DVD-Rom works in Windows - But not in Boot up !!??

Greetings all.

I'm trying to help a friend (honest - It's not me) out with their PC. They were using a copied version of Windows XP Pro which was eventually ID'ed as such so they wanted to get legal.

They bought a legit version of XP Home and I said that I would install for them. But I can't.

I backed up all the stuff they wanted to keep onto an external hard drive and then rebooted the PC with the Windows disc in the tray. It got as far as checking system and then just hung.

I booted into Windows normally and ran the disc - It worked fine (warned me I couldn't upgrade from Pro to Home, but as I was going to delete the partition and start from scrath I wasn't too worried). It created it's initial file and then rebooted.

It hung in exactly the same place.

I've booted in safe mode and used both the DVD-Rom drive and the DVD-RW drive all with the same result.

This means that I cannot install the new, legal software and they're stuck being told by Microsoft every time the turn on and off.

Is there anything that people can think of that will help them out here?

If it makes any differnce the drives are Both Pioneer - DVD-Rom DVD-121 and DVD-RW-106D.

It's an AMD Athlon XP2400+

Thank you all!!

 

What is the specific step it hangs at, verbatim?

I know you said checking system, but what else does it say?

 

you need to go into cmos and change the boot priority to boot from cd. after installing, dont forget to change it back to or else your computer will try to boot from cd all the time.

 

Go to My Computer and right click on it, select Properties a new window will open. Click on the Hardware tab, click on the Device Manager Button. Ensure that nothing is reporting any problems. Check if the HDD or CD/DVD Drives are SCSI. You might want to check the setuplog located in the %systemroot% folder for errors.

You could try this:
Open the case, find the coin cell battery and removed it for about 30 – 60 seconds. Replace the battery and put the cover back on the PC. You may want to ensure you are properly grounded before going inside the computer.

Next enter the BIOS, set the 1st boot device to CD/DVD ROM, 2nd to Hard Disk save and exit. Place the Windows CD/DVD into the CD/DVD Drive and wait for the system to start loading the OS. If you’ve already done all this (which I suspect) and it’s hanging as the same spot you may want to try a few other things.

Try this too…
Download memtest and run it though to ensure you don’t have any memory errors. Another thing to try is using a different DVD/CD drive to install the operating system. I would also suggest checking the hard disc for surface errors.

Check all your hardware, it could be that a device isn’t responding properly that is causing the problem if none of the above is. Enter the BIOS and disable one at a time.. onboard LAN, Modem, Sound & Video (if any or all are onboard). Also remove all non essential hardware such as Sound Cards, Modems, LAN/WLAN Adapter.. etc and replace each one at a time. Attempt to install Windows, see if you can get any further or if it all of a sudden it installs. You might find your culprit this way.

The list is long, but I’m just shooting things out which may lead you in the right direction. Good Luck!