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What brand and model number (if any) is the new one? and was the old one USB? or PS2?

My roomate occasionally had the same problem with a PC build he was working on. We never officially figured out what was wrong, but when he switched power supplies with a different PC (for a different reason than the video problem) it stopped happening completely. Both PSU's were the same wattage, but the one that the video blanked out on was about 4 years of solid use old, and the other one was about 6 months old. I can't say that is the problem, but simply a similar situation with an (accidently) resolution.

Ok so I have a big problem here. I am trying to reinstall XP from my XP boot CD's that came with my PC. I reset my bios to boot from cdrom first and the loading goes fine, using all three discs and it prompts me to remove the last disc from the drive, and the drive opens. I remove the disc from the drive and it proceeds to boot, but freezes on a blank screen, but my monitor is actually "on" because the power light usually flashes if there is no signal, and it is steady. I have my onboard video connected and no video card in a slot. If I reset my PC, it boots to the screen that says "start in safe mode/start windows normally..." so I choose start windows normally and the countdown timer on the bottom freezes and it sticks there. It also freezes when trying to boot to safe mode and any other option there is. System Specs: Intel 845eGV mobo (socket 478) Celeron 2.8Ghz 1GB SuperTalent PC2700 120GB Western Digital 7200RPM HDD Onboard Video Ultra X-Connect 500W PSU Lite-On 56x CD-Rom No Floppy Drive (Floppy boot is disabled in BIOS) Bios Boot order: CD-Rom HDD-0 Disabled Any clue what is going on? I would try a different XP restore disc but i dont have a CD key since it is an OEM version of XP. Any help is appreciated!

Thats my plan for tonight, I finally located someone with a floppy drive (Im at college so about 95% of students use notebooks) so I am going to borrow the drive and try the 6 disk windows setup too, im pretty sure that will work. I will post back when the situation is resolved

any ideas? I really need my PC back up and running. eMachines tech support is pretty lame

could formatting the HDD and trying the same discs help?

There is no CD key on the discs or anything that came with the PC. Its an eMachines that came from TigerDirect.com. Unless the "Product Key" on the back is what i need...nevermind lol, there it is. Sorry about that, I didn't even look for the sticker on the back!

Oh and also, when it gives me the option to either 1)Reinstall XP or 2)Boot from CDrom or whatever the 2nd choice is, every time i hit "2" it says "Bad Command or File Name" and i have to restart to hit 1. Ps. Is there any way to get a CD key from Microsoft? cuz im afraid if i reformat my HDD and try to clean install with the discs, it wont work and i will be left with a worthless 800 dollar investment. ( i dont want to have to buy another copy of XP)

I put the oem ram back in, and only have stock parts in right now and same thing. occasionally when i boot it will beep very quickly and say something like "Disk boot sector will be changed, Press Y to confirm" or something similar. If i formatted the HDD using a friends pc, would that help?

I just switched cases but no hardware, and now I cant get any audio to work! I tried downloading the audio drivers and resetting BIOS to no avail. It is onboard AC97 audio so it cant be something not plugged in (i checked.) Any ideas? It worked fine until earlier today when i switched to a different case, so i messed something up on accident. I have an Intel 845GV v1.x motherboard.

I've checked the jumpers and plugged everything in solidly and into the correct slot, still no audio. This is stumping me!

It will be a large white sticker on your power supply listing alot of information, you will see the output wattage on this sticker. And Antec and Thermaltake have proved to me to be great PSUs so you would be safe going for either of those. I would assume Zalman makes a good psu since all other products of theirs I have used have been great.

I connect them to the back, but I haven't checked jumpers yet. I didn't because it had worked in the other case so I assumed they were still set but I will check them when I can get back to my pc.

Not sure if this will work but try running wddiag on the drive if you can. http://support.wdc.com/download/#dlgtools

Or just go out and buy your own game! 34.99 at Circuit City. So you can probably find it even cheaper somewhere online, perhaps Amazon.com or just Froogle it.

I would just like to say that I have given my accounts away long ago So please STOP EMAILING ME! 8) Sorry I don't have enough characters to satisfy everyone!

What is the best all around processor for the price? I'm talking overclockability, overall performance, gaming and multitasking on a budget. Preferably AMD but if Intel fans want to defend their favorite processor, let me know! I am in the progress of building a fast all-around machine with good overclocking potential and the potential to leave some cash in my wallet.

That happened to me once on HL2 but it wasn't on the same part of the game. I remembered that Steam had updated that day, so I did a system restore to the night before and it worked again. Then after I installed the Steam update it worked just fine. Not sure if they have updated recently, I haven't played in a long time.

Exactly what I was looking for! Awesome response. So they are similar to the Intel Xeon sort of idea? That is basically what I expected but a detailed explanation was much needed. I am actually going to order one with a mobo combo from TigerDirect next friday when I get paid. Thanks again for the above and beyond response! I will be installing OCZ Platinum PC4000 Dual Channel memory so that should be a screaming combo. Thanks!

I will be using PCI-E slot, and i think the 3800 is tops on my list right now. Can anyone fill me in on some info on Opteron processors? I know very very little about them!

Thanks! I really want to get this system up and running.

I know which your talkin about, its plugged in solidly also! I plan on getting a cheap 40-80GB harddrive tommorow to backup my music and school files, then im going to do a clean reinstall of windows and give that a shot.

Sorry i made that confusing MJwebb. I cant see anything on my new mobo but I was talking about putting my old one back in and changing settings that might effect the results of putting my new one back in. And yes, I triple checked all connections, unplugged and replugged everything to make sure that wasnt the problem. It might just be a messed up mobo and I plan on returning it and trying a new one. I also may try buying a new harddrive and trying the slave drive idea.

Tried the PC3200 RAM to no avail. Exact same dead monitor thing. I put my old mobo back in my PC and am going to run with it until I can figure out what is wrong. Anyone know a really good mobo installation guide? Not a new install, I have done many, but an upgrade/replacement guide? I am starting to think I may have not prepared my previous hardware correctly for the switch. I found a few guides but none went into the technical software/hardware/drivers detail that I am looking to find. Anyone with any help will be so much appreciated, this is really starting to get frustrating! Could my problem have something to do with my previous video drivers? Should I reinstall my current onboard drivers and uninstall my video card drivers? And enable the onboard in the bios? I would love to have a great guide to doing this, others are lacking in info. Thanks!

Hey all, I am looking to breath new life into a PC that still has some possibility to be a decent gaming PC. (Rise of Nations, Sims 2, EverQuest 1, Rome: Total War) No very demanding games. I am looking for an AGP 8x card for under 100 bucks. What do you guys think is the best performing card for the money? Even well under 100 bucks is great I am looking at the Geforce 6200 range of cards, even drop down to 5500 or jump to 6600-6800 range. The PC currently has geforce mx4000 so it wont take much to upgrade it. I just want the card with the most bang-for-buck. Only looking at Nvidia cards, sorry ATI fanboys