No Idea what ive done

[fluxx88]

right where to start,

just got a new pc with no operating system, so i got xp pro to put on it.

turned it on an went through bios, started the windows setup/format drive then bang..had a powercut

5mins later with power now on i start computer again but now get...error loading op system??

so what does this genius do...play in bios...ive now done something that when turning the computer on i cant even enter the boot or setup menu...

Any help or have i now destroyed my pc before ive started??

[Dalo Harkin]

pop the CMOS battery out - the little watch one toward the bottom of the board.

put it back in (after 10 seconds) and then reboot - and try and reinstall the OS

[fluxx88]

cool will give that a shot....

[fluxx88]

also..any other ideas would be really good as im only going to be able to try these when i go home tonight...thanks..

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Doing what Dalo suggests will reset the bios defaults Flux so you should be ok.

[fluxx88]

but then wont it just come back to telling me that there is an error loading operating system????

[fluxx88]

the reason being, that when i tried windows setup again after the first time it said it couldnt find a hard drive???

really am worried ive fckd it :(

[Dalo Harkin]

Its not as simple as that - if the power supply went and the MOBO reset itself then you may need to change the boot order in the BIOS - HDD first for the system when it has an OS on it - and CDROM when it needs an OS installing on it

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Once you have re-installed the battery press F2 or Del or whatever key press it needs to enter the bios.

 

Change the boot up sequence to cdrom as first boot.

 

Pop the XP disk in at this time as the computer is active.

 

Save changes to the bios by pressing F10 (usually)

 

The pc will reboot and look for a boot loader or in other words files that are needed to set up windows.

 

Follow the XP instructions and delete all other versions of XP that are found.

 

Then install XP, the partition size to install XP is up to you but if you are not comfortable with dealing with partitions then set the whole disk size to install XP to.

[fluxx88]

Just want to say thanks for the help guys...it did the trick, just got xp installed..thanks:)

 

had one more question...when i reset the bios would that have affected any overclocking of the processor??

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Most probably yes Flux, I'd advise against overclocking unless you really know what your doing.

 

This is not to suggest that you don't of course.

[fluxx88]

right...my list of problems just got a whole lot bigger.....

will be back with a full explanation..lol..

jesus why didnt i just go to pc world...

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Please do Flux :confused:

[fluxx88]

right...essentially i bought this

 

Bess Systems

http://www.g4technologies.co.uk/Bess/PowSellMan.jpg

http://www.g4technologies.co.uk/Bess/BlankCheque.gif

http://www.g4technologies.co.uk/Bess/PowSellMan.jpg

 

BRAND NEW BLACK / SILVER INTEL CORE 2 DUO E2180 1MB CACHE 800 MHZ TOWER COMPUTER.

MASSIVE 250GB 8MB CACHE SATA HDD

MASSIVE 4 GB DDR2 MEMORY +

ATI RADEON HD 2400PRO HYPER MEMORY 1GB PCI EXPRESS GRAPHICS CARD DIRECTX 10 + TVOUT + DVI

http://www.g4technologies.co.uk/2007pages/SilverXBlade.jpg

INTEL CORE 2 DUO E2180 1MB CACHE 800MHZ

http://www.g4technologies.co.uk/2007pages/Core2Duo.jpg

 

MASSIVE 4096 MB DDR2 667 MEMORY

http://www.g4technologies.co.uk/2007pages/667Memory.jpg

250GB 8MB CACHE SATA HARD DRIVE

http://www.g4technologies.co.uk/2007pages/HDD.jpg

20X DUAL LAYER LIGHTSCRIBE DVDRW DRIVE

http://www.g4technologies.co.uk/2007pages/DVDRW.jpg

ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD

ONBOARD SOUND

http://www.g4technologies.co.uk/2007pages/1333D667.jpg

ATI RADEON HD 2400PRO HYPER MEMORY 1GB PCI EXPRESS GRAPHICS CARD DIRECTX 10 + TV OUT + DVI

http://www.g4technologies.co.uk/2007pages/ATI2400HD.jpg

4X USB2 PORTS ON BACK

+ 2X USB2 PORTS IN THE FRONT.

http://www.g4technologies.co.uk/2007pages/SilverXBlade.jpg

 

with no operating system anything...

i had that trouble installing xp but that was resolved thanks to you guys...

but now....

tried installing rome total war..which on this machine should be like playing pinball...but everytime i open the program it says 'unexpected error has to close' tried the drivers for the graphics card..thats all installed...cant find the sound card tho...

 

i now have no idea what to do????

[Dalo Harkin]

The sound driver will be on the MOBO driver disk.

or go to the MOBO manufacturer website

[fluxx88]

but why wont the program even open????

[Dalo Harkin]

What program?

[fluxx88]

rome total war

[Dalo Harkin]

are you launching the game off the shortcut with the game in the drive?

try launching from the main target directory normaly C:/ program files/ game developer EA etc and then the exe file

[fluxx88]

my brief theory is that everything was set up perfect by the company i got this from but then ive gone an done something to reset everything...** hum...

[Dalo Harkin]

The only options in the BIOS that they may have set would only be to make the RAM and the CPU run faster - they will not affect the games working any way whatsoever

[fluxx88]

right..i know im beginning to be a pain in the behind buuuuttttttt....

is there no kind of check list i can follow to make sure everythings running ok??

i was just under the impression that as soon as i loaded xp then everything should be pretty much easy to use an install as per the norm...

seriously any info you can give is really appreciated and i take it all in so i wont be back annoying you guys again..:)

[Dalo Harkin]

ok so it boots - loads windows - you get to the login screen and then can get into windows yes?

was total war installed recently?

have you tried reinstalling it?

[fluxx88]

installed yesterday....

it was the first thing i installed on there as soon as i got xp installed, came up with that 'unexpected error message' no error report or anything.

then i thought what if the graphics card isnt installed properly..so i installed that..rebooted the pc, the pixelation had changed so obviously the graphics card was working..tried rome again...same message...

[Dalo Harkin]

Have you tried launching from the route directory and not the shortcut - and right click on the icon and select run as administrator aswell.