When you say that the computer "refuses to boot" do you mean that It will not load Windows or that it will not boot to where you can 
not even get into the BIOS?  (If you can get to the BIOS, then, technically, the computer has "booted.")  Does something come up on 
the monitor?

If you can't get to the BIOS, then you may have serious hardware problems, which will be difficult to track down unless you get a 
beep code.

If you can get to the BIOS, then see if the hard disk is being recognized.  Also, is the DVD recognized?  If  they are not, then you 
need to check to see if their jumpers are set correctly and, perhaps, replace the ribbon cables with different ones.  I use plural 
here because it will be easier to troubleshoot if the hard drive and DVD are on different connectors.  You can get the proper jumper 
settings from the web site of the hard drive's manufacturer.

Have you gone through and made sure that all the BIOS are set correctly?  (Do you know how to do this?)  It is possible that they 
were reset to the default values, which might be inappropriate.  (I had a computer a few years ago that would not run with the 
default BIOS settings!)

If the BIOS are set correctly and the hard drive and DVD are jumpered correctly, then you should be able to get the DVD to load and 
run unless there is a hardware problem somewhere.

Let us know your progress...

Dean Kukral


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Al Welch" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2008 3:23 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] Old Compaq SWV285


Trying to revamp a used computer for a friend with very little money (so
this will be a freebee if I can make it work)

The hard drive went bad.  Have several old HD's and installed one.

The computer refuses to boot even from an XP Home installation disk in the
DVD drive.

Any ideas?

Al Welch  [log in to unmask]

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