Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Gotta Love Computers!


As I said previously, I am rebuilding my desktop computer. The parts all came in and I put it together yesterday, but it didn't work. It's been driving me crazy! It's an AMI bios and when booting up it beeps 3 times, indicating a memory problem. I swapped the ram modules, reseated everything, tried changing bios settings related to memory - nothing would work. I searched the internet for the problem and the problem is out there, but the solution seems only to be either bad memory or a bad motherboard. Not a lot of help. I started considering returning the motherboard for another - the memory is good - but I really didn't want to do that.

If you go to NewEgg.com or a similar site you see all the user reviews and some say the part didn't work, it's a piece of crap, etc. Many times it is because the person really doesn't understand what they are doing. I really didn't want to return this motherboard because of a stupid problem I could have fixed. But what was the problem?

As it turns out the bios gives some error codes in the lower right of the screen while booting. They go fast and are hard to catch but I wrote them down and googled them. Bingo! Here the solution right here - at least for me it was. Thank you qldit.

It is possible that you are using a USB keyboard which will not be operative at that point. If this is the case try a PS-2 keyboard


What does that have to do with memory? I don't know! But I used a PS-2 keyboard and it worked. Sometimes the simplest solution is what works.

Next problem. Windows XP SP1 won't install, it has to be SP2. No problem, you can slipstream SP2 into SP1 and burn a bootable disc. I did that. It asks for the original Windows XP Professional disc - OK, then it asks for the Windows Professional SP2 disc - OK, I have an SP2 disc, but it's not specifically for XP Professional. It says it's good for Home, Professional, etc. I put it in but it will not except it. It's not what it wants, apparently. I could try some things and burn another cd but I ordered Windows Vista and will be receiving it tomorrow so I will not bother.

Let's see how it goes tomorrow.

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