Installed New Motherboard and now computer wont work

[indacut1630]

My father in law gave me a computer of his because he couldn't get it to work.  Apparently he had  been have difficulties with it and had someone install a new power supply and mothereboard.  And now it wont start up.  Someone told me that we no longer have a operating system installed if we got a new motherboard.  I have tried writting the hard drive to zeros before running the XP restore disks. 
   The computer is a T2200 e-machine.  It has an AMD Athlon XP processor, 100 GB harddrive and 512 MB DDR.  The new motherboard is a 741GX-M from ECS EliteGroup.  I NEED HELP and have no idea what 2 do now!!
   I can provide any info you need that I haven't given (at least if you tell me where 2 get it from    )

Any ideas would be greatly appricated!!!

[programming_pat]

how many watts is the power supply and is it sufficent for your computer?

[indacut1630]

where would I find that on the power supply?

[indacut1630]

power Supply

AC Input       115v/230v  10a/6a   60/50 Hz
DC Putput     {+3.3v} {+5v} {+12v} {-12v} {-5v} {-5vsb}

400w   Max Combined Watts   

{28a} {30a} {25a} {1.0a} {0.9a} {2.5a}

400 watts

That's everything on the power supply

[Richenstony]

Thats a normal PSU ......  you have to make sure all is clipped into your board , i personally think something like this is near impossbile to solve over the internet ........ go to a trust worthy shop and they will get it all up and running for you ......

If it doesnt turn on its been plugged in wrong or you havent plugged everything in.... i dont think anythings at fault other than a few out of place wires...

[indacut1630]

i'm sorry I didn't mean it wouldn't turn on.  The power comes on and first it takes like 10 min to dectect the IDE drives and then it runs through some system info and ends up saying

"System Boot Error, Please insert system disk and press enter"

we've done that and ran a XP restore disk through and it said it was done and to restart the computer and when it restarts it does exactly the same thing. Ove and over I can't get it to do anything else

[Richenstony]

Ok theres your answer .... how many times have you actually tried reinstalling x-p ..... do it again ...... and make sure your set to boot from cd  and also make sure you choose the longer format rather than the faster way....... also check in BIOS your new motherboard has been set up to boot from your primary harddrive .... you can do this by pressing f8 or f2 rapidly upon boot ..... you cant just install a new mobo and think everythings going to work its a bit more tricky ....  make sure all settings look ok in BIOS ..... dont change anything your not to familar with .... once done ... reboot....

have a read of this as well > http://www.basichardware.com/howto_install_a_motherboard.html

[indacut1630]

should the restore disc work because someone told me if you change the MB then you need to purchase an full XP disc retail and can't even use the retail upgrade disc

[Richenstony]

sorry change the MB i dont quite understand? what did you change ....

[indacut1630]

The motherboard and the power supply

[Fed]

Borrow a full XP install disk and try it, if it works then go & buy one.