Windows XP Installation on old hardware.

Hello,

I am attempting to install Windows XP Professional on a Pentium III, 600MHz machine with 384 Ram and a 40GB hard-disk but cannot get passed the Windows Setup Screen, in particular loading the Windows Executive that follows "Set-up is inspecting your systems configuration".

I'll list what i've done in my attempt to get beyond loading the Windows Executive.

Tried an alternative copy of Windows XP Professional
Removed second cd-rom drive.
Tried an alternative cd-rom drive.
Removed excess memory, lowering the total to 128.
Reset bios to defaults.

Is there anyone else who may have become stuck at the same point i am during setup and has an idea of the kind of problems that can cause setup to freeze at this point?

Thank you,

laze.

how long does it sit on that screen for? May take a while to inventory your system with a low end CPU. That said, the hardware should (just) run XP.

Have you formatted the drive it's going on or are you upgrading from an installed copy of Windows?

check memory and hard drive for any errors?

It should, in theory, be fine - i've installed it on machines with less cpu (although more RAM) than that and it's fine..

I'll run memtest86 & the hdd manfufacturers diagnostics and report back.

Low-level formatted the hard-disk and ran the manufacturers diagnostic utilities, no errors.

However, memtest86 freezes on test 2 at 14%. I have tried all combinations of installing the memory modules, yet it still freezes at 14%.

Any ideas?

New memory?

Good chance that's the problem then..

I've tried all 3 sticks of 128Ram independently of each other, they cannot all be faulty.

laze.

I just installed XP on a pc with a 350mhz CPU, 8gig Hard drive and 128mb ram. Took awhile but loaded ok and installed programs. Going to put another 128mb ram in.

I never had any doubts whether or not the hardware was capable of running XP.

I don't suppose anyone could shed some light on the memtest86 freezing i'm experiencing? Perhaps offer a few suggestions i may not have thought of?

try memtest86+ tends to be less buggy, it might just be a bug.

Myself i'd look at the mainboard or the CPU, is it flashed to the latest BIOS?

Could there be any simple thermal problems