Hardware/XP Question
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I am trying to install XP on my dads computer because his suddenly got a case of reboot as soon as it starts up. So I am trying to install XP on a spare drive. When it is in the copy files mode it will suddenly stop and say something about file not copied etc etc. I have switched between 2 cd drives 2 XP Home cds and I even tried my XP Pro CD. I have tried it on 2 different HDs. I tried cleaning one of the XP Home cds and that didn't help. I can kind of coax it along switching between Home and Pro cds whenever it gets an error. I don't want to do that because it will probably take forever and I have no idea what kind of result I will get (maybe XP Phrome :P) I can only imagine that it is a hardware problem but I don't know where to look. Its an OEM system so everything is integrated. Anyone have any ideas? Matt Newman
Sonork: 100:11179 "Jokes should at least try to be intelligent - this is just toilet humor" - Heath Stewart -
I am trying to install XP on my dads computer because his suddenly got a case of reboot as soon as it starts up. So I am trying to install XP on a spare drive. When it is in the copy files mode it will suddenly stop and say something about file not copied etc etc. I have switched between 2 cd drives 2 XP Home cds and I even tried my XP Pro CD. I have tried it on 2 different HDs. I tried cleaning one of the XP Home cds and that didn't help. I can kind of coax it along switching between Home and Pro cds whenever it gets an error. I don't want to do that because it will probably take forever and I have no idea what kind of result I will get (maybe XP Phrome :P) I can only imagine that it is a hardware problem but I don't know where to look. Its an OEM system so everything is integrated. Anyone have any ideas? Matt Newman
Sonork: 100:11179 "Jokes should at least try to be intelligent - this is just toilet humor" - Heath StewartMatt Newman wrote: Anyone have any ideas? You've already taken the CD, CD-ROM and HDD out of the problem equation. Only other easily swapped and tested item I can think of is IDE cables. Put another one in and test it again. Other possibilities are RAM and the IDE ports on the motherboard itself. I mention RAM as I have had machines in the past that worked fine with Windows 9x and then fail with Linux. This I believe is due to memory being handled differently between the operating systems. Windows XP would be more demanding on memory (using every last bit). What OS was on there previously? Michael Martin Australia "I personally love it because I can get as down and dirty as I want on the backend, while also being able to dabble with fun scripting and presentation games on the front end." - Chris Maunder 15/07/2002
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Matt Newman wrote: Anyone have any ideas? You've already taken the CD, CD-ROM and HDD out of the problem equation. Only other easily swapped and tested item I can think of is IDE cables. Put another one in and test it again. Other possibilities are RAM and the IDE ports on the motherboard itself. I mention RAM as I have had machines in the past that worked fine with Windows 9x and then fail with Linux. This I believe is due to memory being handled differently between the operating systems. Windows XP would be more demanding on memory (using every last bit). What OS was on there previously? Michael Martin Australia "I personally love it because I can get as down and dirty as I want on the backend, while also being able to dabble with fun scripting and presentation games on the front end." - Chris Maunder 15/07/2002
I'm glad you responded as when you did, I was about to go out and buy a new motherboard. I swapped ram with another working machine. I never thought to try another IDE cable (Lord knows I have plenty of extra IDE cables :rolleyes: ) It was running XP before. I think it may be the IDE Controller though (of course like any good OEM machine its integrated). Even when it was new it never seemed to handle disk access very well. I originally wrote it off as Win ME but the problem still existed to a smaller degree when we upgraded it to XP. I'll try the IDE cable thing tomorrow morning and see if it resolves it. [EDIT] I decided to sacrafice needed sleep to try it, but I didn't waste much. It did the same thing with known working IDE cables. Guess its off to buy the mobo, the wonderful mobo of ... You know, I better just get some sleep :) [/EDIT] btw I forgot how loud those old 5400 rpm 10.2 Gig HDs are. I have a barracuda IV (which is regarded as one of the quitest drives I guess, I didn't know that when I bought it) and I thought that thing was suspiciously loud after I silenced my cooling. With this old thing running I can't even hear my machine its kind of scary ;P Matt Newman
Sonork: 100:11179 "Jokes should at least try to be intelligent - this is just toilet humor" - Heath Stewart -
Matt Newman wrote: Anyone have any ideas? You've already taken the CD, CD-ROM and HDD out of the problem equation. Only other easily swapped and tested item I can think of is IDE cables. Put another one in and test it again. Other possibilities are RAM and the IDE ports on the motherboard itself. I mention RAM as I have had machines in the past that worked fine with Windows 9x and then fail with Linux. This I believe is due to memory being handled differently between the operating systems. Windows XP would be more demanding on memory (using every last bit). What OS was on there previously? Michael Martin Australia "I personally love it because I can get as down and dirty as I want on the backend, while also being able to dabble with fun scripting and presentation games on the front end." - Chris Maunder 15/07/2002
Michael Martin wrote: I mention RAM as I have had machines in the past that worked fine with Windows 9x and then fail with Linux. Interesting. I have one machine that refuses to accept Windows of any flavor - it boots with a corrupt registry after a fresh install. But installing Linux works perfectly, even though Linux declares that there isn't enough RAM to work. Gremlins exist, and they live inside dusty old PCs.
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