Unable to reinstall XP - system useless!

Mainframeguy

Debiant by way of Ubuntu
Joined
29 Aug 2002
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I really hope someone can shed some light - I read the stickies - all of which was stuff I knew.... somehow I think my CD-ROM is unrecognised at BIOS level although it works fine when I have XP up.

Trouble is it is a highly unstable system and I very much have to reinstall XP (PRO).

I have put CD tops in boot order - no help. Comes up with something like "ATAPI CD - unable to boot" (I'll swap my VGA in a minute and go check that out and come back to edit).

I am desperate - this is my AMD XP300 system - have had ot more than two weeks - never stayed up for more than three hours without total wipeout crashing.... reinstalling XP is my second last stop back before I try new graphics card - then have to send back to supplier - suspect mobo... this is driving me insane - so any help that gets XP to install (SHOULD be the EASIEST!) would be very very welcome....
 
You say it doesnt show in dos while its booting up?

Maybe a little more info on the hardware and setup would help.What mobo(bios),how many cdrom's,are the ribbons and jumpers right,is your cdrom set to slave off your hdd or to sec master or ?

Maybe if all else fails you could jus format and install from the desktop since the cdrom is recognized there.

I suppose the vid card is a seperate issue?
 
OK OK it was a four AM moment.... I have not editted above... but for sake of completion message after POST was "Boot from ATAPI CDROM: No emulation"

Then followed by - "Press any key to boot from CD-ROM"

Unfortunately some one (nameless) told me NOT to press any key here.... now I have and CD did indeed boot and drive is fromatting as I type (on a different machine needless to say).

Sorry for being an idiot.

I have a theory - computers can make idiots of us all at four in the morning....
 
Hey kitct - TY for speedy post!... yeah I coulda gone into detail, you're right, but it's painful and straightforward.... (The PAIN part is the unused DEAD DVD slave I had to disconnect after a failed flash!)

The straightforward part (I think) see my post... seems my ASUS/BIOS still requires a key press to confirm boot from CD... I did not expect that (no one else mentions it)

One point of (I think) correction - if I went to desktop and reinstalled it is NOT a freash install - XP just installs itself on top of the previous version.... a very different kettle of worms....

Hope I made sense! Thanks for post anyways :)
 
The install will reboot2 more times before it finishes and your in windows. Don't hit anykey at the prompt from here on out. OK?
 
Originally posted by Arniestan1
The install will reboot2 more times before it finishes and your in windows. Don't hit anykey at the prompt from here on out. OK?

He is right Mainframe. ;)
 
I'll be careful - you gotta watch your step when you have two wireless k/b's hangin around ;) ....Hmmmm I hear the whir of the CD in my other machine - scooting off to check progress...
 
*sigh* I think I give up ... you guys are not gonna believe this - but my machine crashes with STOP codes before it can even get XP installed!.... I am lost... given up all hope - going to contact supplier - take their offer of trying with different graphics card ... if still crashing going to ship back to them for replacement.....

this is a REAL pain in the fundament.... sorry to vent.... but like I could fix the thing if it would just play ball!
 
Got Xp installed on FOURTH attempt... added a few drivers I need... system crashed just as I went to put MSBLAST patch on.... this is a bummer and I cannot continue right now - gotta rest before I consider restore checkpoint to take....
 
Here are some Stop Messages to look at. One might apply.

As for booting to install xp from the cd you have to push a key the first time. That's all. From then on it will boot itself even though that damn 'press any key' is still shown.
 
thankyou - with greatest respect been there dun that

cheers Zedric - I am finally suspicious of my mobo... even ASUS may fail... I ran memtest86 through up to nine passes with BOTH 512 MB sticks in - I have removed stick A and moved stick B into the A slot - if you get my jist....

Supplier suggested all that so slightly ahead of you - bt you are exactly right in your sugestions....

I personally simply feel *cursed"!

Could it be the GeForce 5200 card? That will be the next thing thrsupplier tries to palm me off with (after all you can afford to end another of those - I always knew it was the weakest link in my system!)

I updated the drivers... to latest release - no help... Now runnign with some other drivers I managed to google up .... ever the optimist.....

Thankyou Very Much For the post though - it all helps.... now let me take my pain alone.... the NTFS poll tried to stop me commiting this sin - I should be on an ABIT mobo!
 
I have had 2 Asus boards bite the dust on me in the past. :( My A7V8X or whatever it is, is holding up pretty good now,though I have to let it "warm up" sometimes in the boot (dual boot) up before I go to desktop or it will give me a blue screen.
 
*pats Abit mobo* :D

But ASUS should be equally good I guess...

It could be the graphics, it could be the mobo. Do you have any other graphics/mobo the test with? That would help.
 
Not at the moment I don't..... but let me tell you I am up to about three hours up-time and counting. What have I done? I've taken the side off and pointed a floor fan into the case....

So now running at 30o on board and 40o on processor and so far it is stable - my suspicion is the RAM sticks I have could not handle the heat in there.... time will tell. (Anyone recommend any very quiet/efficient fans in particular? I could be in the market for a couple soon by the looks of it!)
 
Originally posted by MainframeGuy
Anyone recommend any very quiet/efficient fans in particular? I could be in the market for a couple soon by the looks of it!
Papst or Panaflo. Papst have 12dB fans. They don't push massive CFM:s, but you can't really expect them to. :)
 
Originally posted by MainframeGuy
Hey kitct - TY for speedy post!... yeah I coulda gone into detail, you're right, but it's painful and straightforward.... (The PAIN part is the unused DEAD DVD slave I had to disconnect after a failed flash!)

The straightforward part (I think) see my post... seems my ASUS/BIOS still requires a key press to confirm boot from CD... I did not expect that (no one else mentions it)

One point of (I think) correction - if I went to desktop and reinstalled it is NOT a freash install - XP just installs itself on top of the previous version.... a very different kettle of worms....

Hope I made sense! Thanks for post anyways :)

actually, that is not your bios, but rather the Windows XP CD. Stick in lets say a FreeBSD boot CD, and it gets booted right away.
 
OOOh yeah! Thanks for the correction!

(I shoulda known because I stuck a Linux - Knoppix CD in there the other day, just trying to check if it was hardware, and it booted straight off!)

Trust Windoze to be awkward?
 
Hrm, well try knoppix for a few hours, do some surfing, and do what you normally do on Windows XP. If knoppix does not complain or crash, it could be your windows install CD.
 

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