Computer Problem.....

[Robert Poole]

Hi Y'all



My Mother-in-law's computer crashed, and I wasn't able to save the data. So I got her Genuine XP Professional and started to install the OS. Well I picked the NTFS option the first time and the computer installation proceeded as planned until the computer got to the *loading devices* then it crashed the installation. Well I repeated the procedure....same results. Well then I changed the options from NTFS to FAT32 and the same thing happened. I was somewhat perplexed. I then switched to another hard drive and repeated the procedure. The same thing happened at the same spot on the installation process. Now the chance of different HDD being defective at the same spot the odds are against. But I don't know what could be doing it. Y'all have any ideas?



Have a good one



Bob

 

[George C]

Bob, it can be a few things but I am leaning towards bad memory (ram). How much is in there and is it possible to only leave in 1 and try to install. If it happens again remove that one and replace with another.



What type of crash did it originally have?



George

 

[FlipTrac_511]

Exactly at what point during the installation is the problem occuring? After a reboot? During hardware detection?



Yes, please provide us with your hardware profile.

 

[troy malone]

Did the computer have XP on it before?? if not i would say its one of the devices not XP compatable or a device is bad. (sound card/modem) remove all cards before the install. then install one at a time after you get windows installed..



troy

 

[Todd Z]

Could be the Bios, I know I had to Re flash my Bois on my Abit mother board before I could Install windows XP PRO......



Todd Z

 

[Robert Poole]

The computer had XP(bootleg) before, I don't know what happened origionally, but I had gotten a missing rootfile message, that was the origional problem. It happened after the computer rebooted and started the *loading devices* about 34 minutes before completion. The Genuine XP is good, I used it to upgrade my computer after mine crashed about 3 months ago.



Thanks and I will continue to plug away at it.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Sounds more likely that its the mobo or memory. The installation process itself is varily low-intensive when it comes to stressing the computer. For the most part it uses the CPU, low memory and your hard disk. The fact that you reformated (twice) and didn't get errors, and reinstalled, twice, without errors makes me think it's not the HDD.



It sounds like the problem is happening during the 2nd phase of the installation process, when the computer reboots and runs all the device drivers on the system, and is running from the minimal OS installed on the HDD during the first phase.



If that is when it is happening then I suspect it's one of the following, in decreasing order of liklihood:



- Memory



- Mobo (any one of the various device chipsets could be faulty)



- Device drivers/devices (maybe the mobo or devices installed require proprietary drivers that have to be installed specially during the installation...unlikely; or the devices are shot)



Could it still be the HDD? Sure, it could. I just doubt it, that's all.



Try re-doing the installation with only one 256MB bank of memory in the machine, and all but the most necessary devices installed. Then, if that works, start adding back one by one.



Good luck.



TJR

 

[Casey B]

Strip it down to the miminum when reinstalling XP. Remove any extras from the mobo such as com devices, video/audio cards (if possible), usb devices, etc... Reinstall with cpu, memory, HD, cd-rom. It's likely that it is a corrupt driver that was forced before and now XP is freezing at that point.

 

[troy malone]

check the cooling fan on the CPU also.. if dust collects on the heat sink fins, and the processor heats up , you get flaky errors like that as well...



troy

 

[blert]

Could be heat ... clean it out and check all that all your fans are functioning properly.



Could be the power supply ... they die, try a known good one.



As stated above ... remove everything except the bare minimum, especially software modems and sound cards (especially Creative sound cards).



Is it overclocked? ... if so, set it back to normal for the install.



Reseat the memory and reseat the CPU HSF.



Good luck.

 

[Richard L]

Mine had a similar problem that looked and acted like a bad HDD. It would reboot after about 15 minutes and the resulting disk scan would occasionally show errors?? Bt I happened to notice the CPU fan was stopping and starting very irratically. I replace the CPU fan and it ran just fine and still does.





...Rich