DHCP !!!HELP!!!

[Robert Bowie]

my computer loads bios then tries to find a mac address using DHCP. It can
not connect, next it shows the xp boot screen and appears to be loading.
Next i get a blue windows screen telling saying restarting setup and it does
this over and over if i let it. Is there an operating system on my computer
and how can i stop it from searching for a mac address. Also if i install xp
is ther a way to save my data?

 

[Newbie Coder]

Robert,

Go into the BIOS & disable the on-board LAN

Saving date: put it into another machine as a slave drive & then copy the data from it
that way. Makes sure the other machine isn't formatted to FAT32 as the NTFS will be
invisible

 

[RalfG]

DHCP, usually from an external source, allocates TCP/IP addresses. MAC
addresses are unique values that are hard-coded into network
adapters/devices. DHCP will only come into play when the operating system is
running, not before. You might have a defective network adapter in the
computer, or if it's a PCI card it may just need re-seating or cleaning of
the contacts.

 

[Robert Bowie]

the computer was hooked up to a server at a company.it runs bios then runs
some preboot software that tries to establish contact with the old server.
it cannot receive a bootfile name and then tries to launch xp and cannot. is
there away to get rid of the preboot software that runs after bios and just
get the computer to run on its own o/s if it is even capable? in other words
no DCHP jusy xp

 

[Robert Bowie]

ok that will answer my problem about saving the data but what about running
the computer again you see the computer was hooked up to a server at a
company.it runs bios then runs
some preboot software that tries to establish contact with the old server.
it cannot receive a bootfile name and then tries to launch xp and cannot. is
there away to get rid of the preboot software that runs after bios and just
get the computer to run on its own o/s if it is even capable? in other words
no DCHP jusy xp

 

[RalfG]

In that case you may be dealing with be a LAN boot scenario. The LAN card or
its boot chip might be defective. You could try removing the card, or in the
PC BIOS you could probably disable the LAN boot option (or just change the
boot device priority) but it could turn out that the OS on the PC is not
bootable on its own.

 

[Robert Bowie]

well ill give it a try
thank you and keep a watch because il probably have more problems