So, I got myself a new "little" PC for net stuff. It's a barebones ASUS thing with all the requisite bits, lovely. Problem is, it won't let me install any operating system to it.
I can get it as far as a dos prompt with a Windows 98 boot disk, but any Microsoft OS gets only as far as "performing a system check" and then hangs with a black screen. This happens with 98 from the boot disk, ME and XP from the CD. As you might guess, Linux is (perhaps) a little more useful - it tries its best and then says, "Bad EIP Value" and "Interrupt Handler not Synching" before hanging.
The system was bought with a blank HDD, but at times like this you realise that you haven't got a bloody clue about BIOSes and what have you. I genuinely thought that installing an OS to a blank HDD was as simple as slinging in the CD... clearly not. Is there anything in a BIOS that would cause this kind of problem? And if so, how can I fix it? And if not, does it mean that my hardware is broken somehow?
I've tried disabling all the onboard devices, all the serial and parallel ports, all the USB controllers. None of it makes any difference at all.
Anybody..? The mobo is an A7SC, which is billed as XP-compatible. It's got a 2600+ processor in it (according to the boot screen) and 512MB of DDR. I'd expect the processor and RAM to be compatible, given that I bought it as a package.
Bastard machine
I can get it as far as a dos prompt with a Windows 98 boot disk, but any Microsoft OS gets only as far as "performing a system check" and then hangs with a black screen. This happens with 98 from the boot disk, ME and XP from the CD. As you might guess, Linux is (perhaps) a little more useful - it tries its best and then says, "Bad EIP Value" and "Interrupt Handler not Synching" before hanging.
The system was bought with a blank HDD, but at times like this you realise that you haven't got a bloody clue about BIOSes and what have you. I genuinely thought that installing an OS to a blank HDD was as simple as slinging in the CD... clearly not. Is there anything in a BIOS that would cause this kind of problem? And if so, how can I fix it? And if not, does it mean that my hardware is broken somehow?
I've tried disabling all the onboard devices, all the serial and parallel ports, all the USB controllers. None of it makes any difference at all.
Anybody..? The mobo is an A7SC, which is billed as XP-compatible. It's got a 2600+ processor in it (according to the boot screen) and 512MB of DDR. I'd expect the processor and RAM to be compatible, given that I bought it as a package.
Bastard machine
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