Windows XP Install Problem

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Hi AJ,

Was going to say I had similar recently, until you ruled out the CD.

Have you tried removing any non-essential hardware from inside the machine, then installing ? I know that XP's hardware detection can be ropey. Mine consistently refused to find the correct modem , which w2k picks up first time every time. After a week, I finally forced XP to accept a driver that only just works, and no more

Also, format the drive from a Win98 disk, as opposed to the format that XP does from the CD. I have seen that making a diference too.

HTH

 

Let's go back a step. You said the machine originally had XP on it. What happened to change that? Did you remove it and replace it with another OS? Maybe knowing a little history might help discover the problem. Also, is this happening for both upgrade and clean installs? Have you tried to wipe the drive completely (by using killdisk or some other utility) and doing a completely clean install?

 

Can you be absolutely sure that the CD(s) and CD-ROM drive are not at fault, AJ ? I mean, if the second CD was a backup copy of the original, then the problem could have been carried over :?:

Sorry, but "stating the bleeding obvious" is my middle name Makes my CV kinda messy though :roll:

 

Just checking, AJ

 

OK AJ, I have also had this problem but from OEM disks and copies of the same. Are the disks originals, copies, with sp1, oem, oem sp1 etc? Have you a copy of XP and then added sp1 to the disk?

As stated above I had the same problem but with a HP/Compaq oem disk trying to load it on an old Compaq Deskpro. Stops at the GUI with the same cannot find the xxx files. Different every time.

Win 2K pro and server loaded fine as did xp home and linux so I know the computer is fine. I think it might be the disks.

 

Not done much with XP but some thoughts. I know you may have tried these already as you seem to have covered most of the bases I would have looked at and I'm not trying to teach you to suck eggs....

It does sound to me like the CD's..... Pledge polish can "rescue" a scratched CD.

I've known memory to work with one OS and not with another. Even though it worked before. I'm assuming XP came pre-installed so may not have been built on that laptop and or the memory may have become flaky since.
If you've only got the one in the laptop try putting it in the other slot, it maybe the slot, or even dirt.

This probably won't help - but how many times have you rebooted the system. I've had a w2k laptop that needed to be cold booted 4 or 5 times to build the OS, ran fine afterwards.

Have you tried a BIOS update? It maybe something there that XP doesn't like and "may" have been resolved.

Assuming the CD's are original and all that, are you booting off of a diskette first, do a viri check (I've been caught out before with this one - OT a collegue didn't ask and borrowed some disk which he took home....... nuff said :roll.

HTH

 

If it's not the CDs and it's not the HDD and its not the BIOS and it's not a PC card, maybe it's something basic like a motherboard gone bad. Awhile back, I had a problem with my Dell laptop. I was getting all kinds of memory errors, lock ups and reboots. I called Dell support and after having them run me through a ringer, we decided it was the motherboard. I shipped it back to them and they swapped it out and upgraded the BIOS. Up to that point, I couldn't use the OEM disk to do an OS system repair, it would give me all kinds of errors.

It still came back with issues (I didn't ship my HDD with the laptop so it was my fault) but at least I could reload the OS this time. Maybe a chipset or circuitry error occurred.

 

Hi AJ

Have you tried swapping out the memory ? Have you got more than one stick of RAM in there and do they match if you do ?

 

Good call, Phil. I'd let that one slip my mind and it shouldn't have since I tried that out when my laptop went "fubar".

 

Just a thought - if it was bad RAM, that would be affecting any OS AJ is trying to load, wouldn't it (theoretically) ? But if he can load w2k no probs, but not XP, it does tend to point back to what's been said above about disks.

Sorry - just thinking aloud again. I must stop that :roll:

 

Oh duh.

 

I know what you mean Gav and that would be logical but I've seen some memory problems do really weird things, its worth checking.