I bought an old PC (Pentium D, 1 Gig Ram) at a garage sale, and was hoping to bring it back to life.
I put in the Windows DVD, and all was well. It took a while, installed, asked for a new user name / computer name etc.
After that install though, it will never get to the actual OS.
It seems to alternated between one screen that has 'HP invent / Pentium D logo.. In the bottom left there is a number 09.. in the bottom right has the options like <Esc = Boot Menu> <F1 = Setup> <F10 = System Recovery> etc etc,
It's on this screen for about 2 seconds, then switches to a black screen for about 5 or 6 seconds.
I tried reinserting the DVD and reinstalling, but it's doing the same thing everytime.
I tried entering the boot menu and making sure the hard drive was selected.. Same deal.
Does anyone have any tips or things to try?
If I can get this beast running I'll be very happy!
p.s. I was able to boot into a Linux live CD with no problems.. After much searching my hunch is hard drive problems. The only thing that strikes me is odd is that the Windows install seemed to go off without a hitch.
Running a SMART Extended self-test to check drive integrity now.
Super awesome. Faulty ram huh, that is a odd one to deal with normally to computer would not even turn on with bad ram. Good deal, I am glad you found the problem and got your beast working
Thanks for the kind words Shayne!
the strange thing is, when I played with different combinations of ram (like both in parallel slots rather than staggered) it would work...
Just added another 2 sticks of 512 from another old PC, and here we go!! A MASSIVE 2 gigs lol