cant load xp onto pc

[dezzemm]

I am trying to reinstall xp onto a pc (a bit on the older side) but have hit a few obstacles.

Setup will get as far as reformat and start to load the setup files but at some stage then it will throw up a message that a windows file that can’t be copied correctly and another message that says that the setup file is not a valid xp system image and it may be a cd error.

You can do the usual like keep trying, skip etc and each time you try from scratch again it will come up with a different file but not necessarily reject the one previously causing the problem. If you continue setup becomes laborious and it might hang at different points - if you reboot it says that setup was not completed and tries to get back to the part where it starts the windows installation - and it might even get all the way through after a few tries.

On some occasions the attempted setup has produced the blue screen, or totally freezes or finds some other error message.

Then if its seemingly successful and the system starts, the o/s seems very a bit unstable and explorer etc might suddenly crash and Firefox can’t get off the ground - IE has a bit more luck. Some software won’t install easily as well, especially MacAfee 8.5. Some of these failures will cause the system to reboot.

I have tried a number of things like:
• a number of different set up cd's
• changed cd rom drives
• changed the hard drive
• removed any peripherals, cards etc
• reset the bios - including back to defaults
• tried windows 2000...

All to no avail, so any clues as I get the screwdriver out and open up the rubbish bin!

Thanks
Dzm

 

[BadBigBen]

Check your RAM, with a program such as MEMTEST 86+...

also the UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) has several RAM test programs that start directly from the CD...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.

 

[dezzemm]

Thanks Ben - will look into that - it has 2 512 sticks so perhaps take one out at a time and see what happens.

 

[dezzemm]

Yes - It was a faulty ram stick - running better now on half a memory - wish I could say the same about me!
Thanks again.
:-D

 

[goombawaho]

I saw that one time on my PC but I just didn't want to believe it was bad memory. I chased my tail thinking it was a bad XP CD and then maybe a bad CD-ROM.

Had I run the memory test sooner, it would have helped my sanity that day.

 

[BadBigBen]

Dezemm - glad you got it running, and found the problem... about the 1/2 mem brain, well there are fast and slow means to accomplish that, e.g. Alcohol does it slowly, so go out and have a beer... LOL...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.

 

[dezzemm]

Yep - or a red or two right now - chances are it will go better than before as i think his grumbles about the pc performace recently were obviously caused by the ram.