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Windows XP Install Problems

N

NegativeCool

n00b
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Messages
24
Howdy.

A few months ago I built my first computer. I bought an OEM copy of XP PRO when I purchased my hard drive and motherboard from newegg.com. I had a couple of problems with the XP install but eventually got it to take hold and have been happily gaming ever since.

Thursday night my machine crashed and upon rebooting Windows, it would hang on the splash screen. I tried Last Known and it would still lock up. I could boot into Safe Mode so I tried a System Restore and met with the same results.

My understanding was that my only remaining option was to do a Repair Install., which I attempted last night. It got about 5% of the way through the text-based portion before giving me the following error message:

Setup cannot copy the file: Bios4.rom

I checked the CD and there were a couple of scratches, but nothing I would consider serious. Well... serious for an audio CD. I'm not familiar what a serious scratch on an install disc looks like.

Anyhow, I next tried to do a clean install. This time it would get about 3% of the way through before giving me the following error message:

Setup cannot copy the file: Addremov.chm

On both the repair and clean install I tried multiple times on different drives. I have a Sony CD-ROM drive and a Sony DVD drive and it kept giving me the same error messages.

I figured it's probably a serious scratch. I burned a copy to see if I could get it to install and it kept giving me the same error message.

I searched the microsoft website and read the KB article on this particular error. While there were a couple of suggestions on what I could to to try and get past this error none of them worked.

So. I need a new copy of the install disc, right? My problem is that when I did a search on this site and read a couple of threads on OEM copies of Windows, I came to discover that because it is an OEM copy of WinXP, Microsoft considers me to be the manufacturer.

Am I SOL?
 
typically, the manufacturer or company of the product doesn't provide support for OEM versions of their products. So if you're looking to get your CD replaced than I think you're out of luck. To be on the safe side, it wouldn't hurt to contact Newegg to see if they can help you out. Their service is excellent.

Before you do that, try using Nero's CD/DVD utility to see whether it's truly a problem with the CD. (download the trial version of Ahead's nero burn if you don't have it)

In my experience when I've had the error(s) that you've described it has either been the IDE cable (either loose or ripped) or bad system memory.
 
Thanks. I'll try Nero and double check all my cables.

I've been patiently waiting for Newegg's CS line to open at 7AM PST.

=)
 
Now that is quality service... that's why when I see stuff from newegg for $10 more than somewhere else I drop the extra $10 on it for the quality they provide. Atleast if it happens again with your new CD you know it's not that problem anymore.

I'll guess (cause that's almost all you can do at this point) is say it's memory. What caused it to pop-up with a different error from one time to the next? That's why I guess that.
 
I don't think it could be the memory. While I agree that it's odd that it stopped in one place during the Repair Installation and a different place during the Clean Installation... I have ran numerous memory testers and they always pass.

/shrug

I'm still going to try the Nero program suggested above when I get home from work. Maybe then it'll tell me for sure that the CD is unreadable instead of having to wait a week to find out.

At any rate the more I deal with Newegg the happier I become!
 
NegativeCool said:
Just got off the phone with Newegg.

They will exchange the scratched CD for a new copy.

Yippie!
Click to expand...

Wow, that's pretty damned nice of them. You better send them a thank you email for that. ;)
 
Well... I sent it in to NewEgg. The response I got was:

NO PROBLEM FOUND, TEST OK INSTALLS FINE. RETURN TO CUSTOMER

So. The only thing I can think of that is left is my hard drive. Remember I've tried it on both of my CD-Drives and it stops in the same place. I've also repartitioned my HD each time I've tried to install it. I have a 200GB HD and it's divided up into 4 partitions. The first partition was where I had it originally installed. The second partition has WinXP 64. The third partition is currently empty and the fourth partition contains just files and junk.

I probably should have tried to install it in the empty partition now that I think about it.

Any ideas?
 
HDD, bad IDE/SATA cable, or RAM (doubtful). Try the cable, then the drive.
 
Alright. I'll try the cable. I don't have a spare HDD... this is my first build so I don't have a lot of pieces laying around. :(

I was thinking of buying another HD anyway... now I have an excuse!
 
Was the error a read or write error? That will tell you if it's the CD or system.

If it's not telling you which, and we think the CD is kosher, I'd look at testing the HDD. It could be: bad spots on the drive, bad cable, bad controller. Run a scandisk (manuf. will likely have a drive fitness test as well) on the drive.

Bad memory is not out of the questions, check with memtest86. Download the ISO and boot to it, let it scan for several hours/overnight.

GL
 
I have an OEM windows xp pro disc. And when I re-install it (usually every six months for good measure) I have to install a DVD drive from an old machine. It's the only drive in the house that will install it.

I don't know if that helps, but I would try to use a different drive. And I would try a different a brand since both your sonys don't work.
 
It would be a lot of easier just load XP in safe mode, back up your data and then format that brick. Wait...Check the cable first....it won't hurt, then chck the momory. if you don't have to use a matched pair to up the system, try one then the other. Otherwise, you have to run memtest.
 
Yup. Already backed up everything in safe mode and I've reformatted the partition where XP originally was. Going to try the cables right now since that keeps popping up.
 
Alright. Swapped out the SATA cable and it still tells me that it cannot copy that file.

I'm going to look for HDD diagnostics right now.

Thanks for all your help, BTW...

Downloaded a diagnostic program from the vendor. When I try to run the test the machine just hangs. The only way to get it to do anything is to press the reset button. I'm going to run mem86 rignt now.
 
Does the tool you downloaded bootable? If so either the download was corrupt or you have other hardware issues.
 
Phoenix86 said:
Does the tool you downloaded bootable? If so either the download was corrupt or you have other hardware issues.
Click to expand...

Ya know... after reading your response I had a long description of what I had done last night. Then it occured to me that I was having trouble with the floppy drive on the other computer in my house. It was making strange noises and kept telling me that "windows could not format the disc". When I ran the program to create the bootable hard drive diagnostic disc I didn't think of that maybe the floppy drive on the other computer may be going bad.

I don't know why I didn't think of that last night. Maybe I need to take a deep breath and step back from this for a second. Anyhow, I managed to get both Memtest86 and the vendor diagnostic onto floppies here at work... so I'll try it again when I get home.
 
I'm beginning to believe it really is the hard drive. Tried to run the diagnostic disk again and I got the same results. I created this boot disk on my PC at work so it's not the disk. Running Memtest86 right now. 4 hours and 9 passes later, still no errors.

Sent the vendor an email detailing the problem and haven't recieved a response yet. I ordered a new HD yesterday and should recieve it on Monday. W00t!
 
It is little documented but I had the exact same problem as you had a few months ago. It tuns out to be a DMA error produced by the BIOS. Go into the BIOS and reduce the the speed of the drive to UDMA2 or lower. When you select the AUTO defaut, the BIOS often selects a transfer speed that the harddrive cannot keep up with without the new Windows drivers to support it. So when the CDROM send data to the harddrive the data stream is too fast for the HDD to keep up with and crashes when it chokes on too much buffer overflow. So change the Transfer speed of the CDROM in the BIOS to a slower speed and see if this cures it. After Windows is fully loaded and updated, you can set the CDROM back to AUTO. :D

Let me know if this helps.

P.S. Stores often carry a CD scratch removal tool that you can use to remove scratched CD's. They are fairly cheap and do an adequate job.
 
gwhughs said:
It is little documented but I had the exact same problem as you had a few months ago. It tuns out to be a DMA error produced by the BIOS. Go into the BIOS and reduce the the speed of the drive to UDMA2 or lower. When you select the AUTO defaut, the BIOS often selects a transfer speed that the harddrive cannot keep up with without the new Windows drivers to support it. So when the CDROM send data to the harddrive the data stream is too fast for the HDD to keep up with and crashes when it chokes on too much buffer overflow. So change the Transfer speed of the CDROM in the BIOS to a slower speed and see if this cures it. After Windows is fully loaded and updated, you can set the CDROM back to AUTO. :D

Let me know if this helps.

P.S. Stores often carry a CD scratch removal tool that you can use to remove scratched CD's. They are fairly cheap and do an adequate job.
Click to expand...

Yes. I tried the scratch removal tool... that didn't help.

I did get a new hard drive today and Windows installed with no problems at all... so I'm up and running again.

Thanks for all your help!
 
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