XP Pro won't reinstall... Need fix fast.

T

TheBlank

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
164
Okay, I'm not a real novice at this, however I am at the end of my tolerance.

I have a custom made rig, not an OEM. I use an OEM copy of Windows XP Pro 32-bit. My rig's specifications are in my sig.

last week while playing Gears of War I experienced the first hard crash for my system in over a year. Complete lock. I did a hard reboot (my only option) and was delighted to find a "ntfs.dll file missing or corrupted" waiting for me.

After frantic searching for either my slipstreamed copy of XP, or the original disk (both moved from their haven of protection) I finally get a repair going (copying the files in the repair console was "restricted) and I manage to get my machine working well enough to allow me to backup my data.

Now I'm finally reinstalling. However the original EVGA floppy with my RAID drivers has also gone missing from my reinstall drawer (I'm going to kill whoever did this). So i downloaded new drivers from EVGA and attempted a clean install.

XP can't find the idecoi.dll file anywhere. I pointed it at the floppy with the RAID drivers (it asks for this 4 times) and the install goes smoothly. As soon as it finishes the intitial setup and settings config, it reboots, gives the XP loader... gives me a quick blue flash and reboots the machine. Every. Time.

Cutest part is the 3rd time I tried to do this, my USB keyboard and mouse refused to be recognize in the setup program. BIOS recognizes is, just not windows setup. So I flashed the BIOS. No change whatsoever.

I'm seriously at the end of my rope here. I don't want to have to spend the 300 - 400+ dollars it would take to upgrade my machine and OS to Vista, but I don't really see where I have any choice.

If anyone has any advice whatsoever, please let me know. I'm going to have to make this decision ASAP because I can't go too long without my main machine in working order. I use it for school and for my education/career.

TIA.
 
Use nLite to get the drivers into your install CD (you're posting, so I assume you can still do this, skip if not). Running them off the floppy tends to have a high failure rate in my experience.

May have corrupt disk. You apparently have a backup already, try the other one.

USB keyboard / mouse not recognized by Windows is often the result of not setting the appropriate BIOS flag to let it know you're using a USB keyboard / mouse. It should behave fine on a basic level (similar to how the video card plays nice in VGA-mode even if it needs specific drivers later) if you have the BIOS properly set. Having an old PS/2 peripheral in the closet collecting dust never hurts.
 
Already tried both discs, no dice.

Did dig out an old PS/2 keyboard, but no mice exist in this house non USB (we're hard on mice). The thing that's odd to me however is that the USB periphs were working just fine the first few attempts, the BIOS was never touched, and they just randomly decided to not work.

I will give nLite a try, I have a few other computers at my disposal.

It just irks me that the OLD RAID driver disk caused none of these problems, and the new one is complete and utter crap. I've reinstalled this setup several times before. :mad:
 
No luck.

I integrated the drivers as per the instructions. I used the ones from the chipset whql download. I integrated everything into that OS, and I burnt an ISO.

At first, everything was going great. Until the last 98% of the install, when it told me yet again that it could not find idecoi.dll. I skipped it as I had done the last few times, hoping that I could point it to the idecoi file that I knew had been integrated into the install. It never asked for it again.

Got through all of the installation, and just as XP is booting for the first time, I get a really quick blue screen of death that I don't have time to read one word of and the system reboots.

I'm contacting EVGA.. .this is ridiculous. The old Floppy drivers did NOT do this. And the XP Pro CD I'm installing and creating the image from is pristine. Was only used once before, and then I promptly made a slipstream copy of it and have used that ever since. I really doubt I have a bad XP Pro disc.

What now?
 
Does it have the same problems when not setting it up with raid?
 
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