Having trouble installing Windows XP

[rhcp]

I just assembled a new system consisted of

generic atx case
asus m2v-tvm
amd athlon 64 3500+
1 gig kingston ram
Mad Dog surepower 430 w psu
80 gig wd caviar IDE HD
Benq CD/RW
2 case fans

The bios works fine and i initially set up the boot priority to go

CD/rom
hard drive

and then put in the windows disc and it says to boot from disc press any key

so i do

windows goes through the first stage of installation, then reboots

after bios runs again, it says press any key to boot from cd, so i did but it went back to the original first step of installing windows

so next time i didnt press anything and it says "error loading operating system"

ive installed windows on many many computers and i never had this problem.

Any solutions?

[masterc]

When It reboots, don't hit the keyboard or it will just re-run the setup.
If you are getting an error, maybe the CD is corrupt (file corrupt) if is a burned CD, or the optical drive maybe damaged...

Could also be a HD problem. Try disconnecting the IDE cable and reconnect it: or runa disc utility program to reformat the HD...

[Shaner]

Go back to the initial setup and start the installation process all over again.
This time when it reboots, do NOT press anything, just let it go through by itself.

That should be all you need to do.

[rhcp]

Go back to the initial setup and start the installation process all over again.
This time when it reboots, do NOT press anything, just let it go through by itself.

That should be all you need to do.

Thats exactly what i did in the first place. Still, it doesn't work. I was hoping somebody has the same motherboard as me and had the same problem. This is really grinding my gears lol, I can't concentrate on all my schoolwork because I want to get this computer done with.

[Blackjack]

How is your WD HD jumpered? By itself, you do not need any jumper at all. W.D drives have a separate setting for master with slave and stand alone (master without a slave).

[willy]

80GB ....

- Is it a brand new drive ? If not, what was on it before ?

- Did you full format the drive ? Or you are 'repair installing' ?

[scan]

80GB ....

- Is it a brand new drive ? If not, what was on it before ?

- Did you full format the drive ? Or you are 'repair installing' ?

from the sounds of it, it doesn't seem like he's getting to that point of the install.

[willy]

from the sounds of it, it doesn't seem like he's getting to that point of the install.

Hmmm .. He mentioned about 1st reboot .... I assume it's the one right after the blue-screen DOS mode file copying phase ....

[Scottie]

I would Download Memtest and test your RAM I have heard and see alot of XP install problems because of bad ram configs, it doesn't sound like the ram but I would test it anyways !

[Shaner]

Have you used that hardware with Windows previously? Did you change anything whatsoever (add a hard drive, add RAM, remove a HDD, etc.)?

If you haven't changed anything and you have previously used the hardware with Windows, it's time to start pulling hardware out.

First and foremost, clear the CMOS (refer to your MB manual to do that).

If that doesn't work, yank out all unnecessary hardware, like your sound card, CD drives, floppy drive, all RAM but one stick, your NIC, your modem, and anything else that isn't required for the computer to POST. If that still doesn't work, take out the current stick of RAM and place another one in it's spot and try different DIMM's (the slots on the motherboard that hold the RAM).

Check the jumpers on your hard drive to ensure they are correct (they should be, if you previously used it with Windows and haven't added another HDD).

Try to install Windows again. If it goes through, start putting hardware back in one piece at a time. Each time you add a piece of hardware, start up the computer to see if it boots. If not, you know what the problem is (either the piece of hardware or that particular slot on the MB).

That should work. If not and you followed each and every stop above and the computer has worked previously, it's likely the CD is bad. Try it on another computer if possible.

[rhcp]

it was a brand new system and dont wory thanks for all your help but all it took was me accidentally presssing eject on the disc drive while it was booting and it continued with xp installation and its all good now. thanks!