Strange Prob With Installing Xp

[Mr. Spock]

I got a wierd problem

Let me start with explaining what happend, again i'm trying to help somebody out who listen to his nieghbour and format his computer with a windows 98SE floppy.

While he owns a Windows XP CD ( not so smart but oke)

That same nieghbour said to hime then you can install windows XP back again with that same floppy (totaly not smart)

Of course that didn't work, so that same nieghbour found the boot floppy's of win XP itself, and offert that to him, but he wasn't able to install his windows XP again.

Here is where i'm comming into the picture.

Ofcourse first i treid to install windows XP thru the CD-Rom itself, but no luck it did the basic install from the cd-rom (bleuscreen part) and then when it keeps on hanging on to the point Windows Setup.

No legalisation screen or anything just those few words and noting more into that bleu screen.

Then i treid to format the HDD with partion magic dos but after letting it load it came up with the error that there was a buffer overflow error.

So that didn't work too, now come's the strange part i have made a multiboot CD-Rom with windows 95,98SE,WinMe,Win2K,Win2kServer.

So i thought gonna try to install Win2K on it then, and strangly it formated thru Win2K boot and installed Win2K without any troubles.

Still i would like to be able to install WinXP on it again, where or what is wrong why i can't install windows XP any one have any idea's

P.S even after i have installed Win2K and try to start a install from out win2K it hang's in the same way.

[Cartoonite]

Sounds to me like the CD itself may be damaged or corrupted somehow.

Do you have another copy of the CD that you can try using to install XP? Or possibly try making your own copy of the CD by copying the files and boot image off manually and burning them onto a new CD. I suggest that rather than simply making a 1:1 copy because that would likely just reproduce any errors that exist on the original CD on the new copy.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[Mr. Spock]

I had 2 copy's

the original and a slipstream version, both didn't want to work.

That's what i find so strange about it, i know the slipstream version is perfect.

So i really don't understend why that computer don't want to install windows XP

it's a 2,6 GhZ pentium with 512 MB Mem and a 80G hardisk so it's also not that the computer is to slow or something.

[Cartoonite]

Is the slipstreamed version a home-made slipstream based on the original? Have either of these CDs been used successfully to install XP on other machines?

Certainly sounds as if your hardware should be more than adequate to install Windows XP. Have you tried replacing the harddrive with a spare, if you have one? Have you tried repartitioning, as opposed to just reformatting, the harddrive?

Can't think of anything else to try at the moment, but it's way early and I'm still half asleep. I will post back later if I can think of anything new.

[Mr. Spock]

Both of the CD's have been used succesfull, with no problems at all whille installing.

Also i have repartioniced the HDD and still it didn't want to install

for now it beats me what that problem could be.

Especially cause the basic install (Bootinstall of win2K and win XP) are almost the same as far as i know.

[KAndle]

I would try creating a boot floppy from a similar XP machine and copy format.com, fdisk.exe, sys.com and put them on the floppy. Boot on the other machine and fisk & format from that. Not dos or 2k or anything like that. Create the boot disk on XP.

[wullieb1]

I had a problem with a system where it would hang at the Windows Is Starting Setup within a blue screen on the text portion of the setup. I eventually had to change my motherboard, still not too sure that it was at fault as it would only happen when i removed my 1700XP and installed a 2400XP. I have since used the same processor in a different machine and it worked fine and still is working ok.

[yesfan]

How old is the system? Check the board has the latest bios. If that changes nothing, then try a different dimm for the install. Quite often had this or similar problem installing XP on systems with faulty memory when other O/S seem to run fine.

[00buck]

Sounds like a memory or motherboard problem.

[Mr. Spock]

I can check that out if it's the Dimm or the motherboard.

Still i find it strange though that windows 2000 would install without any trouble.

I will let run Seesoft sandra over it and let's see what come up.

It's around 2 years old

Thx for the help but if somebody knows something else i can check out for sure i wanna know.

[Dave332]

Try running memtest86. if you can run through it like 5 times, your ram is probably good. Also, If you are using a VIA or SiS chipset, they sometimes cause weird problems like that (not that all of them will cause problems, but it's something to check into.). You might actually check the hard drive as well. A very similar problem happened to me about a year ago, and as it turned out, my hard drive was in the process of dying.

[firefoxthebomb]

Try installing it with no cards installed except for motherboard, mem, and Video card. Pull out anything else and install them afterwards. Also I had a problem like this with a video card that had both the regular video connector and a high def connector. If I connected to the high def cable (the white end one) it would freeze up, but if I installed using the regular video connector (the blue one) it installed fine.

Might be worth a try.

[Mr. Spock]

Update:

Finnely i got the chance to see that costumer his computer again.

Things i treid

1. mem86 5 times run like a charm no errors.

2. Did a maxblast test (It's a Maxtor HD) it didn't want to start up with Caldara-Dos got a lot of weird fonts (not letters or anything readable)

3. Put in a new HD same error hangt at the Setup.

4. Did a motherboard mem test no errors.

5. let Microscope PC dignostics (Only bios test program that wanted to run) test the rest of the bios and it checked out oke.

6. treid other bios check programs but a lot gave the message divided buffer overflow or buffer overflow.

7. Reset the CMOS no luck error still there.

What can it be

Is it possible that they put in some kind of protection, then still remain for me why was i able to install Win2K then.

And why can't i install Win XP home back what have alway's been on that computer.

Only thing that's in a PCI slot is the network card Video card is on AGP, sound card is on board

I treid a Windows XP cd which i'm sure of have no errors.

for now i'm out of options

[tguy]

Trying updating the BIOS to the latest version. Some mainboard and BIOS chips require updates before XP will run on them.

By any chance was the hard drive you replaced a SATA drive? If so, XP may not have driver support included for that drive natively. In which case you can go to the Device Drivers forum and get help integrating the driver.

Good luck.

[Mr. Spock]

The second new HD that i treid was a IDE but the same error was still there it just hangt in the blue screen licance screen. so the basic installation it want to do but it's the part where it actually start to unpack and really install Win XP.

Bios update i can try cause i believe i flush every buffer that maybe full empty then.