Steve Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 I boot from the XP disc and it gets to "Setup is starting Windows" and then stays there. I can't reboot using Control/Alt/Delete so it's definitely frozen. According to MS, this can happen if there is unrecognised hardware on the PC, but there's definitely not because I've installed XP before. It's not the CD, because I've tried 2 different ones that I've used successfully on other people's machines. :@ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Deeswift Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 Sheeeit. What version of XP you using? And what could possibly be unrecognized? Never heard of this problem mate. What a downer though. Not your day, is it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted April 14, 2005 Author Share Posted April 14, 2005 No it ain't! lol. I've wasted the whole day fucking about. The PC is a Compaq, so the optical discs use special clips and a slide in frame, rather than screws. It took me 2 hours to get the old DVD drive out. I nearly threw the fucking thing out of the window. I've tried the same XP as you (on 2 separate CDs just in case) and also the original XP SP1 you posted to me months ago. No joy. The only thing that has changed is this DVD drive I've installed. XP recognised it straight away though so I don't see why Windows setup wouldn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Deeswift Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 Damn. Can't think of much off-hand. Maybe try setting the BIOS to default safe settings, I know this can affect things, but unless you changed anything in the BIOS already it's probably not the problem. Maybe try changing the hard drive jumper? Maybe it's your processor? Fuck knows dude, I'm clutching at straws here. Gonna google the problem though and see if there's any info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted April 14, 2005 Author Share Posted April 14, 2005 I'll try the BIOS thing now mate. Never thought of that, but I'm pretty sure I didn't change anything. Worth a try though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Deeswift Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 No idea if this is any use: If XP is lockin up at this stage of the setup it has to be some type of issue with your hardware. You may want to try this during setup - ensure nothing unnecessary is connected the the tower. During this point along the bottom of the screen it should say "Press F6 to load third party SCSI/RAID Drivers" - When you see this Press F7 - a couple of times... Yes I really mean F7- This will load a standard HAL instead of ACPI. This may allow you to load the OS, and then you can find out more about why you cant load an ACPI HAL during setup. Another thing you may want to try is to boot off a Win 98 floppy disk that has smartdrv.exe and xcopy.exe. on it, create a partition on your hard drive , then copy the i386 folder from the Win XP CD to the hard drive. You can do a search for the Win98 floppy,smartdrv and xcopy online or try http://bootdisk.com/ - After you create the partition- run smartdrv.exe from the floppy. Then type xcopy {cd drive}:\i386 c: and hit enter. Now you can run the XP setup from the hard drive and eliminate the CD or CD ROM from being the issue. Browse to the C:\i386 folder and run the file called winnt32.exe . This will start the install without the cd only the hard drive. Please reply back to let me know if this was any help. If you need anything explained more clearly Id be happy, and also let me know.. if I do not fully understand the problem you are having. From this thread: http://forums.tweaktown.com/showthread.php...goto=nextoldest That was the final post I just quoted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Deeswift Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 One guy on a forum discovered it was his drive causing the problem: I finally got XP installed on my home built.One thing I noticed, on both WD drives, there were clicking sounds. I set the hard drives as single -one drive at a time - and powered down other drives. Also removed all pci cards - including Promise 133tx2. Clicking sounds were isolated to WD that was used for installation. I thought it was unusual. But to have both drives - both new right out of the static-free bag - go bad was highly unlikely. Or so I thought. I took one of the drives back and replaced it with another WD (only kind they carry at this size). Tried it. No clicking, no hang ups in the process. Smooth as can be. Strange part is that I took that bad drive - put in another box. Formatted okay. Wrote to it, no problems, and checked okay. That's why I eliminated the drive - even though that was the problem. http://www.techsupportforum.com/computer/topic/43604-1.html What drive you got Sig? Seems to me that this problem is more common on Western Digital drives, judging by the various threads on forums. Another possibly useful link? http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,112479,00.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Deeswift Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 OK... it's gone quiet... I'm guessing you got it to install and will be back with us shortly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted April 14, 2005 Author Share Posted April 14, 2005 OK... it's gone quiet... I'm guessing you got it to install and will be back with us shortly.No! I've tried loads of things now. Once it went to the setup screen where you press Enter to install XP, but pressing Enter did nothing because it had frozen again. What's weird is I sometimes check my disks using chkdsk in safe mode with command prompt. I tried it tonight and for both disks it says "The drive cannot be locked" and ends. I'm about ready to take a hammer to this thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Deeswift Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 Shit man, sorry to hear. I thought you'd probably fixed it. So now what? I can't think of much that would cause this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted April 14, 2005 Author Share Posted April 14, 2005 Well the only thing I can think of is this new drive I put in today. It works though and it's meant for XP, so I don't know why that would affect it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rygon Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 have you tried resetting the bios (taking the battery out) if not that maybe installing windows 98 on it then updating it with xp (as it can go trhough the system and decide whether or not it can install. sorry i cant be much help cos im not too good with pcs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Deeswift Posted April 14, 2005 Share Posted April 14, 2005 Sigma, will it let you do a "repair" install from within Windows? Or how about borrowing Grae's CD ROM and trying it again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted April 15, 2005 Author Share Posted April 15, 2005 This is fucking weird. I can get to the setup menu where it says press Enter to install or R for the recovery console, but unless I press a key as soon as the menu appears it won't work. That then takes me to the next screen, where again, if I don't press a key in a fraction of a second, the keyboard suddenly becomes inactive. I got through about 5 steps by remembering what key presses I needed and doing them really quickly, but it gets too complicated and it's fucking impossible like this. I have a cordless keyboard. Do you think it's something to do with that? This is the strangest problem I've come across on a PC - typical it has to be my own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Deeswift Posted April 15, 2005 Share Posted April 15, 2005 Could well be the problem! Try a PS2 keyboard and check it. I know for a fact that my MSI K8N Neo Platinum mobo is a complete bastard with keyboards, so you never know. The problem with the K8N is common. I didn't get any problems, but thousands did when it came to installing XP. I bet your cordless keyboard is newer than your motherboard and maybe the two are in some way incompatible. Hopefully it's something as minor as that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted April 15, 2005 Author Share Posted April 15, 2005 When I first installed XP, I didn't have a cordless keyboard, DVD writer or a TV card. I added them after installing. I've removed the TV card to see if that's the problem and disabled the new DVD drive I put in, but unfortunately this is the only keyboard I've got so I'm stuck. I've PMed Grae to see if he can pop over with one some time today so I can see if that is the cause. It better fucking be! 13 hours I've been messing with this PC on and off now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Deeswift Posted April 15, 2005 Share Posted April 15, 2005 I know the feeling mate. When I first got my broadband I got a USB modem with it. I spent 12 hours trying to figure out why it wouldn't install any drivers, I tried everything including phoning PlusNet for about 3 hours. In the end it turned out I hadn't enabled USB support in the BIOS. Fucking SIMPLE! I was so pissed off. Good luck anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted April 15, 2005 Author Share Posted April 15, 2005 Cheers mate. The PC is unusable like this. I'm gonna be offline next week anyway, so if I can't get this fucker working tomorrow, I'll see you in a week or two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Deeswift Posted April 15, 2005 Share Posted April 15, 2005 OK, you going anywhere good? Or are you just pretending you have a life? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2ndhand Posted April 15, 2005 Share Posted April 15, 2005 computer hanging during install can be an unreliable drive.i have had perpertual hanging when i changed my motherboard a few months back, and my P4 just wasnt compatible with the new board (i bought a small board to go with a small case i bought, and in the end had to take it all back to the shop, and get a regular sized case, and use my old board ~ it worked fine) definately remove that dvd writer. and try it without that. i have a 2x (yes 2x) old hp cd writer, and when we went from NT4 to windows 2000 (back in the day) if you attempted to use this writer it would hang the pc bigtime. just wasnt supported by 2000. i'll bring you a keyboard round later today. i would be surprised if it were that though. i use logitech cordless keyboards / mice and have not experienced any installation problems. the pc will see the cordless devices ok, and although none of the "extra buttons" work until you are all installed, they do work ok with the generic ps2 mouse / kb drivers. never know though. hangers in my experience turn out to be the aged hard drive i am using. you get a pc, it starts acting shit (usually hanging in windows) so you reformat and reinstall. turns out the drive wont take a reinstall. i'll bring another drive too. although steve probably aint gonna read this . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted April 15, 2005 Author Share Posted April 15, 2005 Cheers Grae. What time are you gonna come over? This problem seems to be reasonably common. I've found quite a few people on forums with the same thing. Some are brand new machines too. If you boot an XP PC with no keyboard or no mouse (one or the other) connected, should it pop up a message telling you? 98 would, but I can boot my machine with neither plugged in and it starts up fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rygon Posted April 15, 2005 Share Posted April 15, 2005 i thought it gives you a spoken word message nowadays...so if you havent got your speakers on you wouldnt hear it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Deeswift Posted April 15, 2005 Share Posted April 15, 2005 You mean like a talking motherboard? I thought very few did this. My MSI has a set of 4 LED's that light in 16 possible configurations during the boot process. I can diagnose problems depending on the combination. Having speakers would no difference though, I bet almost all of us have a mini speaker built into our cases. I still think it's either the keyboard or drive that's causing the problem anywayz. Can't imagine it being anything else. Damn, I can't type today... just had to edit loads! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2ndhand Posted April 15, 2005 Share Posted April 15, 2005 i never actually installed xp with a cordless keyboard.i always install windows 2000 first. i will be round about 2:30 (chinese dentist time) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Deeswift Posted April 15, 2005 Share Posted April 15, 2005 You install 2000 and then XP? Why is this Grae? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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