Computer Borked - XP installation impossible

Hi everyone,

thanks before hand for having a look at this. I'm not sure if this is a software or hardware problem really but the end result is that I'm unable to install Windows XP correctly.

The last week my computer had been acting up abit, nothing really major, a few "physical memory dump"-bluescreens and such. Then the last thursday it suddenly hit, told one of my friends I was just gonna reboot cause an installation didn't seem to be working properly for me and after that I could not get into windows or install it without the computer freezing or different bluescreens.

Since Thursday I've been freneticly battling with it in any way I could come up with. I tried to repair it with the Windows XP cd, ran into bluescreens or fatal errors. Tried to reformat my harddrive completely and install it fresh, same result. At this point I suspected there was something seriously wrong with my harddrive or memory. I ran a bootable memory check, everything seemed fine. I went to a store and got a new harddrive and got more memory(this cause just cause it was time to anyway).

I'm still having problems and I'm still unable to install Windows properly. Currently I'm staring at a Windows install screen saying it's 23 minutes left and that it's current state is "completing installation" it's been like that for the last 30 minutes and the computer is obviously not working on it.

I've exhausted pretty much any little trick I had, I'm no guru but I know my way around. I'm getting desperate and I've prepared to try a flashupdate of my BIOS to see if that does anything for me if wisdom doesn't strike me suddenly. It seems like it's different errors encountered everytime or simply just freeze ups during the installation. The screen doesn't freeze but it just stops working, Windows "commercial" and their little status bar in the downright corner is still blinking along but there's no way the installation is allright when it takes breaks for 30+ minutes.

Does anyone at all have any ideas?

Thanks again,
Verre

I don't know if it helps, but here are my computer specs.

Dell Dimension E520
RAM; 1gb (now 2gb, Kingston DDR2 models)
Western Digital HD; 320GB, 72000 rpm, 16MB cache, SATA
Nvidia card; 7300 LE 128

 

Have you tried removing your original memory stick and installing with only the new memory?

 

Yeah, I tried that. It was acting up abit then as well and wouldn't immediately detect the new memory. Tried the old memory again, it wouldn't take that. Did them together and he was all of a sudden fine again. I guess that could be taken as an indication of that the motherboard might have taken a turn for the worse.

This is the weirdest thing I've ever encountered. Different problems everytime, I just managed to get it into Windows but the installation was far from complete. It was lacking alot of components from the regular setups.

Now it's restarting and wants to make a copy of Windows XP Proffesional.. It's like it got a mind of it's own and is just running wild the few times it even wants to do anything.

I've got another windows version on its way down on my laptop, figured I'd try one of those.

 

Try with a different CD-ROM player. Sounds to me like yours is trying to go south on you and not reading the disk correctly.

 

I only have two, my CD-ROM and my CD-RW and none of them have done it for me. I guess it's possible, but I don't have the equipment or the funds to go trial by error on my hardware which I would have wished to do.

 

This is a Dell.
What disk(s) are you trying to install XP from?

 

Not entirely sure what you're asking me. As in what CD's i'm using? The Dell Windows XP Media Center CD that I got with the computer. Was that what you meant?

 

Yes that's the correct one. Dell pcs and computers are slightly different.

Did you say you are trying to install to a brand new SATA drive? If so have you installed the SATA drivers at the appropriate point in Windows setup?

 

Well now I'm in uncertain waters. As far as I understood the guy in the store(he might be refered to the idiot depending if you're about to confirm something, or maybe I'm the idiot for taking a "salesclerks" word) it was pretty much plug and play.

I have not installed "specific drivers" for my new SATA disk, I think I can say as much with certainty.

How would I approach that? Is it where it asks if you wish to install a SATA/Raid Driver or what it says? When it asks for things in the A: which I don't have on my computer. Or what am I looking for?

 

Ofc I jumped on this and started up my windows setup, hit F6 to specify SATA/Raid Driver. It asks me if I have a manufacturers CD-rom etc which I have, I hit "S" to specify and now instead it keeps asking me to insert the disks into A:... Have I overlooked something or is my computer pretending like it's back in the early 90's?

 

If Dell supply 'recovery' cds there are normally more than one.

The most important one is labelled 'operating system'
The second most important is labelled 'drivers'
Others are extras or sometimes special drivers for things like modems.

You can download all the disks except the OS free from Dell.

 

Ok, I think I know the CD you are refering to. I have it, also from Dell. For once I actually managed to keep 'em all. So I boot using that CD or? I mean I basicly need to install my SATA driver etc without having windows setup, right now I have it unpartitioned and everything is "from scratch".

I also got a support CD from WD with my new harddrive but I can't find a way to use it without windows? Which is basicly my big nail in the eye, I'm used to the windowsenvironment but it was so long ago I dealt with DOS and such I'm lost.

 

So after digging into the subject all night I'm hoping someone can either correct me or confirm what I've found out.

# Most XP installations lacks support for SATA disks.
# Most new computers doesn't have diskstations if it was up to the customer themselves to decide, hence no F6 diskinstallation of the SATA drivers possible.

From what I've found out this leaves me with the option of streamlining those drivers into a selfcopied/created Windows CD? I was well on the way of trying this when I realised that my Windows XP Media Center CD is a DVD, not a CD. Hence 2.6GB big and again my great plans were foiled.

Is there something I've missed?

I still can't believe that todays computers actually asks for drivers through a diskstation rather than the CD-rom. Or that my Dell Installation CD doesn't carry the SATA drivers considering that's the harddrive that came with my Dell to begin with.

Thanks again to those of you who bare with me and endure this constant flow of whine!

 

Hi

what you need to do is go into the BIOS and chance the HD controller to legacy, that will ensure that Windows sees the SATA hard disk.

The alternative is to use something like nLite to slip-stream the drivers into the installation.

Hope it helps

Maaz

 

Not sure what you meant by legacy, when I enter BIOS and go to the drivetab for my harddrive it simply says Raid Autodetect / ATA or Raid On. The weird thing here is that Dell's default is Raid On but if I try to run that it simply goes to a Caldera DOS-prompt where I'm stuck cause there's no drivers availlable to connect to.

Is the legacy option somewhere else?

I've had some progress last night, I used another Windows XP version with SP3 and it seems like that didn't have the same SATA-detect problem.

However I'm still encountering problems inside Windows. Files won't open/execute properly. For example my chipset-drivers from DELL. Can't unzip them for some reason, Error Code 110. And the additional drivers for SATA is also having problems.

So I'm in Windows again with most of the things working properly, but it still has problems with things. I'm hoping this will simply be a driverproblem and once I resolve that it'll work properly. But that's just my hope and I am still struggling to solve those problems?