Antivirus applications will not load on XP Home

[OfficeAnimal]

I am trying to resurrect an old machine. I have loaded XP Home with a full disc format and am trying to install Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 (Free Edition). It starts the installation OK but stops abruptly warning of some (unspecified) error.

This machine has had AVG and Avast on it in the past but the full format should have cleared away any ghosts.

What else could be holding things up?
Thanks!

"Have you ever noticed that anyone driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone driving faster is a maniac?."
George Carlin

 

[goombawaho]

I would do a memory test. If applications are crashing, not installing, giving errors upon running them, I'm very suspicious of viruses or memory.

But, since you just reloaded windows (with a format), I'd focus on memory.

From the Ultimate Boot CD, you could run Memtest86+ and/or
Windows Memory Diagnostic

 

[OfficeAnimal]

Thanks goombawaho but you didn't quite solve the problem.
I downloaded memtest86+-4.20.iso.zip
It contains a ISO file. Hmmm! What do I do with that?

"Have you ever noticed that anyone driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone driving faster is a maniac?."
George Carlin

 

[rclarke250]

Unzip it to get the .iso, then use a program like imgburn to burn it to a blank cd, boot from the cd, and the choose what tests you want to run, and let it go. I usually let it run over night to get a good test in. But if you start seeing errors right away like in test 5 or something, you need to replace the memory dimm that is throwing the error.

 

[OfficeAnimal]

Thanks rclarke250.
I have the ISO on an otherwise blank CD.
I reboot with the CD in the CDD.
Windows comes up normally.
No offer to boot from CD.

Hmmmm ...

Now what? [}

"Have you ever noticed that anyone driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone driving faster is a maniac?."
George Carlin

 

[stduc]

Ensure Boot from CD is the first option in boot order in the BIOS.

 

[satrow]

It reads like you've burned the ISO onto a CD, you need to burn an image to CD.

http://www.calibancomputer.com/computer-tutorials.htm#burning

 

[goombawaho]

Satrow is probably right. If you put that CD in another PC, it would probably show the contents on it as being "filename.iso".

You want to use the procedure as mentioned to "unpack" all the files in the ISO and put them on the CD in a meaningful way to create an entire directory structure and a bootable CD.

I assumed too much in terms of your computer skills and I didn't give you a FULL description. Sorry about that.

 

[DrB0b]

If its an older system I would try a hard drive test too. Hard drive failure is very common and Ive seen it cause some wonky things in the past. But first get your ISO burn with imgburn like so:
1)Open imgburn:
2)Select "Write image file to disc"
3)Top left of the next window will say "Source" and below that "Please select a file"
4)A little to the right of that is a folder with a Magnifying Glass,
Click it and browse to where that .ISO file is and select it.
5)Then click on the image in the bottom left that looks like a piece of paper with an arrow pointing to a CD

6)After it is done, restart the system
7)Hit "F2" or "DEL" or "F10" at the POST screen(the first screen that pops up with words)
8)Check in the Boot Priorities section to see if your CD/DVD drive is first on the list, if not make it
9)Hit "F10" or back out of the BIOS and save and exit
If you did all that correct, memtest will auto load and you will have to do nothing but sit and wait to see if anything errors out

 

[OfficeAnimal]

I didn't know ImgBurn existed.
The first time I cut the ISO to CD I used Nero. It DOES show up in Windows Explorer as "mt420.iso".
I downloaded ImgBurner from the home site and followed DrBob's instructions. I rebooted with the CDD at top of order. Machine rebooted normally.
I now have two CDs with mt420.iso loaded.

Hmmm ... !

Now what?

"Have you ever noticed that anyone driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone driving faster is a maniac?."
George Carlin

 

[OfficeAnimal]

Urea! ... Or whatever Archimedes yelled!

I went through the ImgBurn process on my everyday machine and it worked as predicted. I have a boot disc which starts a test procedure.

The machine I am resurrecting is at least six years old so I suspect that the culprit was motherboard/hardware related.

Problem resolved. Thanks to all who assisted.

"Have you ever noticed that anyone driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone driving faster is a maniac?."
George Carlin

 

[goombawaho]

What did you find out?? You didn't mention memory, hard drive, etc. as the problem.