Custom computer will not load windows install DVD

G4JUSTIN

July 26, 2012 5:47:31 AM

Hi, This is my first post on this forum it seems nice so i figured i would give it a try. A few weeks ago i found a older custom computer on craigslist for $20 the person said it was "Just a case and a system board" it turns out almost all was there it was only missing a sata cable for the HD and needs a new case fan it has all the cool led lights and a nice case! When i first turned it on it went to the BIOS screen displaying what it has i was thinking jackpot so i went out and bought Windows 7 At best buy (I just finished Hi school this past year and need i say more windows 7's $200 price tag almost emptyed my wallet :lol:

) I put the DVD in and it went to loading files got half way and froze i then tryed again and it did the same thing i then tryed a oem Windows Xp cd i had from my old dell (I known i can not use that if it worked but i was just trying to see if windows would run) and it still did not work Here is what i tryed so far: Remove HD and try to boot windows,Put new ram in,Try other DVD drive,Try USB DVD drive,Take the HD with win. xp in my old dell and put it in this computer. None of this worked i checked the BIOS setings and all looked good as well. I then downloaded Ubuntu linux and burned it to a cd and it booted and then i installed it to the HD and it runs just fine i played with it for hours! yet i can not get windows to install i don't rely know how to use linux and i want to run windows as this was going to be my only pc (Only have Mac's but i miss my pc). If Ubuntu installed i am thinking the Hard were is good. If any of you can help that would be great

The computer specs are:

Motherboard: P4M80M4
Ram: 1GB Of PC2700
Video card: Integrated video card
CPU: 3GHz Pentium 4 Hyperthread
PSU: 350 Watt Something?

If pics or a video of what it is doing would help just let me know

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nekulturny

Homebuilt system Master

July 26, 2012 6:17:58 AM

OOH OOH *raises hand and dances at desk* I know the problem teacher pick me pick me pick me!!!!

Windows 7 system requirements

If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it takes:

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

-----

Specifically I bet that integrated graphics doesn't have DirectX 9, Thats an old Pentium 4 mobo. XP should work on it, it may not be installing because its an OEM copy specifically for Dell, also XP is not very tolerant of a system transplant (putting the Dell Hard Drive in it)

At least, thats my guess as to what the problem is. I will say that even if you could get Windows7 to work on it, it would probably lag like a bag of.. butt.

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navalweaponsofficer

July 26, 2012 7:36:27 AM

Windows 7 should run without a DX9 card you will just not have aero. If you have not already tried this load the bios defaults then set the video memory to maximum probably 32-64MB. Now the piece of this that I do not know is whether or not your 1GB of ram will count. I say that because a portion of that ram will be allocated to video dropping you below the 1GB min requirement. With regard to the dell disk you tried to use those disks usually do not work on systems that are not made by them. I think it checks the BIOS or something I have never been able to get one to work but I have only tried a couple of times. So I would not count that as a failure. See if you can find more ram and give it a shot. If you have an extra video card lying around or access to one (most likely APG) you could put that in and it would disable the onboard graphics giving you full use of the 1GB ram thus meeting the min requirement. Or you can try to use an actual XP disk. I think those are really all of the options you have trying to install Win 7 on that comp.

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G4JUSTIN

July 30, 2012 6:08:04 PM

nekulturny said:

OOH OOH *raises hand and dances at desk* I know the problem teacher pick me pick me pick me!!!!

Windows 7 system requirements

If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it takes:

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

-----

Specifically I bet that integrated graphics doesn't have DirectX 9, Thats an old Pentium 4 mobo. XP should work on it, it may not be installing because its an OEM copy specifically for Dell, also XP is not very tolerant of a system transplant (putting the Dell Hard Drive in it)

At least, thats my guess as to what the problem is. I will say that even if you could get Windows7 to work on it, it would probably lag like a bag of.. butt.

navalweaponsofficer said:

Windows 7 should run without a DX9 card you will just not have aero. If you have not already tried this load the bios defaults then set the video memory to maximum probably 32-64MB. Now the piece of this that I do not know is whether or not your 1GB of ram will count. I say that because a portion of that ram will be allocated to video dropping you below the 1GB min requirement. With regard to the dell disk you tried to use those disks usually do not work on systems that are not made by them. I think it checks the BIOS or something I have never been able to get one to work but I have only tried a couple of times. So I would not count that as a failure. See if you can find more ram and give it a shot. If you have an extra video card lying around or access to one (most likely APG) you could put that in and it would disable the onboard graphics giving you full use of the 1GB ram thus meeting the min requirement. Or you can try to use an actual XP disk. I think those are really all of the options you have trying to install Win 7 on that comp.

Thanks every one for your help. navalweapons is right i had a friend install windows 7 on my old dell dimension 2400 when it first came out and it only had the crappy Intel 845GV video card chip set and it worked fine with out areo i later went back to windows xp because i did not think my friend put a genuine copy of 7 on it and i did not want to be useing a trash version then the HD went so that computer is now just spare parts. When i installed linux it did come up with a hardware error but installed any way so i took the easy way out and just bought a new motherboard i got the same model as the old one because i really don't want to put any more money in it, it even comes with the cpu so i hopefully can get it working im just waiting for it to come in. Heres the link to it http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trks...

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