PDA

View Full Version : Please help, major problem with installing xp


Valden83
10-02-2004, 02:21 AM
Hi there. I recently got windows xp professional and wanted to upgrade my XP home to that so I may use home edition on a second comp. I went through the whole upgrade and upon rebooting when it was finished I got a quick flash (less than a second) of a BSOD stop error and then my system restarted. It would do that constantly and would not load XP which was a bummer cause that meant formatting.

Anyhow I tried to get it to stop at the BSOD so i could write down the message but it goes too fast. I figured I would try to install on a clean 40 gig hard drive that I have only had around in case I needed extra space (it was not used or formatted). Anyhow I went to do a clean install on it and I kept getting an error at the beginning of the setup saying that the vga.sys file was corrupt. I was wonderin what the deal was because I just bought XP pro. I messed with it for a while and managed to get it to get past the vga.sys. a couple times it would hang on a serial port enumerator too....but I think these do not really matter. When I managed to get it to complete loading the drivers and all that jazz at the start, it began to copy the files. It got to 39% copying and then i got an error that a certain system file was missing. Restarted and tried installing again, sure enough another 39% error. I figured hmm maybe my cd rom is bad so I tossed another drive in and i managed to get it to 80% and got an error. I kept getting errors at various states in the progress bar but I did manage to get it to install a few times. When it would finish copying and actually start the GUI for xp install, it would complete that fine, but as soon as it would reboot, I would get the same quick flash of a BSOD and then the system would reboot over and over again...bsod, reboot, bsod, reboot.

So obviously I thought, dang my cd must be broke. Tried installing it on my old junker computer and what to my surprise....It installed perfectly the first time. Even after intalling on the old system and trying to transfer the installed hard drive into my computer, it still reboots itself after flashing a bsod for a quick sec. everything seemed kosher on my old comp,but not on my main comp. So the situation now is...what could be preventing me from installing xp pro on my main comp? I have tried two hard drives, two cd roms, and 2 separate cables in different IDE channels. The results are all very similar....

I fear the worst honestly...I think somehow my motherboard got hosed and it is causing the IDE channels to be all whack. I have noticed some odd behavior lately, but nothing extremely odd. But as it stands now, after messing with my system for 6 hours straight today, 3 hours last night, I cannot get xp pro to install at all, but it will install fine on another system. Of course, it could be other things causing the probs but even running on minimal memory and just my video it still does the problem, and thats with only one HD plugged in.

I would really REALLY appreciate it if anyone knows of a way I could narrow things down to see what the problem is. I am running on the old comp right now with win 2k and basic stuff, but this is not a very beefy system. Any help, suggestions, ideas, anything will be great help! Thanks guys I am lost.

Tigerbiten
10-02-2004, 02:41 AM
Try downloading and running Memtest86 to check for memory errors.

If you hit F8 as it posts can you get into safe mode.
If so then go System Properties -> advanced -> startup & recovery and turn off automatic restart after error so that you will be able to read the BSOD.

What odd behavior have you noticed ?
Are all your settings stock or are you overclocking ?

Luck........... :D
http://www.mentallyretired.com/h/index.cfm/u=Tigerbiten.gif

Valden83
10-02-2004, 02:47 AM
darn...just got mem errors in tests 3 and 5 in memtest :(

It was running fine tho untill i tried installing Xp pro, will a system run as long as nothing major is changed even with mem errors? I do remember lately there being cases when my computer would halt for like 30 seconds randomly and then resume after a while and a beep. maybe thats been my prob all along....

No overclock, pc3200 memory. I am curious, how do I tell what stick/sticks are giving the errors on memtest? or do i need to test the stick individually

chinoquezada
10-02-2004, 04:01 AM
darn...just got mem errors in tests 3 and 5 in memtest :(

It was running fine tho untill i tried installing Xp pro, will a system run as long as nothing major is changed even with mem errors? I do remember lately there being cases when my computer would halt for like 30 seconds randomly and then resume after a while and a beep. maybe thats been my prob all along....

No overclock, pc3200 memory. I am curious, how do I tell what stick/sticks are giving the errors on memtest? or do i need to test the stick individually

each stick individually...

Though also try changing the memories around your slots, you could also have a faulty slot...

Valden83
10-02-2004, 05:54 PM
well looks like one pair of my BH-5 is bad...I was able to install fine with 1 pair. I can however run everything seemingly ok now with the bad sticks of ram in, but I am probably gonna have a lot of random problems due to the bad ram

anyone know a good ram to pair with mushkin lvl 2 bh-5 pc3200?

chinoquezada
10-03-2004, 03:22 AM
well looks like one pair of my BH-5 is bad...I was able to install fine with 1 pair. I can however run everything seemingly ok now with the bad sticks of ram in, but I am probably gonna have a lot of random problems due to the bad ram

anyone know a good ram to pair with mushkin lvl 2 bh-5 pc3200?

Question: Why not RMA?