Never fails...does it?

[Regulus]

Well, wait a minute...when you got to the desktop, did it come up with a message about no control panel or something like that, 'cause that's what was wrong with me...then after about 5 times of turning it off the hard way, it just locked up at the desktop after a few secs.

vid card: MSI RX9800 PRO 128 DDR TV-Out/DVI-I (can't find it on newegg)

mobo: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-484&depa=0

BTW couldn't I just go to the MSI website for the vid card and download a driver for it? What P4 motherboard would you or anyone who has a P4 mobo suggest in place of the one I currently have? Please provide a link as well. I'm probalby a stupid idiot in doing this anyways, but I'm gonna call a friend of my homebound teacher; see if he can help (network technician; appanently knows comps in & out). Thank you very much for the help you have povided.

 

[killians45]

hmm... if MBD drivers or RAID if using SATA. try this, go into the gios and disable shadow cache and try and boot. another thing that can sometimes cause this is secondary devices. try to disconnect any cd/dvd drive or floppy you have as well as external devices except the mouse and keyboard

 

[Regulus]

"shoadow cache?" is there another name for that? I'm not suure my mobo has that, but hang on, I'll go check. brb.

 

[Regulus]

noooooope, aint there.... )=(

 

[killians45]

sorry, shadow ram... also disable the APM/APCI so in the bios any system caching or shadowing and any advanced power management needs to be disabled.

 

[Regulus]

there is nothing listed as "shadow" anything...I'll try that other thing you say there. Now that it has stopped with the stupid little "incompatible-ish" message, it freezes either @ the desktop, whenever I double click something, or when XP says "Welcome" on the screen. Does this open up a whole bunch of new suggestions am I pretty much in the same area of a problem?

 

[Cappy]

Try uninstalling the video card .Did you update your Chipsets and Application Excelerators? If it were me i would zero down the HD and start over .But first i usually run Memtest to check my memory for errors .Then Reformat and I usually
install things in this order
1.Update Motherboard with the latest Bios .
2.Install Operating System only no service packs
3.Install the latests Chipset drivers.
4.Install Application Excellerators if Applicable (Pentium Systems)
5.Install the latests direct X.
6 Install the latest Video Card Drivers.Even use the install CD if its new enough or if your having problems.
7.Look in Device Manager for anything thats not installed and install it.
8.Tests the system for stability then continue with building the
Operating System.

 

[Regulus]

So basically, your saying that I should uninstall my OS (it has service pack 1a [motherboard reccomends it])? But I thought that OSs could only be installed onto 1 and only 1 comp. If I uninstall Windows XP home, I won't be able to install it againe...will I? I go tthe OEM version.

 

[Cappy]

You have the CD right ? You can re-install as many times as you want in the same system.When you first activate Windows XP
you do so online and a snap shot is taken of your systems Hardware .This becomes your systems signature .And usually you can get a new code/key over the Internet without calling MS .Only when you do a major upgrade such as CPU , Motherboard etc..you will have to call MS and they will ask you some questions as to why your system changed etc...

 

[Regulus]

Ok, so how would I go about "un" and "re" installing XP?

"When you first activate Windows XP
you do so online and a snap shot is taken of your systems Hardware ."

I don't have internet access (using a diff. comp), so what does that mean?