I can't resume XP Pro installation

[Chumly]

EDIT (5-15-07):
Turns out the FDD power cable wasn't secured correctly, and that caused the instability. Everything worked fine after I corrected that.
end EDIT



Fuck! I finally finished building my first PC and went to install the OS (WinXP Pro SP2).

Stuck in the disc when prompted to insert boot device or whatever upon startup. It began loading files just as usual and preparing itself for installation. I quickly went to the bathroom and when I came back I saw that a stop error had occurred. Okay, so I restarted and tried again.

Everything goes fine this time and it proceeds to format the HDD. Oh, yeah, my system specs:

Two WD 500GB sata drives
DFI NF4 Lanparty SLI Expert or whatever the whole fucking name is
AMD FX-57
P-180b/182
rest not important

So after two hours the format is finished. Only one of the two drives was formatted, and it was NTFS or whatever the proper acronym is.

On to WinXP set-up. Shit! It froze! I waited ten minutes to make sure it wasn't just stalling or some crap. Nope, it froze.

I restart. This time the screen just stays blank. No boot-up messages, nothing.

I figure I should check the cables inside to make sure everything is connected. The two hard drives are fucking warm! Must have been poor airflow that caused the stop error, freezing, and now blank screen. I clean up the cable management, move the two drives from the P182's lower HDD cage to the upper one and place the case fan that was in front of the power supply (Silverstone ST85ZF) in front of the two HDDs to make sure some air gets blown onto them rather than just pulled over. (Also, in the time it takes me to rewire all that shit, I allow the HDDs to cool off by my window )

I pop them back in, plug the power cord back in, and turn on the PC.

Hmmm... seems I forgot to note which drive was hooked up to which sata port, and now the start-up BIOS messages (or whatever they're called) stop at the phrase "Verifying DMI Pool data........" Okay, so I shut down, unplug the PC, open it up and switch the drives. I try again, only this time it again stops at that same phrase but also blanks the screen after a few seconds of this. WTF?

I switch the drives again, and receive the first scenario. Switch them again and I get the second one where the screen blanks after a few seconds.

So at this point I figure that maybe since that one drive was formatted and Win XP set-up began copying files onto it, and then I possibly switched them after cleaning up the cables, it doesn't know how to resume .

Hmmm... Is there anyway to somehow start over or 'clear' the drives? Where do I go from here?

 

[clive01]

Try this, if you are not using the drives in a raid config, remove one from the system, also remove any windows irrelevant hardware IE. Sound card, spare video cards etc etc. Reboot and load to BIOS, reset to absolute default settings no overclocks and the like. Reload your windows xp disk and try again, if this fails try a debug on the hard drive which I will paste at the bottom, failing this I would say it is most likely a power issue. Then again I could be wrong

To debug you need to get to a DOS prompt somehow.
At a command prompt, start Debug. When you're at the minus prompt (-), enter the following lines and press Enter after each:

F 200 L1000 0
A CS:100
MOV AX,301
MOV BX,200
MOV CX,1
MOV DX,80

INT 13
INT 20

g
q

 

[Chumly]

Try this, if you are not using the drives in a raid config, remove one from the system, also remove any windows irrelevant hardware IE. Sound card, spare video cards etc etc. Reboot and load to BIOS, reset to absolute default settings no overclocks and the like. Reload your windows xp disk and try again

Okay, I'll try this after my next class.

Yes, I forgot to mention, the drives are not in RAID. The mobo does not have onboard video, so the video card is staying (there's just one), but other than that there are no other cards, etc. Also no overclocks -- everything is at stock. I'll clear the CMOS.

if this fails try a debug on the hard drive ... To debug you need to get to a DOS prompt somehow.

I could use some help on getting to a DOS prompt. All I can do on boot-up is enter BIOS...

 

[clive01]

www.bootdisk.com will get you any kind of boot disk you need.. download a win98 SE boot cd.. select dos without cdrom support, when it starts loading drivers hit ctrl+c it shoudl ask you to cancel batch.. say yes and you should get a c: prompt.

 

[alphanumeric]

Boot from your XP CD and start the setup over again. During the install you will get the option to delete any and all partitions. Delete the partition, create a new one, format it and then (hopefully) install windows too it. As mentioned disconnect any external devices that you don't need to install windows. All you really want is keyboard mouse and monitor.

 

[Chumly]

The bootdisk site likely won't be an option since it seems to require burning a copy onto a CD, which won't be possible on campus computers (the only ones I have access to) as they can't burn discs.

Booting from the XP installation CD was something I tried, but the problem is that the boot-up doesn't advance to the point where it says "insert boot device" or such along those lines. I'll try to take a look at the BIOS options to see if maybe there's a boot device priority setting... maybe move up the CD/DVD drive to somewhere before the HDDs? Deleting any and all partitions would be exactly what I'm looking for, though.

As for trying the drives just with either one and not both connected, no luck there. I also made sure to try either drive on both sata ports, but only got the same two scenarios as in the first post (nothing happens, or screen blanks after a few seconds). Only devices connected are mouse, keyboard, and monitor.

EDIT: Okay, I dug around the BIOS settings a little more and checked the manual, and was able to change around the boot sequence .

I restarted with the installation disc in the drive, deleted the earlier partition, and am now formatting the drive .

I'll update when finished.

 

[Chumly]

Fucking hell.

Okay, so now I can access the set-up again.

Problem: I'm still getting stop errors (different ones each time) and freezes during the set-up process.

I'm now thinking that heat build-up and such has nothing to do with it. I've got all three case fans on 'high' but the problem still persists. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to it either. Sometimes it occurs when WinXP set-up is at the "installing devices" phase, before that, after that, during the "workgroup or domain?" shit, or, at the most frustrating times, right after that last one when it's just copying files (and presumably close to being done).

It's so damn frustrating! I've spent almost two hours now and have had to start all over again at least 20 times. What the hell is going on that is causing all these stop errors and freeze-ups during the Windows installation process? Sometimes, when I have to reboot, it even enters the hardware configuration (HDD format and such) phase and I reboot it to make it return to the actual Windows installation past that!

Anyone ever heard of this or experienced it?

 

[clive01]

Check your power supply to make sure your getting a solid continuous clean feed. Go over your cables with a fine toothed cone.. And most of all, make sure your HSF is seated properly on your Proc. I know amds run hot these days and many times I have seen a mounting that is a millimetre off causeing worlds of heat issues. Also have you tested your RAM? do you have access to mem test 86 on cd or maybe a windows vista cd? (Vista install cd has a mem tester pre- install). Anyway just a few more things to look into.

 

[alphanumeric]

You have the right idea, you want to go into the BIOS and set the first boot device to CD-ROM. Then after windows is installed you set it back to the hard drive. If you don't switch it to CD-ROM the PC will keep trying to boot from the hosed XP install on the hard drive.

 

[Chumly]

Nope, no memtest CD. I also won't be able to make one since campus computers don't have CD writers. So no way to test the RAM (though I have seen others with the same components as I use the same RAM -- two 512MB sticks of OCZ Premier).

I'm pretty positive that the PSU cables are all properly attached. The processor's heat sink and fan also appear fine.

As for setting the boot device to CD-ROM then back to the HDD, I've got that done. No change, still getting stop errors galore, along with freezes and random reboots.

Another thread here indicated using the blue connector end of the CD/DVD drive's IDE cable... tried that and no luck there, either. Cleared CMOS and reformatted the HD again to be sure.

 

[Chumly]

Looking around on the Microsoft site, one thing they suggested regarding stop errors during XP installation was to remove one of the memory sticks, and try it with each one individually.

While I'm at it, I'll go ahead and disconnect one of the two HDDs (the correct one, hopefully) along with the floppy drive (I don't seem to have a power connector for it anyway).

So I unplug the power cord, open up the case, remove the DIMM that's in the second slot along with the two above-mentioned hardware items, close the case, and plug it back in. Great, now the PC won't start up. It powers on, the fans spin, but the system won't start. The monitor stays blank, no BIOS start-up messages, etc.

I hook up the connectors for the HDD and the data cable for the floppy and try again. No luck.

I place the second memory stick back in, and check to make sure everything else is where it was. It still won't start-up.

With the machine on, I open the side of the case. There are five diagnostic LEDs on the mobo, but only four are lit up.

"System boot-up" Check.
(Insert here the two I can't remember.)
"DRAM detected" Check.
"CPU detected" Check.
"System start-up" No.

The Power LED on the front of the case just blinks.

Clear CMOS? Yep, did that. No change.

I realize the problem is now somewhat outside the scope of the Operating Systems board and might be more suited to General Hardware, but I would still appreciate any continued help. Thank you.

 

[clive01]

At this point I would definately say motherboard or power supply. If you havent got the hardware at home to test it find out if maybe a friend or the tech department at your school has a voltage meter you can use. Worst case scenario, RMA the board,PSU and ram just to be safe.