Build help, please look!

[bullzi]

ok guys, as you know im building my new build, i have it working now, kinda... i just got the heatsink and psu today, the heatsink is an intel and the psu is just a generic 450watt. the hd is a WD 40gb ide, and the dvd-rom is an hp cdrw. now i have a problem, when booting up i can get to bios no problem etc., i have the cdrom as the first boot device on master, and the hd is the third boot device on master as well ( yes they are on seperate cables and the cd-rom is in the first input) anyway, i try to boot from the cd and nothing happens, its worked twice and it froze, and now all i get is a black screen with a blinking cursor in the upperlefthand corner, any ideas?? its really pissin me off!!

btw its an ABIT vt7 mobo

 

[bullzi]

ok i finally got it ready, i got windows 98 installed and everything, and it will boot from the cdrom regularly now, but now i have another problem, whenever i try to install windows xp it wont work, ill get past windows copying the files then it says "setup is starting windows" and it freezes there, any ideas??

 

[Raffaz]

Specs?

 

[bullzi]

ABIT: vt7 pt880
Nvidia FX 5200
256mb pc3200 ram
40gb western digital ide HD
ide dvd-rom
integrated sound/networking
p4 northwood 2.6ghz w/HT

 

[Raffaz]

ok i finally got it ready, i got windows 98 installed and everything, and it will boot from the cdrom regularly now, but now i have another problem, whenever i try to install windows xp it wont work, ill get past windows copying the files then it says "setup is starting windows" and it freezes there, any ideas??

Ok, so your getting past the text based part at the beginning, correct?

Im guessing your getting to the hardware detection phase from what you have said. First thing to do is verify that the hardware is listed in the windows catalogue. Then remove non supported devices from the pc and run the setup again. Once its all installed, you can then reconnect the unsupported devices and let windows detect them.

 

[bullzi]

nope i dont even get to the text part, this is the very beggining where it boots from the cd, and it loads the files needed, i dont get anywhere near the text parts of the install, this is the VERY first thing that happens when i boot from the cd

 

[Raffaz]

nope i dont even get to the text part, this is the very beggining where it boots from the cd, and it loads the files needed, i dont get anywhere near the text parts of the install, this is the VERY first thing that happens when i boot from the cd

The text part is when you first boot from the cd, and you get the blue screen, then it loads everything in and detects your drives etc, and you select the partition etc. Once it reboots from there your in the GUI area, where your mouse works etc, is this the area your getting to, or the other area?

 

[bullzi]

yea i know, but i dont get to the partition or anything, it says "setup is starting windows" which is what it usually does before getting to the partitioner, but it freezes at "setup is starting windows"

 

[Raffaz]

Ok, is the HDD showing up in the BIOS? Also, have you gave it some time to check for the HDD, sometimes it can take a few mins to detect it during installation.

 

[bullzi]

yea everything is detected in the bios, all sectors all memory everything, and ive let it sit at the setup is starting windows thing for an hour, and usually it takes literally a matter of seconds on my other pc's... i mean im installing linux right now on it and its working fine, so ill try to install xp once linux is done so i have dual boot, ive got two partitions on it, which i didnt have before, so ill give that a try