Problems loading XP/2K, but Linux ok? WTH?

**gospeed.racer** · 03-31-2006, 12:44 AM

Yeah, the cd rom is fine...but I did try preloading the system too, so I ruled it out that way.

Wish it had a seperate video card, I would try one as a last chance. It seems like video drivers are the issue, as it hangs on the ati driver in safe mode when you try to boot.

the laptop is in great condition and battery holds a great charge...runs very fast...but only on Linux/98se

**will1384** · 03-31-2006, 12:55 AM

Originally Posted by gospeed.racer

...but see here's the problem..
-Already flashed the Bios to current
-Already swapped out the hard drive/memory/cpu
-Already unseated/reseated/tested unplugged the keyboard and mouse and other connectors.
-and finally, this laptop CAME with XP on it, and wont even reinstall with Compaq CD's, let alone my original and homebrew stuff. It tries, but BSOD's at the same point every time (right after you hit F8 to accept the agreement) or on compaq's disk, right after you first see the XP boot screen.

I am fully convinced its a hardware thing. And yes, Comcrap (funny, same thing I call Comcast too!) fits it well. As far as laptops go, I am sold on Dell. I wont own a HP or Comcrap. This was just a fixer upper.

its funny you said that I help my boss do dell work orders -
and they have had lot of problems - faulty capacitors -

they wanted us to fix 1700 computers in one place - out of state -
lost it to local techs, I saw 3 dell OptiPlexs at the shop dead
from faulty capacitors just out of warranty - and my boss has
replaced countess dell motherboards in the last few months

my dad was at the veterans hospital and one went pop and died
right there - a OptiPlex - and 3 OptiPlexs at my dads work have
gone dead in the last 6 months

**DaveB** · 03-31-2006, 12:56 AM

Have you tried slipstreaming Windows XP to SP2 and then installing it?

**gospeed.racer** · 03-31-2006, 01:08 AM

My home brew unattended XP cd's are SP2 (and I tried an old sp1 I had lying around too)

The XP home cd that I tried is also SP2

**DaveB** · 03-31-2006, 01:08 AM

You know, the point in time where you hit F8 and it BSODs is right when its going to look at the hardrive partition. You said you replaced the HDD. Is there anything out of the ordinary specified in the BIOS for the HDD? Have you enabled large disk support or anything? What are your BIOS settings for the HDD?

**gospeed.racer** · 03-31-2006, 01:15 AM

I have tried both a known good 30gb and a old but working 9gb hard drive, and all are formatted (as a slave drive in a working xp system, just a full ntsf format)

Maybe it doesnt like the ntsf? The only fat I have tried is when I ran 98se (same drives) I thought maybe it had bad communication to the drive (maybe the ide was going out? etc..) but thats when I found Linux works fine...ruling out an issue with communication with the drive (i would think)

**DaveB** · 03-31-2006, 01:23 AM

You said both drives were previously formatted.

Have you tried FDISK'ing the hardrive to delete the partition so that nothing existed on the drive before you try to install XP?

When you boot into BIOS, what does it say for the drive?

I'm guessing that it doesn't like the hardrive controller or the hardrive. But it may be that a change to the BIOS setting for the drive might help. Lets start by looking at how things are set right now.

**gospeed.racer** · 03-31-2006, 01:34 AM

The hard drives both show in bios, I have tried fdisking and formatting in fat, but XP still goes to a BSOD before it asks how you want to format the drive. There are no options in bios for the hard drive except to password protect it. There is an option I have never heard of..."PXE enable/disable" but it is disabled.

Another oddity is the BSOD's rarely are the same...this last time for example it says "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA which I havent seen before. Usually it does the "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" but will usually have ifferent stop: 0x0000..... numbers and sometimes the description will say to check for installed programs, hard disk...seen a lot of different ones.

**DaveB** · 03-31-2006, 01:47 AM

You're pretty saavy so I assume you have a boot disk that will boot ME or 98 SP2 but if you don't, you can go to www.bootdisk.com and download yourself a boot disk. Boot to the command prompt, then use FDISK from the bootdisk to erase the partition. Then try your XP install again.

Regarding the BIOS, if you can, please, boot into BIOS and on the IDE screen tell me what it says for the disk. It will probably be set to AUTO to auto detect the disk. What I'm interested in is what it found for the disk size, cyl, large disk mode, etc....

**gospeed.racer** · 03-31-2006, 01:53 AM

The hard drive is a IBM-DARA-209000-(PM)
it is set on auto...
LBA format
7660160 total sectors
9042 max capacity
16 sectors multi-sector transfers
lba mode enabled
32 bit I/O enabled
transfer mode Fast PIO 4
Ultra dma mode 4