THE OPERATING SYSTEM STOPS INSTALLING

[dhar25]

I have a E' Machine note book computer which crashed suddenly.
The last time it happened I could not bring it back so tried to use the rescue disk and reformat the hard drive but the system no longer was able to see the hard drive.

So I bought a new hard drive and the problem was solved with the rescue disk that came with the notebook.

Now 2 years later the system crashed again noting is working in terms of bringing it back. So used the rescue disk to reformat again... but Operating system stops half way through the instillation process.

I suspect again that the hard drive got bad. Is there any other reasons for the Operating system not installing?

Your suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance

 

[BadBigBen]

Bad RAM...

would be such a reason...

actually pretty much any hardware defect would do it...

Ben

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

 

[YellowOnline]

Try to run memtest from a bootable disk or cd-rom (

http://www.memtest.org/)

and you'll soon know if it is a RAM problem or not. If not, like BadBigBen said it can be pretty much any hardware. Even though 2 years is a short lifespan for a HDD, I'd guess it is the hard disk. you could try running from a bootable cd or disk a HDD test tool from the manufacturer of your HD (see his website).

Yellow

 

[G0AOZ]

Despite all the manufacturer's blurb about hard drives supposedly withstanding certain G-forces (when switched off and heads parked), I still believe it is better NOT to move a laptop about when the disk is spinning. I see a considerable number of laptop hard drive problems, which invariably result in a replacement disk being fitted. As YellowOnline says, 2 years is a rather short lifespan, but unfortunately this seems relatively common for the laptop computer...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[wahnula]

When my OS CDs stop working I try making a copy of the OS CD with Nero at a reduced speed (say, 12x) and set it to verify after copying. You'd be surprised how many times this has worked.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[dhar25]

I have now installed a new hard drive and a new RAM 512 MB[ [original was 256 MB ].

Now the recovery CD goes through the copying the Windows XP file to the hard drive, then the XP main screen comes on and it starts copy the equipments like key-board etc .

Half the way through this process, it quits .
This is what happened before I put a new HD and RAM.

I am now clueless as to how to fix this and I am at point I cannot afford to buy a new laptop!

Any advise to fix this will be greatly appreciated.

 

[wahnula]

This sounds like a physical problem with the media itself, as in a scratched or damaged CD or possibly a defective CD-ROM. Do you have access to another copy of XP? It will probably work if the Service Pack level is the same, but you will not have any of the default eMachines apps.

Did you try making a copy of your original install media like I recommended earlier and loading from the copy?

As an aside you should only do one change at a time, like installing a hard drive, making sure it works, then installing the new RAM. Although the probability is low, I would still recommend going back to the 256 MB RAM that you know works.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[dhar25]

I first changed the hard drive because it worked 2 years ago, this time it did not work, so someone in this forum mentioned it could be a bad RAM so I changed the RAM and I still have the problem.

This happened after al 3 CDs finished installing, it tells you to remove the CD. Then the system starts detecting the components and starts to install them. Then at about 60% completion it quits every time.

The 256 Ram I tried in another lab-top just to check, it creates the same problem in that too, so it seems that old 256 RAM was defective!

 

[wahnula]

So...what happens when you turn on the laptop now? Does it boot into Windows and then start detecting hardware? Or is there a Blue Screen with a STOP message? What exactly does it say?

Is there a recovery partition on your new hard drive created by the installation CDs? Can you boot into that partition (usually a choice during POST).

Can you boot into Safe Mode?

Just trying to figure out where exactly you are in the process. Keep the faith, even though it is an Emachine...

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[dhar25]

it seem to complete the Recovery CD installation process, then it re-starts with Windows XP screen on.

Then starts to detect the components and half way through this process it either quits or shuts off the lap-top.

When I restart it , it wants go through the recovery process again from the start with the CDs. After about 20 minutes of the same process.....it quits while detecting the components.

Once there was message saying " the file to start Windows is either not found or corrupted.

So tried a recovery CD from a Gateway lab-top, but the same process is repeated with a different recovery CD also.

 

[wahnula]

It may be overheating. Sometimes there's a "Hardware Monitor" in the BIOS that tells you the temperature of the CPU. One sure way to test this is run a utility (like memtest) from CD, or better still a live Linux CD like Knoppix where the entire operating system is on a CD. You should be able to boot to that, then see if the PC shuts down after 20 minutes.

As troubleshooters, we need to start eliminating things. We've already eliminated Hard Drive and RAM, now is the time to make a live Linux CD and see if the rest of the hardware is OK, since we can't get Windows to load.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[xwb]

Are you sure it has stopped? I thought mine had stopped but it was formatting the disk (which took ages) and then it took almost 4 hours decompressing the OS to the disk. I thought I'd call it a day but I left the machine on. The next day, it had decompressed everything and was ready to go.

The next time I did it, I timed it.

 

[dhar25]

Finally I solved the problem!

I read in another forum called Tom's Hard news, indicating that E Machines have a problem with AC Adapters. So this time I ran the installation on battery alone and also with another Window's XP OEM disk. The installation went smoothly.

I don't know now whether it was the adapter or a corrupted XP recovery disk that failed many times before.
Anyway at this point I don't care.

This time I made sure that I took several copies of the CD that finally worked and others also and kept the original disks in safe place,

I greatly appreciate all your inputs and responses to solve my problems.

I am happy that I didn't have to pay the E Machine tech support $60.00 for 30 minutes fix their crappy machine.

Thanks a lot again. I hope this thread will help similar problem for others also.

 

[wahnula]

I am happy that I didn't have to pay the E Machine tech support $60.00 for 30 minutes fix their crappy machine

Tony

Users helping Users...