Completely Stumped on this particular Install of WIN XP...please HELP!!

**Unfortunate Fool** · January 4th, 2004, 05:56 PM

Okay, Here's the system:

P4 2.5 gig
1 gig ram
ati radeon 9600
ECS L4VXA2 Motherboard
Hitachi 180 gig HD
DVD-RW Drive

I format the Hard Drive properly with the proper formatting software (2 partitions, both NTFS). Then I restart, put in the WinXP Pro disc, all of the files start to load from the CD, then when everything is loaded and it says "Setup is starting Windows"................and it just hangs there.

At first I thought it was the Hard Drive, but then I took that and put it into another system of mine, and Windows XP loaded just fine. THEN I took the hard drive from the working computer, and tried to install Win XP into the system with the problem (it was a Maxtor 80 gig that I was putting in), and the same problem happened.

I swapped the IDE cables already, so I'm not suspecting that as the culprit. All the jumpers are fine. The motherboards from the 2 computers are also exactly the same (ECS L4VXA2). I'm also not suspecting a burnt out motherboard, since I just had this system working (and even benchmarking the video card online). The copy of XP that I have is fine, too. I'm just re-installing Windows.... PLEASE HELP!!!!

**Peter M** · January 4th, 2004, 05:57 PM

RAM test. www.memtest86.com

**Omardeth** · January 4th, 2004, 06:06 PM

you say you have 1 gig of memory . is it 2 sticks of 512 or 1 stick at 1gig ? if it is 2 sticks try the install with 1 stick . or move the memory to different slots . if you have it in 1and 2 slot move to 2and 3 or 1 and 3

**Unfortunate Fool** · January 4th, 2004, 06:10 PM

Yeah, it's 2 sticks of ram. I've tried to install XP with just one stick, but that didn't work either. I haven't tried to move that one stick into another slot yet.....nor have I just pulled out that ram from the problem system and put the ram in from the working system and try that. I'll go ahead and try that now.

If there are any other possibilities, let me know! THANKS SO MUCH!!!

**Omardeth** · January 4th, 2004, 07:06 PM

i know on other ecs boards they can be picky about ram . the only time i have had problems installing the os like you speak of it is a ram issue .

**John Prophet** · January 4th, 2004, 07:18 PM

Its not anything like an SATA or Raid drive is it? or, are you using an ATA 133 pci controller card?

**MrNiceGuy77** · January 5th, 2004, 01:42 PM

You said the drive is cut in 2 NTFS partitions... What formatting software did you use? Even though the hard drive works just fine on the "working" PC, we should take things step by step, and make sure everything is OK from the very begining.

On service calls I always use a DOS boot CD with DELPART and FDISK functionality... and start completely from SCRATCH. I delete any detected partitions w/ DELPART. Then reboot and use FDISK to define 1 partition first -- and then define any other partitions with WinXP built-in disk manager from the desktop. This "first" partition is FAT32 and can be converted to NTFS once you confirmed everything boots to the desktop ok.

Boot w/ the DOS boot CD again (w/ CD rom support), change to CD-drive, insert winxp setup CD and begin installing from there.

Let me know if this process gives you a better result.

**Leparasy** · January 5th, 2004, 03:06 PM

I Would Start with installing windows 98 and then upgrade using your xp Cd and would you have 256mb to insert in your memory bank

**TM12** · January 5th, 2004, 05:32 PM

What OS were you using before? The same XP disk? Did you recently install it on the same system with that same drive? It seems strange that, all things being equal, it doesn't want to play. I'm also kind of interested in knowing how you formatted the partitions to NTFS without using the XP disk. Did you set the boot partition to "Active".

**Unfortunate Fool** · January 5th, 2004, 06:16 PM

Originally posted by John Prophet
Its not anything like an SATA or Raid drive is it? or, are you using an ATA 133 pci controller card?

No, just IDE.

Originally posted by MrNiceGuy77
You said the drive is cut in 2 NTFS partitions... What formatting software did you use?

I know you're going to make fun of me for this, but I used Maxtor's Maxblast 3 utility....and YES, I know I have a Hitachi hard drive. But that program is pretty straight-forward and treats all hard drives the same (apparnetly). I've used that program on a few diferent brand hard drives and I've never had a problem like this. And keep in mind, the Maxblast3 partitioning software worked just fine with the Hitachi drive on the other system (which don't forget, has the same motherboard as the 'problem' system).

Originally posted by TM12
What OS were you using before? The same XP disk?

There was no other OS than WinXP Pro on the hard drive.

I'm also kind of interested in knowing how you formatted the partitions to NTFS without using the XP disk. Did you set the boot partition to "Active".

Like I said, I initially used Maxblast3 for partitioning. And yeah, I set it to ACTIVE.

....Well here's the latest update. I'm typing to you guys on the problem computer.....so I actually got it to work with some trickery, unfortunately. What I ended up doing was put the hard drive in the WORKING system, loaded up the first sequence of XP onto the hard drive on (the DOS-looking blue screen that I was having initial problems with....and yeah, it got past the part where it was initially hanging on the problem computer). And then when it prompted to reset the computer (the screen with the 15 second countdown bar), I turned off the system, swapped the hard drive back into the problem system, and continued to load Windows from there. And everything was looking just fine....

*UNTIL...*

When I was doing the Windows update and downloading SP1, it eventually prompted me to restart the computer. So like normal, that's what I did. Then it got to black "scrolling bar" WinXP screen (the 'splash screen', is it called?)....and it SAT there for 30 minutes. At first I said, "Maybe there's lots of changes SP1 had to make, so I'll just let it think". Eventually it turned on and was working like a normal system. So right then after it fully loaded up and sat there for a couple minutes, I restarted the computer again, hoping that I wouldn't have to wait another 30 minutes...but there it sat. 30 minutes past by and I got pissed off and turned the computer off. Then I chose "Last known Good Configuration", and it sat there for only about 5-6 minutes until it loaded up. I've since restarted like this (because of updating drivers and programs and such) about 2-3 times now. This last time I restarted, the computer got to the "Welcome" screen, and automatically reset itself. So I just left it alone to see if it will boot on it's own (without having to chose "last known good configuration"). It loaded up in less than 2 minutes (which is still a long time, standardly I guess), but now my GUI looks like Windows 2000, and I don't even have the OPTION to switch the GUI back to the traditional Win XP look. .....So FrEaKiNg STRANGE....

Anyway, that's where we stand right now. I'm just so pissed off right now. If someone reccomends hitting it with a sledge hammer to fix the problem, I just might be tempted to do that >:(

Why does it hang like that? That's actually a seprate question I've been wanting to ask. I was working on this lady's computer a few months back, and it took upwards of 2 days to get her computer to load. I've seen problems like this with WinXP in other cases, too. What traditionally causes this severe waiting game?

**TM12** · January 5th, 2004, 06:23 PM

My dad used to tell me that sometimes you could fix things with a big....uh, nevermind. Seriously, what prompted you to want to re-install? And, based on what you just wrote, I'd be tempted to say ram is a possibility. Can you borrow your friend's ram and try it in your board. Mobos really are picky about ram.

**MrNiceGuy77** · January 6th, 2004, 01:09 AM

Do both your "working" and "problem" computers use the same video card? WinXP loads drivers during the splash screen. To further confirm that the long hang times are due to a driver issue, boot up in safe mode. If both your problem pc and working pc boot up in approx the same time in safe mode, then the problem pc (w/ it's assumed different video card?) made be the culprit.

**Unfortunate Fool** · January 6th, 2004, 01:39 AM

the 2 Graphics cards I have are:

- Visiontek XTASY ATI Radeon 9600 pro w/ 256 mb ddr ram (Problem system).
- Gainward GeForce4 MX w/ 64 mb ddr ram (working system).

To be completely honest, I haven't tried to put the GeForce on the problem system and tried loading it up. I'll do that right now (d'oh! I feel a potential solution coming on.... Cross your fingers!!)

**danmaday** · January 6th, 2004, 03:04 AM

Hi

I had a problem like yours. I thought it was the RAM (wasn't), thought it was the mobo (wasn't), thought it was the video card (wasn't), thought it was the power supply (wasn't). After 7 months in RMA hell I discovered it was the processor. I returned my AMD processor over the objections of the tech support guy at AMD. Got a new one and all my problems went away.

I suggest, if you can, that you swap processors with a slower one that will work with the mobo. A benefit of a slower processor is that it will not generate so much heat.

You might also want to look at your cpu temperature. If you are running hot or close to it the processor sometimes will go crazy.

Dan

**Ritalin Kid** · January 6th, 2004, 05:51 PM

I've run into that problem a couple of times when trying to install WinXP on systems with cheapo GF2 MX200 video cards.

For a fix I would keep a GF3 or GF2 MX 400 around to pop in there. I would completely install Windows XP with my GF3 or GF2 MX400 and once everything checked out ok I would pop in the GF2 MX200 and it would be cool. This has been a common problem with XP that I have encountered atleast 4-5 times working on different PCs.

Another fix I would suggest is setting your BIOS to Fail Safe Defaults and making sure that fast writes is disabled as I hear ATI cards don;t generally like that setting to be turned on.