Windows XP will not install - must be old BIOS problem?

[bstock]

Thanks Ritche,

Already done that, anyway I also mentioned my problem with the esupport people and they emailed me back to say that they had put a bios rom in the post so once again its a matter of waiting.


Will keep you informed of progress or lack of as the case may be

--
Brian

[Ritchie]

Well in the meantime, at least the video card you ordered should be a handy spare when troubleshooting systems in the future.

[bstock]

Hey Ritchie,

I don't want to make a habit of this! and I do seem to be pretty terrible at it anyway.

[bstock]

Just to let you know the bios chip arrived and I finally managed to install XP SP1 after tinkering around with some of the bios settings BUT (isn't there always a BUT) when XP initialises sometimes it freezes immediately and sometimes it goes for some time before it freezes.

Oh, I also managed to update SP1 from the internet but XP would not reboot without me firstly switching off the machine.

Anyone any ideas

Seems like I have still a mountain to climb cause there is still SP2 to try to add in yet as well

[Ritchie]

It should not be this difficult to get an O/S to run cleanly. I still suspect a board or power supply fault - in the meantime you are just pushing the limits of what the system can work with.

[bstock]

- in the meantime you are just pushing the limits of what the system can work with.

same goes for myself as well!

Well Ritchie though it pains me to say it, I think you are correct, have just finished checking my ram sockets on the motherboard and guess what - one of the blighters is not working. Any ram I insert into it is ignored so I guess (yet another one) thats what XP does not like.

Any suggestions, give up springs to mind quite readily.

[Ritchie]

Sometimes I have gotten around faulty PCI slots and RAM slots by using other available slots and the system still runs well. But if the failure effects other areas of the board (whether you know it or not) then you will still be plagued with problems.

[bstock]

Thanks Ritche,

I agree goodness knows what else might be wrong and I have spent much too much time on it already so I have given up and have just reinstalled windows98se which went in effortlessly.

Thanks again to everyone who offered their advice

--
Brian