Help Please "error Loading Os"

[ellton]

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

 

[kimsland]

Set the computers bios (setup; firmware)

To cdrom first bootable drive

Insert Windows CD, and boot from that

Install Windows

 

[ellton]

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

 

[ellton]

Hello. Can anyone tell me how to change the BIOS settings?

Thanks!!!!!

T

 

[ellton]

Update....

I just changed the setup on my second PC to reconize the CD first and its working. The OS is loading :0).... Should I do the same on the first PC? The fist PC shows "error loading operating system"...

Thanks!

T

 

[kimsland]

Hi Elton,

I was away !

Noticed that you posted three times in a row (please use "edit" instead in future) but I understand you wanted feedback.

Anyway, each computer has its own unique key, sometimes DEL sometimes F2 sometimes a combination of keys; really the list is big.

Therefore, when your computer starts up (from cold - ie not restart) you should notice a very quick message "Press F2 (as you mentioned this) to enter setup. Just press that key repeatedly, until you get into BIOS.

When you find the right key, and actually get into BIOS, then at last you need to navigate (keyboard keys - like TAB and ALT and the arrows) until you see Boot device priority, or startup sequence, or something like that. Set it to: 1 - CDROM then 2 - Hard Drive 3 - Doesn't matter !
Save settings and Exit.

Then restart with the Windows CD in the drive, and press any key to start Windows setup.

That's it.

 

[ellton]

Thank You!!!!!

:wave: It worked. I have 1 of 2 PC's up and running. I'm now trying to load the OS on the second PC. So far so good...files are being copied......

 

[kimsland]

Let us know how it all goes
Glad at least bios is out of the way