After months of unemployed squalor, I finally got a job a few weeks back and was able to replace my toasted hard drive. Brand-new Seagate PATA 320 GB hard drive arrived today; installing it was no problem, BIOS found it right away, and I was pleased.
So I insert the Windows XP CD-ROM and reboot, eager to start setting everything up. Things are going fine, all the proper files seem to be transferring as I watch the blue screen. Then up pops the screen saying that its time to actually Set-Up, and to hit ‘enter’. I do so and wait. And wait. And try hitting it again. And again. I toggle the ‘caps lock’ key, but the light doesn’t turn on with my jabs.
I reboot and try again. And again. And it isn’t the keyboard; I brought it to the computer lab in which I currently sit, and it worked fine. And it works up to the point that it asks me to hit enter. I thought for a second that the computer was just reading the disc, but the little red light isn’t indicating that any activity is going on at all.
Near as I can tell, the computer just keeps freezing everytime I try to install it, and I have no idea why. She’s running about 512 MB RAM right now, which was always enough to run XP before, though not as fast as I would like. The CD-ROM itself is clean and scratch free, so I don’t believe that it’s that. Any ideas what the problem might be (jokes about installing XP at all being the issue aside)?
By ‘fried’, I mean I woke up one morning to a black screen and an odd clicking noise. Relatively sure that it was just that something broke inside, hence the noise. Still not sure what caused it though; my guess is just pushing it too hard with not enough fans or breaks in between time I was using it.
The CD is the full install disc, as far as I can tell.
And I suppose I can pop it out, and see if any friends have a box I can test it on.