OK this is whats happening and where I`m up to:I have formatted a new seagate 160gb hard drive and put windows XP service pack 1 on it.After putting it in my computer (a pentium 3) and starting it I only get a blank screen.I`ve had the bios open once but now I find I can`t get into it again.When I had it open the screen briefly showed something with Soltek red storm on it and I think the bios read d6-00gp-05 13 03.The only thing I can find on the motherboard is a number which is 0010000c063186 SL65-DVB.I have tried holding down various keys while starting the computer but I can`t find what I did before.Is there anyone who can help me.I brought the computer from a christian group who sells them cheaply (mine is a $300 one) so I don`t know anything much about it as yet.
thanks,from Charlie8753.

Moderator Edit: Moved topic to more appropriate forum. ~ Animal

Does the screen turn on? Does the power indicator on the monitor turn green and stay green? If no, try jiggling or tightening the connections between the monitor and the computer.

Amazing Andrew.yes the monitor has power,The num lock,caps lock and scroll lock lights all flash on for about a half a second.All the lights on the computer come on except for the floppy light.The led light(is that the red one?)comes on for about 10 seconds then goes out.

Most likely it's a bad connection. Maybe something got moved/jostled when putting the new hard drive in? Check all connections and devices to make sure that they're fully seated.

Here's a link to what I believe is the manual for your motherboard: http://81.169.156.245/soltek.de/soltek/dow...et370/65dvb.pdf

In it it says to press "Del" to access the BIOS setup screens.

Boot the computer off the XP CD and then run a repair install. The problem is that when you installed XP it was set up for the hardware that was on the computer you used when installing. Now that you have moved the drive to a new computer it doesn't recognise the new hardware. See this link for more information.

To Budapest and USASMA,thank you from the bottom of my new hard drive,both sites are exalent.Thanks again.