Long story short... My dad brought me an old computer (hp xe783, Intel Celeron, Windows Millennium Edition) to work on (remove viruses, old programs, and whatnot) for my younger sisters to use. I switched from the OEM pc100 64GB RAM stick to two pc133 256GB RAM sticks. After a THOROUGH INTERNAL cleaning of the case and hardware, I started it up and began the virus scans. I think I ran the Avast! Scan three times (once initially, once after removing several old programs and other junk, and once again after some more fine tuning). I even ran defrag a time or two. After all of this was said and done, I tested several Windows programs, control panel, and Internet Explorer... everything worked. It was actually a hell of a lot faster than the first time I booted it up. Here's my problem: after all of this, I shut it down completely, unplugged all peripherals and power cords, and cleaned it (keyboard, cords, monitor). When I rebooted, it shows the HP splash screen and then goes to a black screen for a second, and says "no operating system found". What's that all about? I didn't disconnect anything inside the case. I waited several hours for it to dry after cleaning it. What do I do now? If I need to reinstall the OS, could someone give me a link to show me the process? Thanks.

What do you mean "waited for it to dry?" What exactly did you do?

Given the choice, you want to install XP, not ME. Get your hands on an installation disk and license key and let us know when you're ready.

I took a dry cloth and endust for electronics and cleaned the keyboard (under the keys and everything) and the monitor case. Then I waited a few hours " to let everything dry off" (and to eat) before reconnecting. Standard procedure, right?

Nothing in the CPU? Yeah, no issues here.

My response #3 is still my advice.

OK. I've given up on ME. I've got an XP disc and product key... what next? I'm assuming I need to format the drive, but how do I do that without windows?

No need. Just put the disc in and boot the machine. It should boot into the installation window. When the options appear, choose the ones that wipe the whole system, don't preserve anything.

Try it. Let us know if you get stuck.

OK... I did that before. Apparently I just didn't wait long enough. It started the installation and gave me a message that said, "no hard disk installed." I'll try it with a different drive installed.

Um... that's a serious message. The system is having trouble finding the hard drive itself.

Can you boot into the BIOS? Usually tapping F2 or DELETE as you turn on the computer accesses the built-in BIOS.

Once in the BIOS, look through there and see if you find a HARD DRIVE listed. If not, you may need to turn off the computer, open it, and manually reseat the connections to the hard drive to make sure they are clean.

If STILL no HD, your drive may have gone toasty. Sorry.

Fortunately they're not that expensive and not that hard to put in. If you buy a new one, it will come with awesome instructions and a formatting disk... I've used the tools that come with Western Digital drives and Maxtor drives... they're both top notch and amateur-friendly.

Keep us updated.

Truthfully if the HD is toast then it might not be worth the investment of a new HD. Another thing to consider is if you moved the case around a lot you might just try unplugging and replugging the cards and cable in the computer. That way your sure the connection is good before you give up on it.

Im just going to throw this in
Are you sure you put the hard drive back in exactly the wasy it was before, You have to make sure you used the "master" cable and not the slave one THAT will make a difference just switch to the other HDD and reboot to make sure