W2K hanging on install

[DrGrafix]

I'm in the process of rebuilding my desktop pc and I had some issues with the old drive and install... some dlls were missing and the drive was getting flaky. So I bought a fresh new 40 gig drive and proceeded to start over, thinking once I get it running, I'll pull any usefull files off the old drive and then reformat that as a slave.

So, the problem is, the system is hanging in the install, telling me to wait while "Setup is inspecting your hardware configuration..." and it never gets past that point.

I formatted the HDD with a W98 boot floppy, did the fdisk, then formatted the HDD. The machine boots, recognizes the fact that there's a HDD, CDROM, and Floppy, and asks me if I want to boot from the CD. Wouldn't that be the logical choice? So I hit Enter and then I get the message. Tried this numerous times, even left it alone for 3 hours... no change, black screen with that silly message.

So I'm wondering... should my boot sequence be Floppy, then HDD-0, then CD? And I'm also wondering if I should try leaving the boot floppy in the A: drive and maybe there's a way to either boot the CD from the floppy or possibly copy some key startup files from the CD to the root drive. Note that my old HDD drive isn't connected, and for kicks, I tried it only to get the error on the dlls again.

Its been so long since I did a freshin install of W2K that I may be missing something obvious, so I'd appreciate a nudge in the right direction. Even a shove . Thanks in advance for any/all help!

Mike

 

[TomCologne]

Good ol' times, boot floppy etc...

You can boot and then run the setup (incl format & partition) from CD directly, the BIOS 1st boot device setting may need to be changed to CD-ROM.

I'd try a clean install from CD again. It might help to remove non-essential hardware components.
I had a similar problem -screen went black during hardware examination and wouldn't come back on- because of a 2nd
video card. After taking the card out the installation completed sucessfully without any problems.



TomCologne

 

[wolluf]

Your problem is almost certainly hardware related (RAM is where I'd start looking - if > 1 stick, try with each on its own). Tom's suggestion about disconnecting non-essential hardware good too (elimination process). The hardware problems is very likely causing your dll problem with orignal drive - I'd suspect the drive is ok. And by hardware, I mean ANY part of the machine.

 

[bcastner]

Remove from the comptuter all uncecessary PCI boards and peripherals.

When you formatted the drive, did you use Win98SE to do a format for the full 40gb?

Reboot with the Win98 stuff, delete the partitions, and give yourself a FAT32 partition no larger than 2gb. No other partitions.

Try the install again.
If it succeeds, apply all Service Packs.

Now either futz with dispart.exe, or Disk Management, or a third party tool such as Partition Magic or a trial of BootITNG:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/

And use the command line CONVERT.EXE utility to set the filestore when done to NTFS.

 

[DrGrafix]

I've tried setting the BIOS to CD-ROM as the 1st boot device and that didn't work. I think tomorrow I remove all the PCI cards as yes... there is a second video card in that mix along with a couple of SCSIs. Only one stick of memory and I've tried it in slot 1 and slot three (there are 3 slots).

I FDisk'd and used the whole 40 Gig drive, so I could try doing the small partition deal as well. I have PM so I could use that after it gets back running.

 

[wolluf]

did you create the partition using fdisk before you knew about the problem or was it a response to not being able to use 2k's partitioning tools?

hopefully disconnecting hardware will sort you, but if not consider checking the RAM with something like memtest, or better still get hold of another known good stick to try.

and with respect to Bill Castner, I think messing with the partition sizing is just creating more work/potential problems. There's no reason a 2gb partition will work any better than 40gb - and while resizing/converting it should be ok, its just something else that can go wrong. I'd use 2k install's partitioning tools to create a 40gb ntfs partition once you've sorted the main problem.

 

[DrGrafix]

Quick Overview: HDDs had too much data on them promptin me to add some capacity. Removed old root 10 Gig drive and tried using a fresh sealed 40 Gig HDD as my new root. Machine had been acting flaky prior to switch, probably because drive had 90%+ load. So here's an update:

1. Removed all PCI cards and yes there was a second video card in the mix as I run dual monitors.
2. Had the memory checked in my son's PC which has the identical motherboard. It checked out just fine by itself or as added memory.
3. Reset BIOS (cleared CMOS) and started over.

When I boot with just the new drive (no OS on it, just formatted), the PC sees the floppy, HDD-0, and CD-ROM. I get a message that the wrong OS is on the machine, and that a bootable cd is in the machine. I'm told to press any key to boot from the CD, and then I get that same message again... about it checking my hardware configuration... it never goes beyond that.

Should I reformat the HDD with some other OS, or maybe format it with a /s to install a system? Shouldn't the W2K CD boot? When I once tried to boot from DOS, I was told you can't boot the CD rom DOS.

Very frustrating.

Mike

 

[ImpetusEra]

Did you have win 98 on before? If so try updating the bios. Even then the system may just be incompatiable with windows 2000, compaqs were like that.

 

[wolluf]

Didn't spot this earlier - but how old is machine? And does the bios recognise the (whole of) 40GB drive ok? Did you create partition on machine you are trying to use? Did fdisk definitely create a 40GB partition? If the drive has a limiter jumper setting (so it appears as 32GB), try using that.

On another tack - have you tried RAM from you son's PC in yours?

 

[bcastner]

wolluf, it was exactly LBA issues that prompted my first note above.

DrGrafix
During W2K installation, a black screen with white text stating Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration... is displayed, followed by the blue Windows 2000 Setup screen. This screen is displayed if you are installing in the standard way from the W2K Deployment Tools Server or if you are installing from floppy disks/CD ROM.

The prompt Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver will be displayed at the bottom of the setup screen. At this point, you should press F5 (not F6). A new screen will be displayed Setup could not determine the type of computer you have or you have chosen to manually specify the computer type. From the menu displayed on screen, select Standard PC and press Enter. W2K installation continues as normal.

 

[DrGrafix]

Just a few notes:

The machine is homebuilt, Soyo Dragon Plus motherboard with an Antec case and Enermax 400W PS. Video card is a ATI Radeon 8500DV, memory is a single 512 stick of PC2400 Mushkin, I have removed all the PCI cards, and last night on my final try, I tried using W2K (4) floppies... extracted from the W2K CD (mkeboot32) and I got the following message:

Disk I/O error: Status = 00001000
NT Detect Failed

And yes, this motherboard supports IDE/Raid, and can run up to eight (8) IDE device. That function is disabled right now in the bios because I'm trying to just get the OS on the HDD.

I had tried the F6 when booting into the system connfig check and that didn't work, so I'll try the F5. And the memory stick checks out fine in my son's machine, which uses the identical motherboard. It works on its own or as added memory... so I doubt that RAM is an issue.

Mike

 

[DrGrafix]

Just wanted to thank everyone for trying to help me out here. I've built dozens of PCs and this whole W2K install has me totally confused. You guys are all very helpful, and I'll try any suggestions you have before throwing the motherboard out.

BTW, just for kicks, I brought the new drive over to another W2K machine and installed W2K on the drive from the CD. Without getting into setting up the networking and other BS, I then hooked the drive up as the master back in the problem child machine. Same deal... won't even boot properly even though there's a W2K OS on it.

So.... keep those cards and letters coming if you have any additional ideas.

Mike

 

[wolluf]

Mike - its just got to be some piece of bad hardware (mobo or cpu now sound most likely culprits) - but you may not want to spend more time trying to find out what!

 

[TomCologne]

I've had a Soyo Dragon Plus for a little more than a year when a some capacitors went bad.

Any bulging or leaking caps or residue on your mb, Mike ?


TomCologne

 

[DrGrafix]

No apparent bad caps, but then I'm not 100% sure either. I'm going to totally disassemble and take a break on this. I'm in over my head, and I could probably buy a replacement mobo and just redo the system then. I'm pretty much convinced something is fishy with the motherboard.

Probably a good excuse to get another motherboard... maybe one that has some of the same features like the IDE RAID, and could take a faster CPU?

Mike

 

[eraH]

Hi, not sure on the specifics of the motherboard, but does it have onboard sound / lan?
Have you tried disabling them?