do there home work on them. to many of them can't afford one, so i am trying to help them out. so i have been collecting other peoples bits and pieces of used PC components no longer wanted, or needed, and have been trying to put them together to make a working PC. so i end up with some parts that are bad from the start.

this motherboard came from a working unit. the original case was un-sightly. so i decided to put the MB into a nicer case i had. it had been setting around for a while, so i used the original RAM in another PC. the ram that is in it now is good RAM. it has worked in another unit, and has been tested with the Memtest program.

ahhhh, are you suggesting the RAM might not be compatible with this MB ?? i tend to overlook the obviouse.....

i finally managed to stay close to the system, while i tried again, to install the OS onto it. it took 6 full hours to go through the format process, then loading the files was a very lengthy process too. then when it was time to restart the system, it just stalled out at that point. I'm almost ready to call this MB damaged and throw it away.

before i do that.....

i have some Kingston RAM coming in the mail soon, that is the type that is used with this MB. i will give it a try and see if that works, and try to install an OS on this hard drive using another PC.

by the way, i'm easily confused !!! LOL

thanks,

ok, i took the ram, and hard drive from the system that doesn't work, and installed them into a working system. i ran the windows disk to install the OS. it finished in about 35 minutes. everything appeared to install correctly. then i installed windows xp sp-3. after getting this far, i tried to boot from the HD with the fresh OS install. now it doesn't start windows. it gets stuck during the boot sequence in BIOS. i hope i explained this right.

is there a good program that i could use to check this hard drive with ?? or is the western digital program as good as it gets ??

thanks,

The boot sequence should be listed from the top as .......

Hard Drive
Cdrom Drive
Floppy Drive (If the system does not have a floppy drive then this can be disabled in the bios)
Network

You may also find on newer boards the ability to boot from external optical drives and USB but the listing above should be the default.

When the list has been set then one must press F10 to save the listing when exiting the bios.

A Question Skooter

When you were installing XP did you ever get any messages saying something along the lines of "Cannot find X file" "Skip/Exit?"

thanks Wolfeymole !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you may have just saved my day. my god man, this is the second good working machine that is not working right. all because i tried to test these other parts in it. now it doesn't matter which HD i am using, this system is booting very slow !! it was working great before i put these parts into it ??? now it will not load windows unless i put the windows xp disk in the machine. it takes 5 minutes to get to the point of requesting the disk ?? what is going on i ask ?????

well, i was told to have the cd/dvd as the first boot device, and the hard drive second. is this what i am fighting on this machine ??
i will find out real quick.

Wolfeymole i hope your instructions solve this problem......
also, i've never got any errors during the OS install

thanks,

The cdrom should only be the first option when installing an OS.

well i changed the boot sequence, and it didn't change anything ?? it still called for the OS disk to boot from. this is with the good original HD that was already in this machine. how could the other parts screw this one up ?????
after that, i reset the BIOS to the fail safe default mode, and still no change.
it is just crawling through the boot sequence ???
i can't believe what has happened to my equipment. is there any way this new hard drive is damaging my stuff ?? there's no way i am putting it into anything else.
has something been changed in the BIOS causing this ?? if so how do i go about repairing it ?? would a system restore fix it ??
well i'm done for tonight. i have to get some sleep. i hope............

When a machine boots up and everything is ok the bios will look for the operating system boot files which most of the time are on the hard drive.

If you have set the hard drive as first boot option after installing XP, which I believe you did earlier seemingly without issue, and you are still getting messages that say something like "Insert System disk and press enter" then the hard drive is faulty because it is failing to find the boot files..

i can't believe i have lost 2 good working systems now trying to use/ troubleshoot this RAM and HD.
i realize this is most likely due to my lack of experience / knowledge. not from the suggestions of this forum !!
I'm not blaming anyone for anything but myself.
with that said......
now this previously good working system that I've been using to troubleshoot the RAM and HD from the other system that quit working after switching out the case, and installing this new used RAM and HD into it, is no longer getting through the BIOS portion of booting windows.
so for now i want to forget about the first system, and try to repair this second system.
i have installed approximately 15 OS with no real issues, and have used the same BIOS settings in each one. so i am still really green with these things, but i "kind of know what I'm doing".....still doesn't mean that what I've been doing is right either.....

now this machine that was working great, and is now malfunctioning due to part testing. it is not booting windows. each time i try to get it to boot, it warns that boot from cd drive failed, and to insert the OS disk. this is happening with the HD as the first boot device, second, and third. the order of boot devices has no effect. it keeps going to the cd drive boot.

this has progressively got worse with each attempt at starting the machine. it gets slower and slower each time, going through the boot process. it was booting windows, now it doesn't make it that far ??

i think this problem lies in the BIOS part of the system. it seems like any changes i make in the BIOS has no effect on the machine.

so i am unable to do a system restore to try to set things to a previously known good condition. i have no important data on this machine. it had a fresh install of windows, and a few other simple programs. i was almost ready to give it away, until i messed things up on it.

what would be the best course of action to restore this machine to it's previous good working condition ??

this time i promise, i will take things one step at a time, and not try to change multiple things at a time, so it will make things easier on your end......

thanks for your past help, and any future help with this issue !!!!!

Wolfeymole, do you think i need to repair, or re-install the OS on this drive then ??
i am not questioning your knowledge, i am only trying to learn here. i am wondering how this drive became faulty ?? it was working fine up to the time of testing the other parts ?? this has me very confused ?? any ideas ?? initialy i had both drives wired at the same time. but that was only to be able to clean the 2nd drive. then the good drive was un-connected.

well, after figuring out that my actions, and lack of knowledge, is what has messed up the second machine, and most likely why i was unable to get the first machine working properly, i think i need to stop where i am at, and start all over with both machines.

i plan to start from the very beginning, and re-install the OS on both machines. i think i will find that my problems will be solved by doing this.

can we called this thread closed ?? i am rather embarrassed by it, and am not pleased with my actions trying to solve the problem.
i spazzed out, and created a train wreck, when all i had was a flat tire.....

i have learned from the mistakes that i made here, and from everyones help trying to guide me in the right direction !! so some good came from this. i hope i haven't made any of you feel like i wasted your time.....i didn't mean to !!

If you wish to continue Skooter I don't have a problem with that mate but at least let us concentrate on one given machine at a time yes.

Resetting the bios rather then flashing the bios should not present problems as I have said but running around after two machine can get seriously confusing as you probably have gathered.

Which machine do you want to start with?

Wolfeymole, i appreciate your patients, and understanding !!! a lot of people would have decided that I'm to confusing / spastic to help. and rightfully so.....

ok, i would like to get the PC that i know was a good running one, (before my mental explosion), up and running again.
thinking about everything that i did with / to this PC, while trying to test the questionable HD, has me thinking that i have messed up the information that makes the OS boot, on this PC's HD.

today i realized that this PC has windows xp pro for it's OS. yesterday when i was trying to install the OS onto the questionable HD using this PC, i was using my windows xp home disk. so i think that this has something to do with my problem with this PC, and why it no longer boots like it should. i was using two different versions of windows OS disks, and probably corrupted the information on this PC's HD, that is needed for it to boot normally.

is my next step to repair the OS on this PC, or possibly do a clean install of the OS ??

before i do anything to it, i will wait until you have time to read this.

thank you for your help !!!!