Since you have so little time to do this before your system shuts down, I thought I'd post the instructions Catweazle referred to here; if you can print them out on another computer, that would...

Any beep codes?

There are several things that can cause this, overheating is one of them. If you haven't done so recently, you should open the case and clean it either with canned air or -- carefully -- with a...

Try reinstalling the motherboard drivers, they should be on the restoration CD you got from eMachines.

No risk, but if you have FAT on the computer you put it in, and NTFS on the one you put in as a slave, you won't be able to see it.

Yes, I was wondering if you actually had replaced it.

Maybe the power supply will work, good luck and let us know.

(I don't think anyone thought you were calling anyone a liar:) )

That's interesting... I wonder if Nero or Microsoft are aware of this problem... :confused:

Glad you got it figured out and thanks for letting us know what it was in case it comes up again :)
...

Do you mind telling us what you did in case it comes up again?

Wow, that didn't sound like a hard drive problem to me. Thanks for letting us know how you fixed it :)

Marking this as solved, even though you did it on your own :D

I'm not sure what you mean by 'going in circles,' does it keep rebooting itself? You can't get into msconfig to uncheck SAFEMODE?

Can you boot to your XP CD? (Still assuming you have XP)

Try msconfig and see if it will work that way.

Did you delete the entire folders or just the contents? If just the contents, it shouldn't have created any problems. I'm not sure what happens if you delete the folders themselves.

Try using...

If you're trying F8 and it's not working, it's most likely a matter of timing. I prefer the msconfig route myself, I've never even tried the F8 (but that is the most common way).

Here are complete instructions for installing XP; go through it and see if you made any mistakes. Even if you don't think you did, start over and try again. If you can't get the CD to work, get the...

What OS do you have? Since you said it's new, I'll assume it's XP.

There are two ways to do this:

The most common is to reboot your computer and then repeatedly hit F8 while it's booting up.
...

If that doesn't work, I had another idea. Also from the Screensaver tab, go to the Power button, and under Power schemes use the drop-down arrow, then select Always on. Then go down to the Settings...

Did you remove and reapply the thermal compound? I would have guessed this was an overheating problem too. Most CPU's made by Intel will turn themselves off before overheating to the point of...

Find out what BIOS you have and do a search for it and 'beep codes' to find out what the warning actually is.

This is kind of a shot in the dark, but it sounds like some kind of problem with a screen saver. If you have a screen saver, disable it and see if it still happens.

Right-click on the desktop, go...

Why were you reformatting in the first place? Were you having a problem?

Why do you now think the drive has failed?

When you open the computer to see who the manufacturer is, remember to...

Couldn't hurt to try another power supply if you can get a hold of one without buying it.

Check here to see if your Dell notebook is affected by the AC adapter recall:

http://pchw-os.web.boeing.com/hw/portable/issues/default.htm

Great! Glad we could help! :)

I've never owned a Compaq, but I've heard the same thing. I think IBM might be a little better then Dell, but will probably cost more. Also, Dell's tech support is handled by people in India now...

What BIOS do u have? You can try doing a search for 'beep codes' for your particular BIOS and see what that code means.

You might find it here:
http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.shtml

I can't help you, but you will probably get an answer if you post this question in the Windows 98 forum.

Did you apply thermal compound between the CPU and heatsink?

Tiger Direct often has good deals on cases and barebone kits:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/

With 40GB of data to transfer, that still wouldn't be a very efficient method. I'd go with the networking, but the PC Relocater would probably work too.

If it came preinstalled, it's almost certainly OEM. If you have an actual XP CD, at the top will be a statement saying "For distribution with a new PC only..." If it says that, then it's OEM, if it...

My opinion? I think a 3.4ghz is too expensive, anything in the 2ghz-3ghz range should be more than adequate. But if you've got the money and want the "best," go for it! (By the way, "fast" would be...