Tripredacus

The first thing you want to do is make sure you can get XP drivers for your hardware. Check the manufacturers website to see if they are available. While you may think they should be available, sometimes they aren't, like some Vista logo'd notebooks.

Sounds like the classic "5A" symptom. 1. Try with just the CD or Hard Drive connected. By connected I mean Data AND Power, don't just unplug one. When unplugging the Data cable, unplug it from the board, not the drive. 2. Replace all data cables if you can't narrow it down to one drive or the other. 3. There might be more than 1 bad drive. 5A is a post code that Intel boards may display. It is when the BIOS is reading the disk controllers, be it SATA or IDE. If it has a problem with any device on that bus, it can stop. 99% of the time, replacing a data cable fixes it. Its usually SATA for me because CD drives aren't that common anymore. Its very rare that replacing a drive fixes that issue but it does happen. I chalk this up to eventual breakdown of the insides of a data cable, expanding to a tolerance above what is recommended, or a failure on a drive's controller circuits. We never figure out exactly which of these it could be, we just defect out the parts!

I am pretty sure that the Pentium 4 (unless newer revisions changed this) requires a 400w PSU. THat's what I had to get for my P4 computer.

There are multiple reasons why this could be. We still have to use the old WinPE for certain applications as well. In my case, we cannot get WINBOM scripting to work in WinPE 2.0. OTOH, I haven't had any problems using any of the newest Intel drivers in the older WinPE, with exception to the RTL8201 virtual NIC garbage but that just plain doesn't work. The simple method of installing drivers shouldn't break your WMI, as it is obvious that other drivers do not. I am imagining that the INF calls for additional components or programs to be installed when loaded. You can check the INF to see if it installs anything extra.

Compare the Hardware ID that Device Manager has for your non-installed device to the ones listed in the INFs for the drivers you are trying to install. If you only have an EXE to install with, you should be able to expand it using WinRaR.

Windows Home Server is actually based on Server 2003, not 2008. On your other computers, When you go to view the available wireless networks, does it only show the router? How does your other computers react to the access point? Can they connect to it wirelessly and have full network access? Have you confirmed that both the router and AP are running on different channels? Have you also made sure the AP is not near any interfering devices?

It might also help to install the drivers for the monitor, if it came with any. That way it won't show up as Plug and Play Monitor, but as the name. It might give you better resolution settings.

I wish I could help more. I actually don't like wireless and I don't even use it.

http://www3.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/cs-006205.htm http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951447

What shows up in the Event Viewer when starting the service fails? Likely under System, but you *might* get an audit failure under Security as well.

Did you make your WinPE with 32 or 64bit? How much memory on the computer?

C:\winpe_x86\mount\Windows\System32\winpe.bmp ^---- thats the path after mounting winpe.wim to c:\winpe_x86\mount.

This was because I started getting into confidential business information the further along I went. It would not have been legal for me to continue posting about it here the more I learned. As far as my requirement, there was two options. There was the message that appeared on the screen, a protection notice. When this notice was on the screen for five seconds, you could press F10 to boot to the recovery partition. There was also a stealth option, where pressing the 'R' key would ALSO boot into the recovery partition. I guessed this because I found function calls to MBRInst in the INIs and code in the recovery builder. The recovery builder is also inside the recovery partition. It has the capability of either running a recovery OR creating/updating the partition. THe second option is triggered IF a License UFD is connected to the system AND the partition has been activated. If the partition is not activated, it would give you a message saying you are not authorized to use the software. Anyways, I wasn't too concerned with spoofing the licenses because we have access to them, and blowing up licenses and partitions is perfectly fine for me! Got off track there. The builder set (the thing I have that you don't) shows me the following process. The software determines what information is to go into the MBR. This is based on the options that you select during the partition creation. It then writes an INI file into the recovery partition. Then it calls MBRINST.EXE to use the INI file to write to the MBR. The file remains on the partition in the event that an update or recreate is performed. I've searched the CDs, the partitions (I have 2 different for testing) using string searches, Ghost Explorer, mounting via imagex and can find no actual application called MBRINST.EXE nor any provided by XSS. When I got to the point where my next step was to create a new recovery creator, but inserting debugging tools, I had stopped. I brought it up in a meeting about where I was at, and since any further work would be reverse-engineering, it was determined that it would violate our agreement with SoftThinks. It is my theory that the MBRInst is either created in memory OR that its functions (the DLL does exist) are built into the software. I've tried to do this. The funny thing is that SoftThinks uses the Windows OPK to create the recovery discs. Concerning the ones I have (XP Pro) they use the WinPE 1.5. The CD boot process is different than the WinPE 2.0, as such I haven't figured it out. Basically these CDs are the same as the Unattend CDs we have for XP, but they do not use the startnet.cmd, the winbom.ini or any other standard unattend files as the XP install does, so I haven't been able to trace the actual process. For example, I can see that when the partition loads, it runs startnet.cmd, but its only command is winpe -factory. I would need to determine what that cmd actually loads. I know that winpe -factory isn't their software, but their software is the first thing that loads up.

You didn't state which version of Windows. You may find better luck in this forum: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=92

It all comes down to hardware IDs. Say you swap out an Intel G31 board for an Asus G31 board, you are likely to pop activation. Even if you have the SLP in there. If so, XP just needs access to the internet to fix, if Vista you might get a stop error. Also be concerned if the boards use different mass storage controllers, or even just revisions.

Check your Event Viewer for any Errors. Post their information when you find them. However, searching for this message leads to many sites talking about viruses, malware, rootkits, etc.

A lot of people have problems with this type of thing. Have you checked the Power Management options of the NIC in Device Manager?

On the computer with no internet connection, go to the command prompt, type 'IPCONFIG' and press enter. It will list your network adapters. They will all have their own headings, example: Ethernet Adapter Local Area Connection Ethernet Adapter Local Area Connection 2 etc One of them may have the word 'wireless' in it. You can look at Network Connections to find the name of the wireless NIC. - If the IP address says 0.0.0.0, then type IPCONFIG -RENEW. If you get an error, post it here. - If the IP address says 169.x.x.x then type IPCONFIG -RELEASE, it will change your IP to 0.0.0.0. Then type ARP -D. Ignore what it says if anything. then restart the computer. When it comes back up, wait your 30 seconds after the desktop loads, and see if it says anything new. You can then do the IPCONFIG from the command prompt again to see what IP it has. If you get an error on any of the commands here (except ARP), post it here. - If the IP address says 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x, then post the IP address here, as well as the subnet mask and default gateway. - If the IP address says anything else, post the IP here as 24.x.x.x, (in otherwords, only type the first number group in and not the rest of the numbers, use x to hide them). Your alternate option is to set a static IP on the wireless NIC via Network Connections. You would need to look at what IP address your other computer has, and pick a different number. You then would need to input the same subnet, default gateway and DNS serverss that the other computer has. Note, that if this is the only way you can get access to your network, there is a problem with either your hardware or operating system!

Oops I brain farted there. I was secretly hoping "please not XP Home". You need Safe Mode to try to check the file permissions. But so basically, your regular user account reboots after getting to the desktop but the Administrator account doesn't? Also you did do a repair install but it did not solve your problem?

Yes, the Administrator account has ownership and permissions for your application. When you run sysprep, you then create a new user. You are using a different account than the Administrator account. Ideally you should install your program after sysprep.

I haven't tried this before, but this would be how I would start. Search the INFs for your Hardware ID. You'll need a third-party search util, or do the search on something that isn't Vista, unless you've figured out how to do string searches! To make it easy, just search for 'VEN_xxxx&DEV_xxxx'. You need the & in there, and the xxxx are whatever values appear in Device Manager under the Details tab.

It doesn't help if you don't post the message it gives you. There are several threads about Vista install DVD size issues. Here is one of them: http://www.msfn.org/board/4GB-ISO-File-Siz...mit-t87993.html

Run an elevated command prompt, then launch services.msc from it. Then try to start the service. Check the Event Viewer, it should have logged an event to say why SLUI Notification Service could not be started. Also, go into the "More Information" of the welcome screen (or right-click Computer and Properties), scroll down to the bottom and verify that it says "Windows is Activated".

There are a couple things you should try. Either put your image on another hard drive, a UFD or a network drive. Verify that ghost is working properly to apply an image from one of those locations. You need to make sure that this isn't a problem with Ghost or not. Are you using the 32 or 64bit PE?

Yes, the reason why my previous threads (here) on this subject seemed to have just stopped was because I took all further research into a private forum. I have also tried multiple programs (3 or 4 different) to capture the MBR and then reapply it, but the results never came out properly. For my case, the recovery partition used the old PE (1.5 for XP) and I was testing on whether we could apply our images with the recovery partition with Imagex instead of Ghost. So I've tried the ones that copy the MBR and ones that let you custom write it. My testing method was as follows: 1. Image a machine using Ghost, which contained the recovery partition. 2. Capture the MBR 3. Use Imagex to capture both the System (NTFS) and Recovery (FAT32) partition. 4. Create custom diskpart script to set the drives up as Ghost makes them. 5. Format the drive and redeploy images using Imagex, and using custom diskpart script. Windows always booted afterwards. I could confirm that the recovery partition was intact, had all the correct files and the correct settings, but the key to enter it never worked. If I manually set the key (using one of the MBR programs) I would get the recovery message "Protected by x" or "Press key to start recovery" but when it tried to boot to that partition, it gave either OS not found type message or a stop error. The program you are referring to, relating to XSS.exe is actually NOT the name of that program. XSS is the company name, the real name of the program is MBRINST.EXE. It is possible to get ahold of this program, but it is largely undocumented. You can find it on HP's site, it is included in a fix for Vista's ability to boot to the internet, HotStart I think but not sure. You're going to have to find this program yourself, I won't help you besides that. Proper use of the program requires switches via the cmdline. It is actually a GUI based app but there are things that are needed to be done via a switch that is not in the GUI. Now, SoftThinks does not actually have this program in the either the CD that creates the partition, or on the partition itself. This program is loaded via memory, either its functions are built into its software, or it builds the app in memory when it needs to write to the MBR. In fact, at the time of the creation of the recovery partition, their software creates a dump file that sits in the recovery partition. I can't remember the name of it exactly, but I think it has 'mbr' in the name. This is the file that the software uses to write to the MBR. So, using the app or libraries built in, the cmdline needs to be something like this: mbrinst /mbr [filename.ext] /UnknownSwitch The reason for this is because MBRINST would return the following: MBRInst. Programmed for SoftThinks (c)2001-2005 Hard drive #0 is "\\.\Physicaldrive0" using "\\.\Physicaldrive0" for MBRInst >installing new master boot record (MBR1STD (one sector, standard MBR, bo *** Master boot record installed successfully. >Updating recovery partition boot record ! WARNING: Recovery partition could not be located *** = it had more text here but its not applicable to this post. So as a conclusion, in order to run this program properly, there must be an INI (there is an INI also called mbrinst.ini) that is created in memory that specifies the recovery partition location OR a cmdline switch is used to point to the correct partition. I stopped at this point because I did not want to rebuild their Creator CD using debugging tools (like ProcMon for example) because even if I were able to get it to work, it would not be legal for us to use it that way.