The Specs: (i'm no good at determining specs, so bare with me here)
     AMD Athlon XP
     512MB DDR
     ASUS A7N8X Motherboard... thing. (FSB)
     Xtasy 9600 XT 256MB 8X AGP Graphics CARD
     Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Soundcard
     A big blue case with a transparent view on the side >_>
     Tower112 Heatsink
     Windows XP Pro


The Dealio:
     so i finally got all my new computer parts. this is the first time ive ever put together a PC. i ran into ALOT of little bumps n stuff while putting it all together. for example, my computer would shut itself down after about 5 seconds of me turning it on. i had to turn the Tower SIDEWAYS for it to operate without shutting off. meaning i had to tighten the Heatsink (right?). problem solved. then i needed to figure out why i couldnt see anything on my monitor. i dont know exactly how i solved that problem, but forget it... problem solved. at ONE POINT i Finally got to install Windows XP Pro.
     while installing some software i needed to restart... that was the last time i ever got to see my prescious desktop of my new computer . for i have run into an error message freezing at "Verifying DMI Pool Data......". the websites explaining how to solve this problem are kind of VAGUE... i have never used CMOS before, i am used to DOS. ive gone through that CMOS menu over & over & over & over trying to change settings and see if any of the changes would help, with no prevail. i also unplugged some things to see if that would do something. i was wrong again.
     when i got my parts i figured that i would not need a Floppy drive, so i dont have one. i dont know if thats the problem or not. if it is, let me know. but i suppose my best choice is to try to reformat my HDD. its not like i have anything important on it anyway. i just got it. i want to know how to do this using this weird "CMOS" thing. other websites only tell me how to do so in DOS, which i cant get to. any help is EMENSELY appreciated. and if there's ANYTHING i've forgotten to do or something, please let me know.
     THANKS alot!

The Other Weird Stuff:
     The only LED on the front of my case that ive notice will light up is the battery LED above the reset button. its always red. i guess that's normal? the other one never lights up! i've MESSED with the LED Plugs for hours but i just gave up.
     The little speaker attatched to the bottom of my case had two little cwords.. black and red. well i found the red one broke. probably something i did while shuffling that *censored* motherboard around so much . soes this matter very much?
     I got a Serial ATA HDD by mistake and it diddnt come with an installation disc or anything. the BIOS screen dosent seem to pick it up. will it be picked up in Winsdows XP? or do i have to look for softwarwe ONLINE?
     There are several little plugs and things (it'd be better if i took screenshots) that i werent sure what they were for. i'll get back to you with shots if i could ever find my *censored* Digital Camera!! >_<

and sorry if i got carried away with details... i'm really desperate

thanks guys.nippies?.... right. okay thanks alot *censored* dude....

GREAT. ..

        ok guys i think i got carried away last time. so in a nutshell, i need to know how to reformat the Hard drive of a new PC. i get to that "Verifying DMI Pool Data......." message before i get to type in any dos prompts (or whatever). any way around this? ever? i dont want another coffee table! >_<

thanks...