XP Repair-Install process is failing and looping

[Guest wsxedcrfv]

I'm changing the motherboard on a system with XP-pro SP2. The original system was based on a Celeron-D CPU (socket 478) 3.2 ghz, Intel 845PE chipset, 1 gb ram. The new system is Intel E5500 (Wolfdale) dual-core 2.8 ghz LGA775, Via PT-880 chipset with 2gb ram.

After attaching the drive to the new board, I'm booting from an XP-SP3 cd and selecting a repair-install.

The first stage of the install copies a lot of files over to the drive. The second stage starts a GUI and continues to perform a bunch of operations while putting up some friendly messages every minute or so, telling me how wonderful XP is.

A timer on the screen says that setup should have 39 minutes to go. At the 37-minute mark, a small green progress bar is put on the screen in the left-hand margin indicating the progress of device installation. The count-down timer gets to about 34 minutes and the progress bar gets to the 2/3 finished point and the computer abruptly resets itself. The drive is booted and this whole process starts again with the GUI and the friendly messages and the timer at 39 minutes.

I was reading somewhere where you had to delete a file if the old motherboard was based on an Intel CPU and the new motherboard was AMD (or vice-versa) for this repair-install to work.

Basically, what is known about this repair install and what causes these spontaneous re-boots?

Is there too much of a difference between the old and new CPU? (1-core vs 2?)

Is there too much of a difference between the old chipset and the new one?

Is the problem here that the drive has XP-SP2 and the CD I'm using to perform the repair-install is SP3?

Because the drive is actually a clone of the original, I can restore the clone and start this process over again. But before I do, is there anything I can or should do with the drive while it's running on the old motherboard to better prepare it for a repair install?

[jaclaz]

Rule of thumb has always been to use the SAME SP level when doing a Repair Install (BTW if I recall correctly you could NOT repair an install with a "lower than installed" SP CD).

Review this:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

You can try setting intelppm driver (and a few more ones) to start 3, only seemingly unrelated:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=22473&st=23

The "old" method was, with the XP install running on the "old" motherboard, go to device manager and delete EVERYTHING but:

• video
  
• keyboard
  
• mouse
  

and shut down the system, then move the hard disk to the new motherboard, and WITHOUT letting it boot, start from CD the Repair install.

jaclaz

[allen2]

You could use the very good Driverinjection to easily change the storage controller driver and boot the drive on the new motherboard.

And repair install should be done with the level of SP (and sometimes patchs).

Edited March 5, 2011 by allen2

[Guest wsxedcrfv]

Well, here's what I did so far: With the original drive installed in the original computer, I updated XP to SP3 and I let Automatic Updates install a whack of updates, including IE6 to IE8. After all of that was done, I deactivated Automatic Updates and I cloned the drive (to another drive of the exact same size, make and model). I then installed the clone drive into the new computer, and I started the new computer and made sure that I booted off the XP-sp3 CD.

I selected repair install - but it did exactly the same thing. The count-down timer gets to 34 minutes, the "Installing devices" progress bar gets about 2/3 of the way to completion, and the system just resets itself and boots back up and starts the GUI installation phase all over again.

> Review this:

> http://michaelsteven...pairinstall.htm

Doesn't seem to mention anything about a looping Repair Install.

> You can try setting intelppm driver (and a few more ones) to start 3, only seemingly unrelated:

> http://www.911cd.net...pic=22473&st=23

Should I just delete that file (intelppm)?

I've seen that file mentioned when someone is moving a drive from an Intel-based motherboard to an AMD-based board (or was it vice-versa?) but I'm not doing that. But I am moving the drive from a board with a 1-core CPU to a 2-core CPU - can that cause this looping problem?

> The "old" method was, with the XP install running on the "old" motherboard, go to device

> manager and delete EVERYTHING but:

>

> * video

> * keyboard

> * mouse

>

> and shut down the system, then move the hard disk to the new motherboard, and WITHOUT

> letting it boot, start from CD the Repair install.

It looks like I'm going to have to do something like that, unless someone has more specific instructions (like deleting specific files on the drive - perhaps while the drive is temporarily slaved to another computer). ?

[submix8c]

But I am moving the drive from a board with a 1-core CPU to a 2-core CPU - can that cause this looping problem?

> The "old" method was, with the XP install running on the "old" motherboard, go to device

> manager and delete EVERYTHING but:

>

> * video

> * keyboard

> * mouse

>

> and shut down the system, then move the hard disk to the new motherboard, and WITHOUT

> letting it boot, start from CD the Repair install.

It looks like I'm going to have to do something like that, unless someone has more specific instructions (like deleting specific files on the drive - perhaps while the drive is temporarily slaved to another computer). ?

First, may I point out that you also have to "Show Hidden Devices" to rid yourself of all hardware.

Second, yes, you now need a different HAL... have you tried (also) before the Repair Install pressing F5 and forcing MultiProcessor?

Third, (generally, mind you) speaking, switching between MoBo's is ok as long as the chipset drivers are the same.

Fourth, you may also want to disable Hibernate as well as SysRestore.

Have you read the thread concerning moving a 9x (and XP) OS to a new HDD? Same/similar applies.

edit (and read jaclaz' post below) - You stated in the very first post that you're moving from an Intel-chip-based Mobo to a Via-chip-based Mobo. You must remove all devices (see above/jaclaz) and do the "over-the-top"/"repair/reinstall" with minimum same SP (higher is ok). Been through this same scenario with Bro's "move HDD to new Mobo". I'll spend some time loading/moving-HDD-between Intel->Via if you wish me to prove this. Trust me, the Registry (as jaclaz points out below) stores info inside that will cause probs when "moving/cloning". Also pointing out that if the MBR is not cloned as well you will have problems (4, AFAICR, bytes stored in the Registry in Devices area).

Edited March 7, 2011 by submix8c

[jaclaz]

Should I just delete that file (intelppm)?

NO.

Look, it works this way, in the Registry *something* says to start the intelppm driver (and - as said - the other ones mentioned) automatically.

If you delete the file the *something* will try to start it nonetheless.

You need to disable the *something*, i.e. set it so that it only starts "on demand":

You can check if the "old" motherboard install the HAL uses a "normal" ACPI Uniprocessor HAL that will also support a multi-processor motherboard (Halaacpi.dll)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309283/en-us

Another option is offline sysprep:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showforum=43

jaclaz

[Guest wsxedcrfv]

What I did today is go into device manager and start removing / uninstalling hardware. Each item normally wants me to re-boot after removing, but I tell it not to restart. Instead I go to the next device and remove it. At some point during all this, XP became unhappy and decided to crash and restart. I didn't let it restart - I turned off the machine before it could re-boot and that's when I moved the drive over to the new PC and started the Repair-Install process.

But the same thing happened. This time, the count-down clock gets to 35 minutes (not 34 minutes) and the "Installing Devices" progress bar doesn't quite get as far as before, when the computer reboots itself.

So - am I doing something wrong here?

[allen2]

You might just need to stop trying to repair and just try an offline sysprep or driverinjection as suggested by jaclaz and myself and if it stil doesn't boot without crashing try safe mode.

If safe mode works then a third party driver or service is the root cause of the problem and here you'll need to disable the suspicious ones one by one.

If safe mode doesn't work then you'll need to disable autoreboot after crash debug and post the crash debug information (it should most likely be a crash debug with 7B or 7F which are usualy storage drivers related).