i think my RAM is ok coz my old motherboard can install XP.. how can i update if i cant even instal OS?

how can you update what?

how can i update my motherboard? if i cant instal OS?

um, you dont need an OS to update the bios. you typically put the bios onto a floppy disk and boot off of that.

ok.. my bios now is 1012 is that ok?

Yes that is the latest bios.

Try the two Western Digital utilities I mentioned in my earlier post. They also work from a floppy and don’t need an OS. If the hard drive has been in another computer writing 0’s to the whole drive will sometimes help.

actually thats not a bad idea, when you format the hdd on install, what option are you picking, full or quick? try full.

i have a problem there... when booting the winXP in the start.. it goes in a DOS mode type.. i dont know whats the problem of it.. it is just my PC.. coz its not DOS mode in other PC.. how can i set this?

Are you talking about the blinking cursor? That would be normal on slower computers.

Do a BIOS reset to defaults by the way...

ya what do you mean by DOS mode? what exactly is on the screen?

mostly when installling it says press any key to boot, ryt?

mine is diff.. it just load booting from ATIPI CD-ROM

1.44 Floppy Disk

Caldera DR-DOS

then it goes in a dos mode...

[DR-DOS]A:/

Take the floppy out of the A: drive.

i have no floppy drive.. what why im wondering how did it get in... anyone here experience the caldera DOS?

i am horribly confused.

is this happening without a disk in the cd drive?

check your boot priorities to make sure to boot off of the cd drive first.

a P3 will run XP just fine but i would not try vista or 7 for sure.

now what do you mean lag when installing?

who cares how long the install goes, did it finish installing and does it work?

You can run Windows 7 on a Pentium III 500MHz and 512MB of RAM just fine as it's been demonstrated here and all over the internet.

if it freezes during copying files then i cant see it being a compatibility issue, since it's not actually trying to install something at that time, such as drivers.

i find it very odd the 98 will install though.

go into the bios and let us know what your temps for the system are.

also, run memtest, as puntomx said, there may be an issue with the ram.

I suppose proper instructions require too much work. And he's already stated that his RAM was fine and that's he's tried it in another PC and does not have any issues with it there either.

@dmjalz : To verify your processor's temperature, hit the DELETE key while your PC is booting (the first black screen). Once you arrive in the BIOS menu, hit the right arrow key to select the POWER menu, then the down arrow key to select the HARDWARE MONITOR option. Hit enter and you will see after a moment the temperature for your CPU.

how can you update what?

His motherboard.

um, you dont need an OS to update the bios. you typically put the bios onto a floppy disk and boot off of that.

His question is perfectly valid. Modern motherboards have BIOS files that exceed the capacity of floppies. Not to mention the OP is obviously not familiar with the procedure.

actually thats not a bad idea, when you format the hdd on install, what option are you picking, full or quick? try full.

That doesn't address the problem.

ya what do you mean by DOS mode? what exactly is on the screen?

Disk Operating System. Specifically, Caldera DR-DOS. You should take the time to read his posts before you reply.

i am horribly confused.

is this happening without a disk in the cd drive?

check your boot priorities to make sure to boot off of the cd drive first.

Confused because you don't know what you're talking about and that's the point where you should duck out of the conversation.

@dmjalz: From the information you've provided so far, it appears to me that you're having problems with your hard drive. As the TUSL2-C is a very old motherboard, I find it likely that your hard drive may be equally as old, and as such, it's quite possible that the drive spindle motor is fatigued. So sometimes it will spin, sometimes it won't (the no boot device available message you receive) and other times it will start spinning while you install Windows and slowly die off as you're installing (hence, the lag) until it stops spinning completely (hence the freeze).

Do you have another hard drive available that you could use with this PC? If not, it may be a good investment for you to purchase a new hard drive. As your motherboard supports UDMA/100, you should have no problem installing a brand new 80GB IDE hard drive from a reputable brand such as Western Digital to replace your older hard drive.