XP Home - Fresh Install

[ameilius]

ok - dell desktop

memory - checked ok
hard drive - checked ok
cdrom - swapped out 3 different drives - all ok

yanked out all pci devices - agp graphics card is the only thing left in there - seems to be fine ( no onboard )

ran xp setup to run a FRESH install - formatted the drive (full and quick) - both NTFS - it copies files - after automatic restart - it goes through the xp splash screen just fine - gets to a blue desktop colored screen with the white mouse pointer - i see the hour-glass for 3 secs, then automatically reboots and cycles like this until i interrupt it

any ideas please?

 

[ameilius]

nothin? 🙁

 

[hansrijf]

Any partitions on your disk(s)? Don't DELL computers come with some hidden partition where the setup (recovery) files are stored? Maybe this interferes with your setup?

 

[Electronic Punk]

Shouldn't matter, but has worked for me in the past -- just make sure you have the latest Dell bios for your particular machine.

What model is it?