You've just described all of the sympthoms of the dying bios battery. It might have aswell corrupted the bios, so flashing (or re-flashing the same version) is advisable.
Bare minimum with video feedback would be motherboard, CPU & VGA. (keyboard is needed for the BIOS setup) Some mobo's do have some functionality without CPU, but it only goes so far as CPU detection. Try unplugging the VGA. Faulty vga makes whole system to die, but giving the syphtoms you described with the drives, I say your IDE controller got fried. Your last hope would be BIOS flashing via floppy. In case your BIOS is so corrupted that it can't initiate VGA and IDE controller, that would correct the problem. (You'll need the floppy drive)
Sulley's Boo commented: you so sweeeeeeeeeet ^,^+2
It is possible that you plugged ide cable to the motherboard up-side down. Have you tried Unplugging ide cable from motherboard all together? Any beeps?
Keep in mind that Dell is SELLING that motherboard that (they say) needs to be replaced. What you have there is corrupt windows registry, but not corrupt enough to display an error message upon startup. The thing to do is: While booting press f8 key and select last known configuration. Hopefully this will restore older registry that worked. Only setback is that you'll need to reinstall the programs that you installed in the meantime.
If same thing happends, try booting from CD (Installation or restore) and restore or renistall the windows.
What is BIOS? It is Basic Input Output System. That is a back bone software that is implemented in your motherboard in a form of replacable chip. It is used to run the motherboard and everything on it like ide/sata/raid/scsi controllers, PCI/AGP/PCI-e slots, memory, CPU, and anything that is implemented on the motherboard (like LAN, Soundboard, Video...)
How to get to BIOS setup? If F12 don't get you to bios setup screen, try del key or F2. It usualy displays on the post screen which key is used to enter BIOS setup. There you need to navigate and find something that sounds like "boot sequence" or "boot device priority". Make 1st CD/DVD and 2nd HD. After setting this (disregard that message about cache you posted - disableing that reduces the system performance) exit and save the changes. Insert Windows CD, and your system should start with windows installation.
Seemed to me that whenever I go out all of the Arabs go playing hide and seak with me. All I see is Africans, Americans, Europeans and Asians. But no Arabs. Only Arab I actually saw was immigration officer.
So, you are, like, NOT an imigrant in Dubai? Wow, 2 weeks there and only "real" Arabs (native) I saw were ones in framed pictures hung at the hotel's reception.
Wait, wait, wait... hold it right there. First you say "I'm not a man" now you say "Who is she"....I'm lost. Is there any other gender I am not familiar with?
If one person says that you are you a pig, that's because he hates you. If two persons say that you are a pig, that's because they made a pact against you. If three persons say that you are a pig, than beter start oinking.
Yes, it was the las thing on the administration's mind. First was drinking water. Those are only 2 things on it's mind!
As I see, US policy is: why buy if you can take?
P.S. Most of the chemicals used to produce the main excuse for invading Iraq was sold by US. There is hard evidece of that. Why they never found it? Probbably Saddam used it all on Kurds.
If you're buying in the City Center (moll) you're wastin' your money, man. It's a ripp-off there. Much betteer to take a walk down town. There, it's a bargain. Literarly. I've been around the planet and I've seen the prices, and belive me - NOTHING beats Dubai. (It's a tax-free zone, isn't it?)
Everybody here are talking about everything regarding occupation of Iraq, except the real reason. As I said, I was in Iraq last year and lesser of 2 reasons is crystal-clear to me....OIL. I served aboard Crude oil tanker and happened to ship oil from Iraq to (suprise, suprise) US. ALL CRUDE OIL TANKERS WAITING FOR THE LOAD SHIPPED TO US!! Almost all oil is going to US with exception of UK and other countries that take part in campagin in Iraq. Seen it with my own eyes.
Other reason is drinking water and that is EVEN BIGGER reason. Why? Iraq has (have to look up) 2nd or 3rd worlds largest natural reserve of drinking water. If you find that odd, just compare today's prices of crude oil and equal amount of drinking water.
First of all, I am not an American and I will not state my opinion on the poll subject here, but I am driven to write couple of things:
(my public profile is blank and will remain so) I happened to live and grow up through the war. I also happened to be in Iraq last year. (technicly) I think that those 2 facts qualify me to be taken seriously here.
1. It is sad that the only real people that go to war (soliders) are not consulted when big guys make big decisions. Remember: Nobody hates war more than warriors.
2. My opinion on Iraqi people is that they are not and will not be any time soon ready for the democracy and freedom (read: lack of supression by dictatorship). Don't forget that it took a Saddam to keep peace in Iraq. The methods are... well, let's just say that Hitler wasn't so resurceful.
One more thing:
I don't see how. More than 15 of the 20 hijackers were Saudi's.
Iraq population structure is by nationality is: Arab 75%-80%, Kurdish 15%-20%, Turkoman, Assyrian or other 5% and by religion: Muslim 97% (Shi'a 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%), Christian or other 3%
You have driver issue on your hands. (kind of, obvious) Try disableing display driver in your device manager. (in safe mode).
If it manages to reboot, uninstall the disabled driver and re-install it. If not, reenable the driver and take a look in event viewer (will have to enable administrative tools in "taskbar and start menu" settings) where you can see a log of things that failed on your system. Even better way is to look under "problem devices" in Programs/Accessories/system tools/system information to see the list of drivers that failed to start.
You are using a left-handed settings. Go to control panel, doubleclick(the right one in your case) mouse and the uncheck first checkbox (switch primary and secondary buttons) and that's the last time you'll right-click to left-click.
I've been puting them together from 486 on. No damage, no fuss, no second tries (if you don't count win installation) so you don't have to preach me somthing I know. I'll let you in on a little secret.
IT'S A JOKE! But I'm sure you knew that.
45 minutes from scrach - yeah, right.
Install windows hour or so - in ya dreams. Try XP Pro (not sp1 or sp2) on nforce4 without floppy drive.
And the prices are same one way or another, only the brand PCs have stuff we don't need (like Windows) and don't ones we need (like extra 5 audio chanells).
The cheapest way to build a new PC is to buy already working one. It saves you ALOT of time and EVEN MORE psycheatric treatment bills. (Traumatic ones are optional, while others are mandatory)
The safest way to build a new PC is to buy everithing (including somebody to put it together, while you are taking an afternoon nap 60 miles away in a atomic-blast-proof underground bunker)
The dumbest way to build a new PC is to buy 5 year old parts.
The best posibble way to build a new PC is not to.
And the worst one is to spend (atleast) a week tryin' to figure out what goes where (with the leg bone connected to the knee bone...) while your'e naked and biting on the grounded wire trying to prevent ESD from frying your blood-tears-n-swet-earned-money-paid-with new bits and pieces, while you are just realizng that you need to buy an extra extesion cord (necessary to make the lenght and that 1 extra power socket you're missin') at 2 a.m. sunday (followed by 3-day national holiday)....... wait while I wipe my tears ..... and daydreaming (after a pint of coffe that kind of dreaming is the only one you'll get this week) of travelling back in time to assassinate the inventor of the transistor.
