WinXP install stopping

[pp05]

Hi,

I've been trying to install XP on a spare pc and the installation stops with 34 mins to go. It's copies files over and reboots fine, then does the rest of installation.. But it freezes at the bit where it says "installing devices"...

Machine specs.. athlon 1400, 512ram, seagate 20gig HDD, a cheapy nvidia card.

I've tried my cd and friends cd and the problem is the same. Which tells me it's not the cds.

Any ideas what it could be? Have you had a similar prob...

[danroyle]

is it a new hard drive if no have ytou checked it for errors or damaged sectors and if it had data on it did you do a proper wipe of the drives with killdisk or similar not just format it with ntfs file system

[Clunk]

sounds like a buggered hard drive to me.

[XA04]

I agree, sounds like the hard drive. It could be memory too though.

Try something like www.ultimatebootcd.com lots of diagnostic tools. Run Memtest to test the memory, and run a program to test your hard drive for errors too (you should be able to download one from your manufacturers website, or get it from the ISO image from ultimatebootcd.com, OR get a universal tool to scan the hard drive, which is also included on the boot CD).

[pp05]

My gut instinct was it might be hard drive too.

I did notice in 1 of the install that there were some errors on main disk, which is quite old but I just formatted it. There is also a 2nd hard disk which I've tried to install XP on too.. it got as far 34th minute too.. at the same point.

North bidge fan also stopped working but that hasn't stopped it working in past.

[da_ging]

actually points more to it being a device problem, disable all the onboard bobbins like sound, lan, modem etc and take out any pci cards etc, just have 1 stick of ram , vid card and cpu installed and see if it installs then

[Clunk]

the mechanism isnt getting stuck on the cd/dvd drive is it? might be worth a clean out. Give that north bridge fan a clean, or if it wont spin at all, try blasting a desk fan into the case while you are installing..not ideal, but it should let you know if its a heat thing.

[this_is_gav]

It won't be heat if it's stopping at the same point each time.

I've only ever had this with an nLite install when using a rogue add-on - never seen it happen on 2 different (and presumably original) CDs. I'd take the advice of da_ging - minimal install first, then if that sorts things, start eliminating devices one by one.

[Neo_VR]

As above.. disable all non-essential devices on the mobo.. sound, lpt and com ports... also disable any fan-throttling/temp monitoring/qfan that it has, ive had problems in the past that turned out to be fanspeed/temp monitoring related.. the install would seem to lock up.. but turns out it had just gone very very very slow..

also might be an idea to download the relavent software from the hard drive manufacturers and do some extended tests and then a low-level format.. if there are any bad sectors.. a low-level format will re-map them and possibly make the drive useable again

[pp05]

Yeah I've done low level format. Then ntfs, then xp... problem is same. I have only 1 ram stick, cd drive, HDD and vga card to keep it simple. It could be cd rom.. if not that.. then I am baffled.

[da_ging]

have you disabled everything in the bios as suggested? , may be worth loading the fail safe defaults in the bios and then disabling everything, like serial ports, lpt, Usb , gameport, lan, sound, modem, basically everything, also have you got another vid card to use?

[pp05]

Yes I disabled sound. There isn't a lot to disable.

I don't have a spare vid card, other one packed up few months ago.