Installing XP on an Acer Laptop Travelmate 342TM

[Lugubrizione]

I'm having difficulties installing w2k and xp on my Acer Travelmate 342 TM. Approximately halfway into the file copying/installation, it hangs and doesn't respond to anything but power off.

It had Win ME originally, but for apparent reasons, that isn't good enough for me... I made a dual boot with w2k, but the system freezed up when i tried to defrag or transfer files from harddrive.

Specs:
Acer Travelmate 342TM:
Intel Pentium III - 450 - 256MB SDRAM
New BIOS (at least the latest from Acer...)
Storage: I don't know, but probably an IBM 18GB or similar. I'll edit this info when I have dismantled the little bugger...

According to Acer website, the laptop should be able to cope with w2k and xp, especially with the new BIOS version (which I have installed).

What do I have to do to be able to run w2k or xp?
1. Try unoriginal BIOS to tweak down the CPU?
2. Install a new harddrive?

 

[wolluf]

Is there a virus checker enables in the bios (disable it if there is). Other than that, a hardware problem (eg, RAM) - but more difficult to troubleshoot on laptop than desktop.

 

[Lugubrizione]

All hardware is original from Acer, and I suspect the hard drive gets too hot with NTFS.

Unfortunately, there's no CD or floppy, which means I have to keep system files on at least one partiton to be able to load boot files from ethernetcard or PCMCIA...

Can I hook up a CD-rom as slave using cable converters and external PSU?

Everyone was a n00b when they started hacking...
There's no such thing as a stupid question - Only stupid answers! But read FAQ's first, eh?