Windows Xp Wont Install

[MDurai]

Alright
I'm gonna do that ASAP,
Thanks!
I will post the results here!

 

[kblaylock]

xp install

got my new system last nite and I have exactly the same problem.

asus a7v333
amd 2200+
1gb PC2700 DDR
Geforce 4 mx 440 agp
40 gb maxtor 7200rpm

fdisked and formatted drive from win98 boot disk. went to install xp and it copied files, went through the first part of the install sequence, after the first reboot it copies a few more files and (while in the blue setup screen) gives message "starting windows" and hangs there forever... rebooted and tried multiple times, fdisked and formatted and installed win98 with no probs... tried to upgrade to XP and again the first part of install goes ok, after first reboot it goes to XP splash screen and hangs there.

cleaned drive again, fdisk format etc etc, again install win98 with no probs.. upgrade to ME with no probs. go through same steps for XP with SAME results...

after searching for solutions on web and many forums I find it might be due to a USB mouse being plugged in so i remove mouse and plug to ps2 (using adapter) also find that many geforce cards seem to cause problems of this type so i remove the geforce card and put in older ATI all-in-wonder radeon 32 meg agp card, same damn hang at same spot..

I have removed the 2nd dimm and ran thru all the above too see if it might be ram issue...same hang same spot..
i removed the first dimm and swapped with 2nd... same as above.

any suggestions would be great at this point.


after significant frustration i decided to just let the setup go as long as it felt like... and eventually it came back with error message stating drive c was corrput and cannot be repaired hit f3 to exit setup...

this is a brand new harddrive, and all diagnostics i have run on it so far say it is kewl kewl.... only xp setup seems to think is phaqued.... any tips here??

 

[AKHeero]

Has anybody here tried using the boot floppy disk program that Microsoft has posted on thier website. I know I've had a few installs of XP for friends that have hung but when I use the boot floppies it works just fine. Don't know if this will work in your cases, but it's worth a try.

 

[Iceman]

I've installed it with the boot disks, on one of me puters, worked just fine

 

[kblaylock]

xp install

it appears that I may have contributed to the problem as at some point last nite during my attempts to install XP i did run maxtors disk utils that came with the drive.. it has now come to my attention that if you run those utils you CANNOT install xp on that drive until a low level format has been run. there is a MS KB article which refers to this specifically. eventually the XP installer will generate a message saying drive c is corrupt and cannot be repaired by setup press f3 to exit... some drive overlay software that is not compatible with XP.

Because of this I am unsure exactly how much of my troubleshooting steps last night happened after i might have put that software on... so i could have solved my initial problem and only been dealing with self inflicted drive issue... when i get home tonight i will do the following:


run maxtor util to perform low level format removing all partition info etc etc...

I acquired a bootable XP install cd so will run XP install on a blank unformatted unpartitioned drive with only 1 stick of ram in,

i plan on removing my nic, floppy drive, geforce card, usb ports, usb mouse, anything else i can find to unplug.... hehe... will put ps2 mouse in in place of the usb one,... will put older ati agp vid card in place of gforce... try to let winxp set up the drive partition and all however it feels like it.. if that dont work then i truly dont have a clue as to what it could be...

 

[MDurai]

Originally posted by AKHeero
Has anybody here tried using the boot floppy disk program that Microsoft has posted on thier website. I know I've had a few installs of XP for friends that have hung but when I use the boot floppies it works just fine. Don't know if this will work in your cases, but it's worth a try.

Where can I get this piece of software?

 

[Tcs]

Originally posted by Bytes Back
Beg, steal or borrow another graphics card. Take your geforce 2 out, install windows and then swap them back.

Bytes Back is right, this is how to solve the problem. Other people seem to avoid the easy solution, and will send you down paths they have no clue about. ALL of the other suggestions are bogus and will get you no where except frustrated.

 

[screenplay9]

Xp won't install

I had the same problem with a freinds of mine's computer. I finally gave up and install windows me and it works fine. It is one of your card conflicting with xp. Might want to try windows me or windows 2000 on your system.

 

[kblaylock]

installing xp

I did try a different video card with no different results.. also a few more things after 6 more hours of testing..

completely different hard drive and xp generates the same "c is corrupt and cannot be repaired by setup" error... so i switched the hard drive to secondary ide controller and put cdrom on primary ide controller... about the same point of installation setup reports that the volume in cd rom is corrupt and cannot be read try a different cd... from this I have come to the conclusion that it is either:

a: primary IDE controller is bad

or

b: i have somehow not loaded all necessary drivers for the mobo itself and when I try to install any NT based OS it is using incorrect default drivers for the IDE controller...

but i could be way off...

again... for me, changing the vid card had NO effect.

kevin

 

[screenplay9]

Xp Won't install

I am being to think that micosoft changed xp in these newer copies or something because I install two copies of xp at my house one on my computer and the other on dads and it installed great. No problems and it was easier than Windows 98 and me.

 

[kblaylock]

while I certainly dont doubt that possibility I should say that I have NEVER had any of these types of problems witn XP. My experience with XP up to this point has been positive in almost every respect.

After speaking with asus further and verifying that I do have the latest bios revision etc etc. They tell me that there is no way that out of the box the secondary IDE should process an installation of any OS while the Primary IDE wont. He said that it was simply a bum board.

So now i begin the long and tedious process of attempting to get the company I purchased it from to admit the possibility that YES it might be bad and to send me a replacement.

my wife and co-workers keep telling me to "have patience" I am convinced that patience is simply a precursor for true madness.

 

[screenplay9]

windows won't install

I feel for you man. I spent all day at my friends house trying to get xp installed and finally gave up and put windows me. I thought about giving windows a call about all of them problems everyone is having. I think it is in windows xp instead of everyones mother boards and stuff because old os's will work fine. I am thinking about puting linux or windows 2000 on the computer I will build.
I know when I tried to install is usb 2.0 pci card on my exiciting xp system I didn't work and tried two different cards and it didn't work and I got so mad I told that card maker off lol. I know I would be steaming if I had the problems you are having with xp

 

[kblaylock]

after alot more testing and hair pulling and mumbling hatefull things under my breath while on hold with this company or that company I finally came to the conclusion ( im 90% sure) that the mboard is bad, so to test the new wonderful theory... ACK... im buying another mboard from a brick and mortar store locally and will see if that acts differently. Hopefully it will work beautifully and all my work will be rewarded by a smokingly fast machine able to handle anything i throw at it rather than a pretty case that shits itself anytime i attempt to install any NT based OS.

 

[kblaylock]

xp install

here it is folks... after all that hell... it was a bad mobo.

went to compusa and bought off the shelf exact same mobo... everything identical even checked every jumper and dip switch... absolutely identical...

even left the nvidia geforce 4 card in and installed XP first try without a hitch, not a slow down...no hourglass...not a single solitary problem at all... works beautifully and xp loads with a quickness... i am eagerly awaiting rush hour traffic so i can get home and plug to my network update all the drivers load software and see what kind of performance i can squeeze outta this box....

installed soundblaster audigy platinum.

usb 2 hub...
3comm 10/100 nic
xtasy geforce 4 mx 440
2 @ 512 mb 2700DDR dimms
32 x 12 x 40 cdburner
40 gb western digital 7200 RPM drive
Floppy drive
AMD XP 2200+

after all the work and all the stress and all the attempts i feel very very comforted that I was not simply overlooking something and that it was simply a hardware defect in the mobo.

so just to recap.. and here is the really really phaqued thing about this whole deal...even at the end.. with the origional motherboard asus a7v333 I could install ANY 9x kernel ok fine but NT kernel OS would bomb out in various ways....

different board same model same brand same exact everything except i installed in case myself and it all works fine...

take from this what you will... im goin to sleep now.

thanks for all your suggestions and help.

 

[jonocainuk]

ppl who say "i installed windows xp perfect on my comp" might not realise that operating systems are hardware dependant - i.e. they could work perfect on one system - but totally rank on another. I should know... I used to get like 5 BSODs a day on win98 (sometimes more) yet I never had a single error on WinME/2K

Only problem with XP I have is that I cant install it while my HDD is connected to a Promise UltraTX2/100 pci controller card.

I have a geforce 2mx (as the spec below says) so i think if it is a gf/mb problem - then I assume we can mark the 440BX chipset as compatible for now.

 

[Geffy]

if you want to check that your hardware is XP compatible then visit the Windows Catalogue. It is a listing of hardware which is "Designed For Windows XP" and "Compatible for Win XP". It also includes software as well.

Goto the XP section of the M$ site.