Help Please "error Loading Os"

Hello. I desperately need help. I purchased 2 Dell Desktops at an auction. Below is a description:

DELL OPTIPLEX GX240 PENTIUM 4 1.6GHZ PC (20 GB HARD DRIVE W/CD-ROM, CD-RW AND FLOPPY DRIVES) WITH DELL E171FP 17" FLAT PANEL LCD MONITOR PLUS KEYBOARD, SPEAKERS, MOUSE, 2 POWER CORDS AND A CAT5 CABLE. NO MODEM, MAY HAVE A NETWORK CARD. CPU ONLY, NO ACCESSORIES. CPU WORKS - NO SOFTWARE INCLUDED, ALL DRIVES AND SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN DELETED.

ALTHOUGH COMPUTERS WORKS, THEY ARE SOLD "AS IS WHERE IS", NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.

I then went to Fry’s and purchased Microsoft XP for Home business OS, and MS Suite. When I turn on the computers they both go to the C:/. I placed the XP CD in one PC and I thought it started loading. After 20 minutes of nothing-I thought it froze, there was a message “loading partitions”, I removed the CD and restarted the PC. Now I receive an error “error loading operating system”.

When I place the CD in the other PC, I’ll call PC II, nothing happens. I can’t get the PC to recognize that there is a CD in the CD-ROM.

I found this site and read up on the BIOS and thought I might have a translation problem-I don’t know. I paid 150 for each system and although that isn’t a lot of money I don’t want to flush the money. I can’t return the desktops.

Can someone help me?

Thanks!

T

Set the computers bios (setup; firmware)

To cdrom first bootable drive

Insert Windows CD, and boot from that

Install Windows

THANK YOU!!! Sorry to be so basic...do I select F2-setup...How do I change the BIOS...I read last night that one should hit the delete key a couple of times while the PC is loading. I did that. However, I did not see any option to change anything.

T