WinXP installation problem

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Whoopysnorp

Whoopysnorp

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I just got Windows XP Pro and was installing it this morning. I backed up everything and formatted my hard drive so I could do a clean install. It seemed to install OK, but it won't boot into the OS when I try to start it up (unless I use safe mode). The Windows XP loading screen fades in, the little blue progress indicator slides across the status bar once, and then everything stops and I have to turn off the power. I noticed that although going into safe mode works, going into safe mode with network support also crashes the machine. I tried disabling my network card in the device manager, but that didn't work. Unless anybody has any better ideas, I plan to remove a number of my cards and try booting with a stripped-down setup. FWIW, here's what I've got in there:

Linksys ethernet card
Delta 66
SB Live
Matrox G450

Thanks in advance. And by the way, I thought it was hysterical how when it gives you the safe boot option screen, it's apologetic. "We apologize for the inconvenience, but..." Who's "we"?
 
OK, that didn't work. I pulled out all my cards except the video card and it still wouldn't boot. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled Windows, and it still wouldn't boot. Little help?
 
Whoop!

What's up? Okay - first off, any blue screen (even it doesn't look that way in XP) is almost always due to a driver conflict. Riddle me this - did you see any file references upon the error message from Windows? Anything with .sys or something like that?

Also - have you tried walking through each driver and load em one at a time to see where the failure occurs?

Update when you can.

Cheers,

Cuzin B
 
I had a similar problem

though I could still boot up it appeard my network card conflicted with everything. . . but it was actually the various network clients crashing

I go to start - run - type msconfig - go to startup tab - click disable all - go to serveces tab - click disable all - reenable any sound card manager you might have - hit apply - ok - then reboot

XP seems to be very anti-networking

hope that helps
 
Whoopysnorp,

Did Xp appear to install ok? Any error messages or hangups along the way?

Have you tried reinstalling XP? It may have been just a weird glitch in the install process. Or it could be one of your cards resulted in something screwy during install. You could try pulling out any non-essential cards and then reinstalling XP. You can then add cards one at a time and see if any of them is the problem. I have the Matrox G450 and XP Pro and had no trouble, so you can rule that out as a potential problem.

Also, I think there is some key you can hit (I think F8 or F5) before Windows starts to load that will give you boot options. One of these will show you each driver as it is loaded and ask if you want to install it or not. If there is an error somewhere, I think it gives you an error message.

Good luck.
 
I had to redo the installation of XP 3 times to get mine to work, starting from a newly formatted, clean partition. Even when the install appears to work properly, it sometimes doesn't. The pain for me was that the machine wouldn't boot the CDROM- I had to do a floppy boot, and copy the contents of the CDROM to the D: drive manually, before the install would work. Trying to install off the CDROM from a floppy boot gave me a BSOD halfway through the installation process twice...

Once it is up, XP is usable: but IMNSHO, the XP installation process is an unmitigated disaster. I'd just reinstall again over the existing installation. Lather, rinse, repeat, hopefully someday it will work. Took me 2 10-hour days.

Several sites have said "never install XP over any existing OS! Do clean installs only!". All I can say is "it sure doesn't appear to work unless you repeatedly install it over itself, so so much for that advice"...

Sigh. Best of luck.
 
All,

I have personally managed over 150 installs of XP on a variety of hardware (good, bad and ugly) since it first appeared last October and none of them have exhibited the issues reported here. In the one or 2 boxes that did give me a problem, it was a direct hardware problem that was the cause of a derailed install.

When compared against other MS product - the XP install is the very best I have seen. And please remember what an install really is - not just copying a bunch of files to a partition - it is a surgical mix of the XP software and subsystems getting acqainted with your hardware. While XP has performed rock solid in 99% of the installs I have done, there is no substitute for a good hardware environment to begin with. That sometimes means getting things up to spec. Not just video and network cards - but motherboards, hard drives, controllers...and other stuff too.

I noticed that no one in here has bother to mention the reall important stuff like what kind of box your are attempting to install XP on. Let's get some specifics out here to see if we can identify an problems.

All it takes is one circa 1998 piece of crap piece of hardware to throw this thing into a tizzy.

Cuzin B
 
Thanks for the advice, guys. I think I'm on my third reinstall now. It doesn't give any file references when it crashes. Here's something interesting: when I boot into safe mode, it spits out a list of drivers it's loading, and then the screen changes to the XP safe mode screen and my mouse pointer comes up, blah blah blah. But if I try safe mode with networking, it spits out the same list of drivers, but then freezes. I think zek may be onto something. I'll try that when I get home. If that doesn't work, I may try nierbo's suggestion of removing the cards and then installing the OS.
 
I didn't see your 2nd post before I replied, Cuzin B. Well, I'm not running the newest of machines. It's an IBM Aptiva that I bought in 2000, though I've upgraded a number of things on it. It originally had a 500 Mhz Athlon processor, which I've replaced with a 700 Mhz. The chipset is the AMD-751 on some motherboard made by 'Anigma' (I can't find any motherboard info on their website). I have 384 MB of PC100 RAM, a 20 gig and a 40 gig Maxtor hardrive both running at ATA/66, an AOpen DVD-ROM drive, and a Plextor CD-RW drive. I think the oldest card in it is the SBLive, and all the other ones I bought in either 2001 or 2002. Wait, I take it back--I got the network card in late 2000.
 
Whoop!

What were you running prior to the XP install? Win 98 or 98 SE? This hardware looks just fine....should be no problem. I suspect some other smaller fly in the ointment here...like a card or something.

I would pull everything out (except video) and try it again from scratch.

Let us know what shakes down.

Cheers,

Cuzin B
 
I was running 98se. I'll futz around some more with it after band practice tonight and if all goes well, I'll be able to post an update from my own home rather than here at work.
 
Still no go so far. My PC is F-ed in the A right now. I've disconnected my 2nd hard drive; I'm going to try reformatting the C drive in NTFS or something and install without the 2nd HD there and see what happens.
 
Ive run it to this a couple of times, and each time it has been a bios problem. On one, flashing this bios did the trick, on another, setting the bios to failsafe and turning everything off, then added it back in solved the problem.
 
Here's my update: flashing the bios didn't help. I spent about an hour on the phone with a Microsoft tech support dude this morning, who was pretty confounded by my problem. After a while, he came to the conclusion that there's probably a compatibility problem between XP and my motherboard (Anigma S30, AMD750 chipset). The only hardware left in there besides the drives is the video card, and I tried swapping it for a different one, with no success. He said there have been known issues with IBM Aptivas and XP, and that mobo is about the only thing left that was in the PC when I bought it. Tonight I'll try installing the AMD motherboard drivers just to be sure, and I may also try pulling some of my RAM in case I have a bad stick, but if that doesn't work, I'll just go back to 98 until I decide whether I want to try a new motherboard in there. Even though this is a strange board, it's been very stable, and I don't want to have to change it.
 
Whoop,

If at all possible, you might think about ditching that board and moving over to something from ASUS for example. Their older boards (if you can find one) are real cheap and well worth the upgrade. In USD, you could probably nab one for 75 bucks.

Now whether or not the board will go in that IBM Aptiva case is another matter. I feel for ya since I went through this with Dell a while back. Try as I might, I could not get decent DAW performance from a "brand name" box.

So I build my current rig in Nov of 2001. Cost me about 900 CDN when I was finished. But man - it kicks ass. Most of the box CPU/RAM/MOBO is old hat now but I have got some real good service from this unit. Runs XP like a dream and it's only a 1 GHZ chip.

Cheers,

Cuzin B
 
I wouldn't have a problem with spending a few bucks on a motherboard, but there are some complications. Number one, I can't really justify spending a lot of money, because I have to save it for my semester in Spain. So I don't want to have to buy another chip. My processor is a Slot A, and there aren't a whole lot of Slot A boards out there. Most of those use a VIA chipset, which I understand are death for audio. I found some Gigabyte boards that use the AMD 750 chipset, but they have mixed reviews. I found an Asus K7V-T which uses the VIA KT133 chipset for 50 bucks. If it'll fit in my case, it'd be OK. It's a larger board, though. I'm going to measure things tonight. But it's a VIA. I use a Delta 66--am I going to run into VIA problems with only 4 channels of I/O? I've heard that you don't start having those problems until you get around 10 tracks of I/O, but I'm still wary.
 
Whoop - looks like you are in a bit of a spot -

1. I seriously doubt that ASUS board will fit the Aptiva. The standard "brand name" cases are largely proprietary and that means "hassle-time".

2. VIA and Delta do not get along at all. I have heard of a few folks getting them to work but it's not worth the trouble.

3. Finally - your machine with it's current config. Even if you did get XP up, you probably wouldn't be thrilled with the performance. I drew the line at around 800MHZ for any XP install in my world. Too much overhead for a lower chip speed. I mean - it works but it ain't great.

For your machine - best medicine would probably be a fresh install of Win 98 SE with all the tweaks and that should get you back up until such time that the cashflow allows for some groovy updates.

Like I always say - If it ain't broke...

PS - At least you'll be recording, which is a whole lot more fun than pissin' around with motherboards!.

Cheers,

Cuzin B
 
Yeah, I'll probably just go back to 98. It's a shame though. It's like not being able to use a new toy. At least I only paid 5 bucks for XP, so I'm not out of a bunch of cash. Well, thanks for the advice.
 
Hi guys. Hope you get the beast working Whoopy. Cuzin, I don't want to dispute what you've said, you obviously know more about this stuff than I do - but - isn't the Via issue a thing of the past? I'm running the Iwill kk266 mobo with the Via kt133a (?)chipset and I've had no issues. I did install the latency patch by George Breese (check sp - links have been posted here and at AudioForums). My cpu is the AMD T-bird 1.4 clocked to 1.575.

Anywho I know there was a problem. Is there still?

lou
 
Sky,

Yeah - like I said it works for some...not so much for others. Are you using M-Audio products? Like a Delta card?

For me - recording/making music is what matters so I just go Intel all the way (CPU/chipset etc) with ASUS motherboards...Tried, tested and true. Never had a problem...probably never will.

And while we are on that topic - I am just specing out my next box right now...looks like a:

Intel 2.4a GHZ Northwood chip with 1GB of DDR2700 RAM all wrapped up in a ASUS P4B533-V mobo. Totally smokes!

Cuzin B
 
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