Help me with my PC

[Jongamer]

OK I have just received a PC, its a 1.0ghz Pentium 3, and has a built in speaker, and a huge ball-beringfan and Heatsink on the CPU (Possibly overclocked? Because I also have another Pentium 3, but only runs at 500mhz)

Well It has no HDD that come with it, no CD-rom, only a Floppy drive.

I would like to install at least Windows 98 SE, I have tried to install a Quantum Bigfoot Hdd that I had lying around (I already know it works)

but when I plug it into the mobo Via IDE, and I have it plugged in correctly but it just sits there at the Bios screen with the System Memory check screen. But if I unplug it, and Put in a Ms-dos 6 Install floppy into the FLoppy drive, it gets past the Bios screen and goes to an Install Screen, BUT it of course says I have no Hard Disc to install it to, and Asks if I want to install it to a Floppy.

Also when its frozen at the Bios screen, it says to hit Del to enter setup, but I do press del and nothing.

Well, all I want is to get Windows 98SE installed.

Could somebody Help me?

[vskid]

OK I have just received a PC, its a 1.0ghz Pentium 3, and has a built in speaker, and a huge ball-beringfan and Heatsink on the CPU (Possibly overclocked? Because I also have another Pentium 3, but only runs at 500mhz)

It doesn't have to be overclocked, PIII is pretty much just the model, there are several speeds it was available in.
Have you tried the DOS disk and the hard drive, just change the boot order?

[bicostp]

Check the jumpers and cable configuration; That's probably the problem. (The two connectors that are closer together go on the drive end, with the master on the end connector opposite the motherboard, slave in between.)

[Jongamer]

Well the person that gave me the computer, claims the Mothorboard is fried (Which I dought cause if it was fried it wouldnt work at all) he says he would play like 2 games of Solateir (I dont know how to spell it) and it would completly freeze up, and he would have to unplug the computer to get it to turn off.

WEll ATM Im installing Unbuntu onto the HDD with a CD-rom drive I took out of my dell, and to my luck the Bios boots from cds.

Any idea for the problem of it freezing?

[loup]

could be bad memory that the bios isn't catching, it could be some slight damage to the processor, it could be the processor overheating, it could be the north bridge overheating, it could be some minor damage to the north bridge, it could be minor damage to something else on the motherboard so that it doesn't present until whatever component has warmed up sufficiently. it can even be caused by dust or small bits of metal causing shorts.

[Jongamer]

Could a Over Abundent amount of Dust be a problem too?

Because near the CPU and PSU input to the Mobo, there is a like a paste of really nasty dust, Im am Uploading a scan of the Mobo now (I removed the CPU)

[vskid]

Could a Over Abundent amount of Dust be a problem too?

it can even be caused by dust or small bits of metal causing shorts.

Clean the dust off, but don't kill anything with static while you do it.

[Jongamer]

Yep I did, I think the mobo is fine, I just think the CPU was bad.







EDIT:Well I found that the local Electronic Surplus store, has old CPUs, for Sale, and I noticed they had Pentium 3s for like 10 bucks, but before blowing $10bucks, Im gonna make sure its the CPU and not the Motherboard.

And After Upgrading my RAM in my Dell from 512mb, to 640mb with the RAM that I took out of the BAD computer, and Putting 2 HDDs, and a DVD-rom drive and CD-RW burner. I feel Like I might be able to find a better CPU to replace the 500mhz Pentium 3 with something with a little more oomph, at least 100mhz for oomph so I can play N64 Emulators at 60fps, than 30-55fps, depending of the game I am playing (Majora's Mask runs at 30fps)

[Dark Savant0]

You might want to make sure your motherboard can handle a CPU upgrade. Even though it is the same brand (P3) there are limits to the clockspeed a motherboard can handle due to energy constraints, among other things.