Reformatting xp

[sonicring]

Hello everyone have been coming here for awhile now but finnally made an account because i am stumped at the moment.
Situation:

My friend had an old dell about 5 years old wanted me to erase everything on it and reformatt xp no biggie i have done this a few times. I used Drive Erase Pro to erase the hard drive everything went smoothly untill i put windows xp disk in when it goes to post i just get a black screen i can get into the bios and do whatever i need to do there but still getting the black screen when i try to restart and install xp?

If i need to provide more info. i can but for now i was wondering if anyone had any ideas what i shpould try.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Paperdoc]

To install win XP you will have to ensure that, in BIOS Setup, the SATA Port Mode is set to IDE (or PATA) Emulation. XP and its installer do NOT have built-in drivers for SATA or AHCI devices.

Still, the XP Install CD ought to at least get you to a blue screen with white text about looking for a hard drive to install on. You say you can enter BIOS Setup, but it will not complete POST - only freezes on a blank black screen? Do you not get any text? What do you see? If it can't complete POST, there is a hardware problem in the machine and it is never even getting to try to read the optical disk drive containing the XP Install disk.

 

[sonicring]

Setup, but it will not complete POST - only freezes on a blank black screen?

Exactley

I didn't take anything apart so im going clean it out and check connections inside the machine. I'll let you know what i come up with thanks for your help