can't install OS

[naijaguy]

Someone gave me an old PII Gateway PC that I'm going to give to a friend of mine who needs a basic computer, and since its hardware probably isn't up to snuff for anything like Win2K or WinXP, I'm trying to figure out how to load Win95 or WinME on there (I have both of my old disks). In the BIOS, I have the first boot device set to CD, but after the first screen it just takes me to a flashing underscore (not even a prompt). They said they formatted it, but I'm not sure they know exactly what they did or would remember if I asked! :blink:

How do I load an OS on this thing??? I have a WinME boot disk, but when I stuck that in there, it complained about a Disk IO Error. Any ideas? Thanks...

[Scarecrow Man]

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

download the required boot disk (I recomend the OEM version, not the ALT) and boot from the floppy. Then go to the CD-ROM drive in dos and type setup.exe

This is the link you will most likely have most sucess with. http://www.biazzi.org/docs/boot98se.exe

[naijaguy]

But I can't get to DOS...I don't get a prompt or anything like that--just a flashing underscore. What's going on?

[Scarecrow Man]

Your computer isn't booting properly. Could be a hardware failure.

If your comfortable enough, open your case and take out all non-essential items, and try booting.

A good test would to be to take out your RAM (test 1 at a time if you have more than one)