"Please Wait....." message after install

[timetec]

Clean XP installation ( applies to both Home or Pro editions )

Approx 38 minutes into the installation - absolutely no problems.

After the final "less than a minute" of installation, the PC reboots as expected & the XP logo appears on a black background with the green or blue (as applicable) progress indicator in motion.

A white mouse pointer then appears.
The screen remains black, but the XP logo has changed size slightly (smaller).
The progress indicator is replaced by the words "Please Wait....." in white lettering.

That is as far as it gets - the mouse can be moved OK - the PC has NOT locked up.

At one point, I waited overninght - 7 hours passed and no change..

The only way continue, is a reset - XP then loads OK, but many programs do not work as expected - for example, Mplayer will not load, giving the "has encountered a problem & needs to close" message.

Running "regsvr32 %SystemRoot%\system32\wmpui.dll." makes no difference.

Running SFC /scannow at the command prompt reveals no file problems.

Have tried a "bare bones" configuration : MB / RAM / Graphics card / HDD & 1 x CD rom - nothing else.

Changed RAM / CD rom / HDD / Cables / Graphics card.

Tried installs from i386 using smartdrv as well as booting from CD.

NTFS / FAT32 makes no difference nor does FDISK/FORMAT beforehand.

Have also tried different installation discs (6 in total).

MB K7S5A PRO
CPU Athlon XP 2500+
RAM 256MB PC2100 DDR (also tried PC133 & DDR 400)
HDD Deskstar 80GB 7200 (among others drives tried)
Graphics ATI Raedon 64MB (as well as other cards)

Its a long shot, but any ideas guys ?

Richard

[TrueRollers]

Its a longshot, but it sounds to me as if your CD might be dirty... sometimes if its not bad enough to cause a file to not copy, it will copy a currupt one to your hard drive, and trust me, it only takes 1 small little file to scew the whole thing up. Try cleaning the cd and trying again, hope it works for you.

[njovin]

I don't think it's the CD (he mentioned he tried XP Pro AND Home.

Changed RAM / CD rom / HDD / Cables / Graphics card.

The only things left to change are the CPU and Motherboard. I would try switching out the CPU first, then try a new mobo. It's a longshot, but I don't see what else could be causeing the problem - it looks like you've tried everything else.

[TrueRollers]

oops, sorry missed that part, yeah, in that case does sound like a mobo or processor problem.