I Cant Make My New Comp Work!! Help!?!

[romanguy5]

HEY: i recently bought the following items to construct a new computer!

Asus P4S333 MotherBoard
Intel P4 1.8a processor
256 DDR Ram PC2100
Xtasy GeForce 4 Ti4200 128MB

i used my old computer's: 20GB HD, Floppy disk, CD-ROM/RW, DVD-ROM

the first time i put it all together i got a strange "system failed CPU test" POST message i retured the board RMA and got hte new one last week. I put it all together and every time i start it will randomly freeze during boot up, sometimes when the bios are loading, somtiems when it says "press DEL for setup" sometimes right before it tries to load my OS (98 se). Like 2 mabye 3 times i was able to get it to start 98 BUT it said it had errors on it and tryed to fix itself, when infact it was completely ruining the registry. so that when i put everything back into the old computer it didnt work and i had to reformat and reinstall 98 =P. My uncle (electrical enginere) suggested that 98 could have been having compatability issues so i bought XP FULL! and so i went to format the hard drive in the new computer and everytime i did it would just shutdown the comp at 2percent done. so i put everything into the old comp and formatted it. i put everything back into new comp and tryed installing XP. but smart microsoft, XP didnt come with a start up disk just a CD so i had no way of running the setup. i figured out an ingenious plan. i used the 98 startup disk and would gain access to teh drive that way. so i used the "startup option" "with CD support" it gave me the command prompt so i "E:" and did "E:\setup.exe" and it says "cannot run this program in DOS" !?! O_o excuse me but it says on the box that it is the full version so it is usable with computers with NO OS!?

PLEASE HELP!!! before i crack into many small pieces!

ROMANGUY

[Captain Slug]

Sounds like a faulty stick of RAM to me.

Any second opinions?

[specific]

check everything.
hd on primary ide as master.
cd and dvd roms on secondary ide, one master, one slave.
jumpers set correctly for all of these.
set 1st boot option to cd-rom in bios.
ram is seated properly.

i don't mean to assume that you haven't done these things, just need to make sure EVERYTHING is correctly assembled before we jump to conclusions that you have bad hardware.

[NO LIFE]

Good call slug.....roman, you tried everything except the ram didnt you??

When having problems with a new system you gotta replace everything 1 at a time to make sure you pin-point the problem. You may think it is the OS, but from what slug said, it sounds like ram issues.

[romanguy5]

ill check it with my friend's ram i know his works. and im 99% possitive ive got all the little things down (HD IDE primary master, ect.)

thanks for help ( KEEP WRITING IF YOU KEEP HAVING SOLUTIONS!)

[cwb27]

I second the motion on the RAM. Kind of a guess on this, but is there a chance the processor could be FUBAR'd.

Also, for setting up XP in DOS, I believe in one of the directories on the CD there's an application to run (in DOS) that makes start up disks so XP setup can run in DOS (well sort of). I know they have this in Win2000 but I've never looked around on the XP CD.

[Captain Slug]

Originally posted by cwb27
I second the motion on the RAM. Kind of a guess on this, but is there a chance the processor could be FUBAR'd.

Lets not worry him with that until he tries another stick...

If that doesn't help than that's another option to add to the list (considering he's already swapped boards).

[AMD'er]

Make sure once you put the processor and "new ram" reset your CMOS......
Like someone already mentioned...when it the computer makes it to the Bootscreen...press DELETE and go into the bios...change Boot sequence to "BOOT FROM CD"...F10 to save...insert XP CD and power up computer...it should go right into reading the CD ROM...Install XP and go from there...

...Did the bootscreen recognize your old stick of ram at all?...if it did it may not be the RAM

[Mr. Chambers]

this may sound stupid, but you didnt mention what size power supply you were using... another thought, it looks like you've got a hefty upgrade there from your old system, and if you had a weak power supply to begin with, it'll really start to show (crashes/lockups)

and i know it sounds silly, but i've had similiar problems with a customers computer trying to format to put win2k on, i tried everything, but the final fix was replacement of the primary IDE cable (hard drive). that one had me baffled for days. just another thought.

although i'd definately follow through on slugs first suggestion of RAM..

[sundaythedog]

His power supply is fine. It's 400Watts. I've been trying to help him with this and we'vee gotten from not working at all (broken pin on his proc until we RMA'd it) to pseudo-working over the phone. I'll be going over to his house sometime this week and we'll check everything out one last time before we get new ram.