Hey all,

I have a question that I haven't seem to been able to find the answer to, and it also seems to be pretty uncommon. So this one is for all the marbles

I recently installed a new Biostar Mobo, everything seemed to power up correctly. When it came to trying to either install XP or run an existing version on my HDD it wouldn't run, and this is what happened....

When trying to load my OS from the CD-ROM it seemed as if it wouldn't read, and when I try to load it from my HDD it brings me to the options of either running windows in safe mode, with a network connection, last known working configuration, or normal run. When I select any one of those options, it will seem as if it is going to load and I can actually see the Windows XP load screen for a split second and then the PC restarts.

I've been at this for 2 days straight now, and have finally given in to the higher powers (that being the gurus at Daniweb) So if anyone can please help it would be greatly appreciated.

getting the computer to boot from a hard drive that has an existing OS installed wont work

the first thing to do is to make sure all the connections are connected and seated properly then go into CMOS setup and set the cd drive to be first in the boot priority and save the changes and exit and try to boot from the cd again

if the cd drive still doesnt read the cd then you might need a new cd drive.

I bought a new DVD-R drive, and tried to load it using that but do I need a CD-ROM try to do it? because it seems to not be reading that also.

no, the dvd -r should read it ,did you go into the bios to set the dvd-r as the first boot device ,before you tried to get it to read the winxp cd .also is it a full copy of winxp or a windows xp recovery cd

Yeah, I did go to the bios to set the dvd-r as the first boot device, and the win xp cd is a full copy.

Here is my next question though.... I have my DVD-R and my HDD daisy chained through an IDE ribbon cable. Do you think that could also be an issue? I was thinking of buying a new HDD with a sata connection to free up the IDE connection to just one hardware device. O and by the way I appreciate you guys helping me out.

Perhaps check your jumper settings on the back of your HDD and DVD drive. Traditionally the HDD is the primary master, and the DVD is the primary slave; but the main thing is to make sure they're not both set to the same thing.

1) a new mobo requires a new install of windows
(not in all cases like mine)

2) MOBO might be too old

3) install the most recent bios off a floppy from another pc.

I disagree on that suggestion! for motherboard maker maybe !