My PC is dead
 

So, while trying to uninstall a Norten Firewall, my computer went haywire and died. I thought it was the harddrive which corrupted itself. I purchased a new harddrive online. 250 gig SATA with a 16mb cache. Well, my computer is kinda old, and new... its a custom. The SATA drive wasn't being recongnized. To return the SATA would cost about 40 bucks, so I decided to hold on to it.

I purchased the same Western Digital ATA drive that I have now. Managed to Reinstall Windows. Upon the first boot, the computer went haywire again. So, I believe my motherboard has just kicked the bucket.

Any second opinions?

to recognize sata drives you have to install scsi drivers that come witht he motherboard i think.

seems like it could be motherboard or power supply :(

How are you posting?

First of all try resetting your BIOS. This can be done in two ways; either use the jumper on the board (which may be hard to find if you no longer have a manual) or remove the motherboard's battery for around 30 seconds and put it back in.

Once this is done you will probably need to go into the bios and set the time and date up and any other custom settings you want. There is a small chance you will also need to re-detect your storage devices (commonly you just hit enter when the devices are set to "[auto detect]".

Once that is done re-install Windows and see what happens.

To use your SATA drive you need to install SATA drivers (when you put the Windows disk in, fairly near the beginning, it asks you to press F8 (or something) if you wish to install any 3rd party SATA or RAID drivers. These drivers should be downloadable on your motherboard manufacturer's website).

I say give up the internet and get a job :)

For me, all I had to do was enable SATA in the motherboard BIOS. I didn't have to install any special drivers.

If you can get the SATA drive working, try installing windows on it and see if the computer still crashes.

Let me know of any error messages you are getting.

tried both. then tried the SATA drive, then tried my old harddrive again...

nothing works. I believe my motherboard is dead.

through the magic of sacraficed puppies. Jeez, what do you think moron? One of my parents computers. I did move back in for the last month I had before the Coast Guard claims my life.

What a brillant idea! who da thought that a retard with a mail order bride and a GED could give such good advice!

ahaha, haaarsh.