I tried a hard-drive testing utility that the online HP tech-support sent me, but it wont boot from that either...it just says "non-system disk" Floppy doesn't work, and there is no disk in it so that's not it. I even tried disconnecting the floppy completely but that caused more problems.
That's the problem...it will not load from the CD even though the CD-rom is the first boot device. I understand what to do when I can finally get into the windows setup, what I'm saying is that it will not let me get that far. It doesn't matter what CD I put in the drive, it wont boot from it...
Also, you might want to check out your main power supply...maybe swap one out with a friend's or something. I'd make sure there is no dust inside your case as well, especially around the processor and heatsink/fan area. I have a P4 Prescott and when I play games the built-in "zone temperature"...
My friend's Compaq Presario 1800 laptop started displaying this error message immediately following the COMPAQ splash screen during boot-up: "operating system not found". So he lets me borrow it so I can fix it, and the thing is kicking my @$$! At first I thought, that a boot sector or...