software problem?

[sallyharry]

I have just built my own pc i'v installed windows xp pro now i'm tyring to install cd which came with motherboard but to no avail. someone has told me i need windows xp service pack 2 oem. Help! Also should I be using home edition or pro?

[vehelpfulguy]

One question: Has Windows XP installed OK and is it working?

Three answers:

It is hard to say why your motherboard CD is not working as you give us no idea what is going wrong. Assuming your PC can read the CD OK, what happens then ?

It is a good idea to put windows XP SP2 on, as it adds lots of important security fixes. But it is a very large file which you will probably have to download from the web (unless you know someone with the CD)

Also you can only download Windows updates once you have SP2 on your machine.

You can use Home or Pro edition, it is up to you. Home is supposed to be for home users (obviously) and Pro for business users, but many people use Pro at home as it has slightly more features (not that many too be honest).

[vehelpfulguy]

I am not sure if you have ever installed a motherboard CD before but it can be rather complex.

A motherboard CD usually consists of a number of drivers, for graphics card, sound card, network card and so on.

Each driver is usually installed by running a small program which then unpacks or unzips the files to your hard disk and then installs the driver.

The documentation that came with your motherboard should give you an indication exactly what drivers you need to install.

Each company packages their motherboard CD slightly differently so I canot give you exact instructions but SOME of them autorun a program when you insert the CD.

This program will then display a window which lists all the drivers. There will then be a button next to each driver saying "install" or similar.

You press the install button and the driver should install.

You may need to reboot between installing each driver.

[vehelpfulguy]

You can check which drivers need install by following these steps in Windows.

Go to Control Panel then choose Performance and Maintenance.

Then select System and the System Properties window displays.

On this window select the Hardware tab then press the Device Manager button.

The Device Manager windows shows all the devices Windows knows about and has drivers for.

If Windows does not recognize a device, or has no driver for it, it puts a yellow question mark against it.

Some devices it may name propertly, others it may just put "unknown device".

As you install the drivers the question marks should go one by one until you are left with none, or maybe one or two for devices you are not using, like a RAID controller.

Once all the question marks are gone Windows has drivers for all your devices.

[ACtheTROLL]

You must have another PC .... so ....

download sp2
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.asp x?********=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5 A&displaylang=en

you need it anyway ... so .... might as well

then download Nlite
http://www.nliteos.com/index.html

use it to create a new "slipstreamed" install CD with SP2 already included
(this is quite easy ... just follow the instructions! - it even creates the CD for you)

If you feel like it you can also include all the updates since SP2 (this saves lots of time in the long run)
http://www.ryanvm.net/msfn/updatepack.html

while you are doing all this downloading ......
look at the quick start guide for your new mobo
(which is it btw?).
does it say anything about needing SP2?

either way .... personally I'd start again and re-install XP from your new shiney XPsp2 cd

then use the mobo CD to complete the job

[ACtheTROLL]

Oh

when you run the mobo cd ... just take all the options ... most will take over the process and build themselves anyway ....

Ignore what windows says ... the manufacturer know best what their mobo needs.

however ... do look on the mobo site and download any updated drivers (new models will often go through a lot of "fixes" in the first few weeks)

[sallyharry]

ACTHETROLL thanx 4 ur help much appreciated tried to download sp2 but would not allow me. I was thinkin v uninstallin xp and installin mobo cd first wat do yer think?