XP reformat?

[Goodfellow]

Uhm, last time I reformatted I just had to throw in my XP disc , restart, and it brought me to dos screen where I proceeded to go through all the steps.. this time, whether it be my xp pro disc or xp home disc it doesn't recognize it in my drive and it just boots up normally. Do I need to make a floppy boot disc and use that with my xp CD? Or.. should I just go into dos and type c:/format or..

[dSl-DuDe]

you need to go into your BIOS setup and enable your first boot device as the CD-ROM, It's probably set to Floppy or HDD first

[Goodfellow]

been a while since i did that.. what keys do you hit durin startup to get into that?

[Goodfellow]

delete, or F1.. F2.. ill give those a try

[thebobman]

depends on your computer

when you first boot up keep tapping esc if there's just a graphic on the screen then usually it'll say which key to hit somewhere on the screen as it counts up the ram. once you're in BIOS look for one of the following:

Advanced Bios Features
-> First Boot Device (Should be CDROM or OPTICAL DRIVE)
-> Boot Order (should be CDROM, A, C or CDROM, C, A)

Boot Menu
-> Reorganize so your CDROM is first (It might be called by the manufactures name)

[clevich]

delete, f8, f5 .... really depends on your bios. it should say "Hit Button to Enter Setup"

[Goodfellow]

Yeah I figured it all out...... CEPT now my desktop is messed up? It is stuck in 16 bit color mode and I can't change the resolutioin.. ?? As well as it not recognizing my new hardware. Last time I installed my d-link wireless router, I just installed the drivers, shut off, plugged it in, started up, blinked 'new hardware found' .. and I went on my merry way. Now it won't recognize my hardware, even if I go the 'add hardware' route and try to search for it.

HELP!

[stringbeans]

color/resolution problem is because you havent installed drivers for your video card

and for your router, i dont think routers need drivers installed

[esoter1c]

Rtfm !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thebobman]

1. have you tried to change the color depth?
(it might kick you down to 640x480x16 first)

2. If you have internet run windows update, they're starting to get good about hardware drivers on there, just not the latest

3. you need to reinstall the wireless drivers, when you do a reinstall/repair install windows sometimes blows alway the drivers cache, there should be a CD that came with your wireless hardware, or get it off the manufacture's website

[Goodfellow]

yeah yeah I feel like a noob cause I haven't done this kinda shit on my comp for ages. i realized i just needed to throw in my drivers CD and everything is ok now..... cept for the fact that i'm still gettin a question mark when it comes to my USB.. you know in the device manager when you look at the usb.. if there's a yellow question mark it means it's not working. it's not recognizing my d-link router, even after installing / uninstallin / reinstalling my d-link driver CD like 5 times rggggggg

[Goodfellow]

i google'd n' downloaded a USB update/driver for XP and brought it over to my other comp , installed, still won't recognize anything on my usb. bahhhhhhhh

[Goodfellow]

je n'aime pas les ordinateurs, ouain.

[Gusto]

go to the manufacturers website and download the usb drivers there.