Hi Cressida,
As is the norm with me everything includes havoc, the W/XP was downloading nicely, when I got a reply, as to" will adjust screen for best definition", I tried to acknowledege the request, but could not get my keyboard to respond,
I was told I would only need a keyboard, no mouse,so I had to reboot, now I can still get into Bios, but nothing else, when I reboot all I get is blinking particle.

Cressida.
As is the norm for me nothing goes easy, I was going along nice and easy downloading W/XP, when I got a message, that the download was going to adjust my screen, I could not make that adjustment with my keyboard, I believeve I needed a mouse, so I rebooted, added a mouse, but now nothing happens when I reboot ,I can get into Bios, but does not boot to the dvd drive. All I get is a blinking particle.

Just let it do it and continue...you can change it later on.

You can connect both mouse and keyboard before installing Windows, durkinjt. I only said that for the adjusting settings in the BIOS you don't need a mouse. This shouldn't affect the boot sequence however, so I don't know why Windows setup doesn't start any more. Did you hit "any key" to boot from CD when prompted? Is it a PS/2 or a USB type mouse? Maybe you have another one you can try with? Also, in the BIOS you can select "Load Optimized Defaults" and "Save & Exit", then check/adjust the boot options again to make it start from CD.

On a side-note, Service Pack 3 for XP is being released officially today. Since you're doing a fresh install, I recommend that you "slipstream" SP3 into your XP CD before installing Windows. You can probably google some how-to guides for doing this with the /integrate command. There's also a possibility to do this with a little program called nLite.

Here's a download link where you can already get SP3 from the Microsoft servers: http://majorgeeks.com/Microsoft_Wind...nal_d4323.html

Cressida
I did as you said and I was able to boot from the dvd drive, istalled WXP and the screen came up fine, thougt I was fially done, I rebooted and am only getting a blank screen and a blinking cursor. Any ideas?

Go back into the bios and set it to boot from the hard drive now that windows is on.

Bob thanks for hanging in there, I tried that, same thing, this is nuts.

Format that drive and reload XP is all i can think of.

Well that's strange, because in the normal order of events and after copying the install files from CD to HDD, Windows setup already reboots from your HDD before it starts the actual installation. Did it actually complete the installation?

Make sure that the HDD is made available as a bootable device in the BIOS, like Bob said. Boot from CD, let it copy the files from CD to HDD, let it reboot and start the installation from HDD, until it's finished (it should be asking you about product activation and turning on automatic updates, otherwise the installation did not complete).

I'm sure theWindows installation was complete, as I went into control panel, is there a way to re-install it to be sure, cause now I am only getting the blank screen again.

If you got into Control Panel, then Windows is installed on the hard disk indeed. This is difficult to diagnose from a distance, but it sounds like the monitor (connection) problem you had earlier is still there.

Do you see and hear Windows loading (hard disk activity LED + hard disk noise) even when the screen stays blank after power up?

You can try and start from scratch again of course, but Windows Setup will detect the existing installation on your hard drive, so there will be some additional options to choose from.

And don't worry, it's only a computer. You'll get there in the end (there's lots to do still, even after installing Windows).

yeah (scratches head) i get calls from my friends and wifes relatives and it's even hard to do on the phone.........

Thanks for the help, again, you folk's(primarily you & Bob) have been great, again crazy, finally, got everything in place and went to install my second dvd drive (Benq 1655)and upon rebooting everything reverted back to the a black screen. Is this thing cursed or am I doing a lot of wrong moves?

Are all your connections tight? I mean everything. I took a can of air and sprayed my pc's out. Just last week i unplugged and plugged everything back in. ahhhhhhh the fun of building.

I want to thank all , (again especially Bob & Cressida) for the sage advise, I have gotten this thing up and running by a trial and error method, but would not have known where to turn to without your advise, this is one great board. Thanks again.

Alrighty.....glad you got it figured out

What do you think you did?

Glad you have it solved, bet you learned something from this.

I tell ya it's very difficult to try and troubleshoot issues this way, I prefer a on hands approach.

Well done, durkinjt ! I said you'd get there, didn't I ? Now the hard part starts, namely running a slim and clean OS that fits your needs, without getting in your way...

Bob, I can only say I changed the bios settings on booting, went to the perfomance setting (Cressida advised), did a lot of things over again, might have made a mistake first time around, but with all your replies, (I referred back to them constantly), Works like a charm. A very learning expierience, to impose one more time, (hope I'm not running out of imposes), would it be a big deal to transfer one of my hard drive,s from one computer, (not the same one) to another, both are Sata. Can they simply be switched?

Indeed, Thank you, great to have folks like you in the mix.

With a operating system already on it...........No ..........Now you can get stuff of of it but not to run like you normally would.

What happens is the OS is looking for all the mobo drivers and they are not there.

To add one that is a storage drive then yes.

Bob, what is the best way to add it as a storage drive?

If it has no operating system on it then just shut down and hook it up.

Bob, I will take it out of a computer that has W/XP and would like to install it into another computer with same O/S,can or can't do?

If it does NOT have an operating system on it then no problem.

Hook it up and see how it reacts. You will see.