Date: 08/26/05 (Computer Geeks)    Keywords: no keywords

I just bought a combo from TigerDirect, plus other bits I bought, the
system looks like this:
Abit KV7 mobo
Athlon XP 3000+
512MB PC 3200 DDR RAM
Seagate 250gig EIDE HD (brand new from box, not formatted yet)
Heatsink/fan combo
GeForce FX5500 256MB video card
Memorex 52X CD-RW
Maxtor 30gig HD (my old data drive, no Windows)

I just put the system together. My problem started that I couldn't boot
a Windows XP install disc. The computer would go through the memcheck
and all and then say INVALID SYSTEM DISC, PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE.
But pressing a key gets nothing.

I flashed the BIOS, but that didn't help. Right after flashing the BIOS, I made XP floppy boot discs, but after starting to boot the first floppy it hung on a blank screen with
the cursor flashing in the corner. At first it was sometimes
stopping and beeping (one high pitch, one low) as if the CPU were
overheating, that stopped but now it has been freezing more during the
boot either after the memcheck, the DDR speed check, at the IDE detection or just after that
is done, so I can't always get into the BIOS. The one time I did get into the BIOS, it froze there.

Just now it froze and had a loud, constant beep (a missing CPU error, it seems.) I don't know what to
do. Is my CPU busted? Because if it were, I wouldn't expect the computer to do anything. Is it not booting the disc because it doesn't have the drivers for the CD drive? If so, how do I get that if the
floppy discs don't work? I'm so damn frustrated. Can anyone help?

I spent 7 hours working on this thing yesterday, and I think I may have fucked it up more than when it started. I have the boot sequence right, but the CD doesn't work. The heatsink/fan is seated correctly, but it still seems like either a heat issue because of the way it freezes at different points in the boot. If it were a memory issue, a CPU issue, or now possibly a BIOS issue, I would expect it to freeze at the same point every time. Another random problem is that the startup doesn't always recognize the CPU as an XP 3000+, a lot of the time it is displayed as an Athlon 1300Mhz. There are too many signals pointing to too many different things.

Ug. This is x-posted a lot.

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/computergeeks/759440.html