clean xp home install doesn't work

narcispy · #1 02-13-2007, 10:36 AM

I have a computer I'm working on, it's not mine but I seem to have the most complex problem with it. I do XP installations all day at work but this just is nothing I have ever seen before. It seems that doing a fresh clean install of XP home on it causes the computer to freeze after the first reboot of the system after it low level formats the drive and loads the system files to the harddrive for the continuation of the install. It shows the XP loading screen with the blue bar right after reboot then it freezes loading. I have tried putting the harddrive in my computer and xp finds it and shows all is good so it's not that. I have tried removing the ram chips to see if it happens to be faulty ram but that seems not the problem either. I have also tried booting the system into dos mode and deleting the MBR in fdisk and it doesn't work either. The only thing I can think is that the problem is somehow hardware related. The user who owns the computer said this all happened after he tried to install XP service pack 2 which makes me wonder how that would mess up a freshly formatted drive.

I need some suggestions on what to try, the only thing I can think of doing is some kind of hardware diagnostic DOS test and seeing if anything is faulty.

Thanks for any suggestions

Vish_555 · #2 02-13-2007, 11:06 AM

Hi,
I reinstalled windows xp home a few weeks ago and it froze at the green bar. When installing, you must press F12 and/or Enter Key when it reaches that screen or the installation will not continue on some computers for some weird reason. Try that and see if it helps.

narcispy · #3 02-13-2007, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vish_555

Hi,
I reinstalled windows xp home a few weeks ago and it froze at the green bar. When installing, you must press F12 and/or Enter Key when it reaches that screen or the installation will not continue on some computers for some weird reason. Try that and see if it helps.

I know what your talking about but thats not the screen I'm at. I'm at the Windows XP loading screen with the blue bar after the first reboot, the blue bar moves across the screen like 3 times then freezes at the 4th. This definately isn't a simple fix or answer most likely.

Ghost-Dweller · #4 02-13-2007, 01:49 PM

sata hdd ??? or ide

sata is known to have issues during the instalation of windows xp
without sp2 embedded

try to slipstream a version with sp2 embedded or get the original XP disk with sp2

Ghost-Dweller · #5 02-13-2007, 01:51 PM

nice to see that the system clock on this forum is functioning ok

(NOT)

lol

narcispy · #6 02-13-2007, 01:56 PM

It's a IDE 133 HD, and yes I am using the correct cable for the 133 speed drives, tried 3 of them actually. Yeah, I know the problem with SATA drives, I have one on my other computer. The version of XP I am using is Home with sp2 embedded so that's not the problem either

Ghost-Dweller · #7 02-13-2007, 02:12 PM

ok

when it reboots remove the cd rom see if it asks to insert the cd again

[s]PS: your ram mods are ok ?[/s] sorry

i'd say disble al l onboard devices in the bios such as nic audio en things like smart ed ed

narcispy · #8 02-13-2007, 02:22 PM

Well it doesn't get that far enough into the reboot to where it is reading from the cdrom drive so I know removing the cd won't do anything. Disabling items might help though, but that would only lead to windows not detecting stuff after installation. I am going to try some of the diagnostic utilities off of this ultimatebootcd I downloaded and see if any bad things come back like the processor, motherboard or ram. The systems pretty old as it only has pci slots and the only thing hooked into that is the video card.

Ghost-Dweller · #9 02-13-2007, 02:30 PM

it seems to me that ur hdd is busted/has bad sectors as windows only try's to copy files to c:\windows in the first moments of the gui install mode

have u tried installing windows without gui mode yet ? then u can see what it's trying to do

narcispy · #10 02-13-2007, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghost-Dweller

it seems to me that ur hdd is busted/has bad sectors as windows only try's to copy files to c:\windows in the first moments of the gui install mode

have u tried installing windows without gui mode yet ? then u can see what it's trying to do

Again yes that could be possible, but I took that same harddrive and plugged it into my personal computer and everything seemed to be okay in xp. I am going to do a full sector scan tonight and I'll let you know if that isn't the problem. The drive is completely clean though I low level formatted it and made it just like it would have came from Western Digital then I let the installation program create a new full partiton for the drive. I can always try and drop one of my spare hard drives into the box and seeing if it will reinstall on that one.

Ghost-Dweller · #11 02-13-2007, 02:52 PM

if u are clever enough to do a low level format a sector scan will do u no good because the low level format has done that all ready and will have added the bad sectors to your fat tabel

windows install does a highlevel format

Quote:

I can always try and drop one of my spare hard drives into the box

if u have a spare hdd yeah please try that it will narrow down your problem search

narcispy · #12 02-13-2007, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghost-Dweller

if u are clever enough to do a low level format a sector scan will do u no good because the low level format has done that all ready and will have added the bad sectors to your fat tabel

windows install does a highlevel format

if u have a spare hdd yeah please try that it will narrow down your problem search

Well... tonight I did a nice CPU test, turned out great, then I went for the memory and that also turned out great, lastly I went for the hard drive and that also had no bad sectors and showed 100% perfect. I didn't have any time to swap in my other hard drive into the computer but it still baffles me not being hardware related in some way.

narcispy · #13 02-15-2007, 07:46 AM

I tried my spare IDE harddrive in the computer that already has xp loaded on it and the thing still won't boot. I also ran the diagnostic dos tests for a second time and they all came back 100%, is there anything else I can do to figure out exactly what the problem is?

involutaryhaxor · #14 02-15-2007, 08:13 AM

have you tried maybe installing or booting off of a linux cd?

narcispy · #15 02-15-2007, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by involutaryhaxor

have you tried maybe installing or booting off of a linux cd?

No, well mostly becuase I don't know too many linux commands and he would not understand how to use it.