New, confused, desperate, STUBBORN...

[Jayce]

Thanks Beardo...

I would of googled it, but I'm at work right now and I was down to the last 2 minutes of my break as I hit "submit reply," however I greatly appreciate the link.

Now, this may be a dumb question but what would be better to do...

Would it be quicker to put the hard drive in my upstairs computer and go through that bios (if needed) and install Windows XP back on that hard drive, therefore preparing it for the downstairs Gateway I'm having problems with? THEN, later on, flash the bios?

Or just flash the bios first... ?

 

[Jayce]

Beardo, maybe I'm missing something, but with that link you gave me, where exactly can I find the new updated bios flash versions?

 

[beardo526]

You have to search for the actual BIOS update yourself. Just google your motherboard model number or something. You might even be able to get it from the Gateway website. The link I gave you was just a how-to article on flashing your BIOS.

About the other stuff... I'm not really sure. If you can, the best thing to do would be to format all the drives and start from scratch. If the original 20GB hard drive still works, maybe you can put in the original 20GB hard drive as the master and another one as slave, then boot Windows from the 20GB hard drive and format the other ones? Then make the bootable floppy so you can flash the BIOS. Sorry I can't be of much more help, you'd probably be better off asking someone else.

If you're having trouble getting into your BIOS, here's a little trick that might be helpful... turn your computer off, and hold in any key on the keyboard as you turn your system on. At some point, you should get some error that says something about a stuck key on the keyboard, and I think you can get into the BIOS that way.

 

[macdude425]

By the way, what's so bad about Maxtor hard drives? I spoke to a few people and got mixed reviews. Mixed reviews meaning, everyone spoke very highly of them assuming they don't hit any roadblocks as I have... Other than that a lot of people gave them a thumbs up.

They like to die. They are noisy, and work fine, until the day you hear the "click click, scratch scratch", and then you, and your data, are screwed.

At this point I'm so aggrivated over this I'm about to just go out and buy a low end Dell or Gateway tower and just upgrade it later on.

 

[Jayce]

New problem, as if I didn't have enough.

I brought the maxtor upstairs, formatted it on the dell, installed Windows on it, etc etc. Works great now up here. I took it downstairs to its home computer, and booted up windows.

I get that error where it asks me if I want to boot up via safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt, or start windows normally...

Whatever I choose, it freezes. I even booted up once and didn't touch any keys, so when my 30 seconds were up to choose my option, Windows automatically would boot up. No go... I hear a few clicks like it's trying to do something, and then nothing.

I don't know, I heard a lot of good reviews about Maxtor drives. I did hear some people having problems to put them in though. At this point, it's pretty obvious it's not a problem with my hard drive, considering the same thing is happening with my original 20 and other 40 gig. For the price I got the Maxtor for, I can't complain. But as I said, I got a thumbs up everywhere I went.

Anyway, why is the damn thing freezing?

 

[macdude425]

Driver conflicts, most likely. You cannot install Windows on one computer and move it to another unless the hardware differences are minute, or else it will crash.

 

[gaara]

Yeah, especially if you are using an OS that came with a prebuilt machine...for example, if you installed the OS that came with your Dell, the OS is propietory to Dell and installs a bunch of weird things that you wouldn't find from an OEM Windows XP...like in some cases you'll get a hidden partition

 

[Jayce]

Hm, okay we're past this barrier. I just installed Windows ME that came with this Gateway, then upgraded to XP with the disc that came with the Dell. Everything is okay now.

HOWEVER: It's said with my motherboard F1 is the key to continuously hit when you reboot to get into the BIOS.

It doesn't work, it's as if my BIOS is dead.

Should I try flashing (something I've never done) or get a new motherboard? (something I plan to do soon anyway).

 

[gaara]

Your BIOS isn't dead since it is the foundation for your entire PC...if you didn't have a working BIOS your entire computer wouldn't work

I don't know what the problem is, you may be locked out of your BIOS as I know that is the case with some prebuilt computers

 

[macdude425]

Getting a new motherboard would require, most likely, a new proc and new RAM. The case is most likely proprietary, so you would have to get a new one. And the pins on the PSU have been swapped so they can only be used in Gateways.

It would just be easier to build a new PC.