New PC help.

[Jusatsushi]

I bought a new Dell PC for my brother and I assumed it would be ready to go out of the box. Unfortunately it just boots to a big old Dell logo and some smallprint that lists the Bios.

I've tried running the XP disc, using different keyboards/mice and pressing all the buttons randomly and even kicking the cat... all to no avail!

I'm useless with PC's so any advice on how to actually get it working would be huuuugely appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

[marcus]

Dont kick the cat, despite popular belief it doesnt fix that many pc problems. Best thing is to advise us what happens when you boot, is the OS preinstalled? if not, tell us what happens when you boot off the XP disc - you might need to alter the bios to boot first off the CD drive, but Im surprised you are having any of these problems if the PC is new and preinstalled?

[Jusatsushi]

I didn't really kick the cat... honest!

I don't think the OS is installed to be honest. When i turn it on it shows a big old Dell logo. I've tried everything to get it to recognise the XP disk but it just sits there on the same screen...

I'd have no idea how to alter the bios to recognise the disk, though I'm guessing that may be the problem.

[wod]

does it bring up any errors ? is there any recovery disc that came with the pc that you can use ?

[marcus]

Its not always the same, but try tapping F2 or Delete whilst the PC boots to access the bios. There will be a boot section where you can raise the boot sequence of the CDRom, make it the first boot device and save and quit, then see if it boots off the CD. Is the XP cd an original (doesnt matter if its not, I never bought an XP tbh) or not, if its not it may not be bootable at all.

[Jusatsushi]

It's a brand spanking new version of XP.

I think the issue is that nothing is installed. The DVD drive, the USB hubs...

I can't get into the bios because the system won't recognise my keyboard, and it won't install anything because the drive doesn't boot the disc...

I'm downloading a file with drivers etc... from Dell, but I can't see this fixing the issue as when I burn em onto CD, the new PC won't recognise it!

*sigh* I new it was too cheap to be this easy!

[wod]

have you got just a standard ps2 keyboard and mouse and try that and press delete or f2 and even escape on some bios

then load the default bios settings and under advanced config i think its called as there all different and set the first boot device to cdrom

then try and run setup from the xp disc

is the xp disc a full copy of xp as sometimes its a disc that re sets the dell image they will have installed on the hard drive of that pc

[Jusatsushi]

Thanks for the replies guys!

Wierd thing is I can't even find ps2 ports on this thing, just loads and loads of USB's... I tried pressing delete/f2 on boot but nada?

I can't get support either as it's a factory second (my brother bought it!)

[edit]: Fixed... took it apart, reassembled, booted it with nothing plugged in, then plugged it all in one by one and it bleedin' worked! F.E.A.R. time!