Resolved Baffling refusal of windows Setup to start windows

I've encountered a problem which I've never met-with before: I can't install Win XP after having upgraded to a new motherboard, CPU and memory.

What's happening is that Windows Setup after installing all the files and saying it's "starting windows ", doesn't. Instead a blue screen appears saying "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer" (it then suggests certain causes/checks, none of which IMHO are relevant).

The system spec in my profle is (obviously) now out-of-date (I will update it once I have my computer running). Key changes are:-

CPU: Intel Pentium G620 2.6 GHz dual-core
Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V
Memory: 4 GB DDR3 1600Hz
Optical drive: Samsung SH-222BB

Everything else is the same - including hard disks. I've never installed any RAID array and so have had no need to install any RAID controller driver.

I had hoped to be able to boot into my existing installation of WinXP on the C: drive, but was prepared to format that partition and reinstall windows if the computer refused to boot into the existing installation - which it did. It is when trying to format/reinstal that I encounter the problem described and so am completely stuck. Testing the same windows CD in my wife's laptop does not give rise to the same problem.

One other thing, in case it sheds any light. I tried running Linux (Puppy Linux) from an installation CD, running completely in RAM. It operates flawlessly (so there would not appear to be anything wrong with my (new) optical drive). With it, I'm able to mount my windows C: drive and gain access to my entire existing Windows installation residing on the hard disks.

Oh, and I've downloaded and installed (using DOS) the latest BIOS version. Before doing that I had tried clearing the onboard RAM (with the jumper), to no avail.

Can anyone suggest things I might try, please?

 

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the quick response.

Unfortunately, I can't answer your question. A second mode of behaviour - previously seen but seemingly in abeyance when I posted earlier, hence my not mentioning it - has reappeared. This is much worse:- after the message saying Setup is examining my configuration the Setup screen appears. And that's all. Nothing whatever happens - no drive activity, no HDD activity.

This has begun happening before (several times), then for no apparent reason it rights itself again and loads all the files (as earlier today). I was hoping it would do so again so that I could answer your question, but no dice.

More and more I'm suspecting my new optical drive must be faulty, but in that case how come it reads from my Puppy Linux CD...?

 

Failing hard drive?

 

Spinrite doesn't seem to be detecting any failure (though for some unknown reason it can't access the drives' SMART info).

And would Puppy Linux be able to mount and read from the drive/s if they were failing...?

 

I've had a similar problem to this and guess something left over from previous installation was causing problem.
I have a downloaded boot disc with Gparted on it, I deleted old partition, formatted then deleted it again and Windows installed fine the next time.
It may be a completely different problem you have but since your happy to do a clean install anyway it might be worth a try.
Regards, Ian.

 

Arie

Actually I have two XP install CDs - the original Microsoft one and one produced with nLight which incorporates SP3 plus post-SP3 updates. I tested the latter on my pre-upgraded PC (using VMPlayer) and it went through the initial stages of Setup without a glitch. Likewise when tested on my wife's laptop - as does the original MS CD.

Both CDs however fail, in exactly the same way, when run on my upgraded machine. This pattern can hardly be occurring randomly, can it? So I think your hypothesis must be wrong.

If you accept that analysis, have you any alternative hypotheses please?

EDIT
Actually, when tested on my pre-updated machine using VMPlayer, the nLight-produced CD didn't just (as I stated) go through the initial stages of Setup. It went right through Setup without a glitch: I was running WinXP SP3 on the virtual machine.

 

Hi Arie

Using my Puppy Linux live-CD I located and opened these three files. The contents all relate to events prior to my having swapped-out my then-CPU, -mobo, -memory and -DVD-drive and therefore refer exclusively to that hardware configuration. Evidently events subsequent to the hardware upgrade are not being logged within the pre-existing XP installation still at present residing on my C: drive.

In post #7 ianamal suggested that I use Qparted to delete, format, then delete a second time my existing Windows XP system partition. I'm now minded to do just that, although I don't understand why there's a need for those three stages, seeing that (if the XP installation CD could only be activated) Setup will in any case format the drive before installing windows to it.

What's your advice, please?

 

Hi I've remembered a bit more now, it was quite a while ago!
I had deleted the partition to do a clean install in a different machine and it hadn't deleted the system partition and because I was installing using the custom option and it requires no previous install of windows because then you would us upgrade or repair for example.
I had used partition magic to remove the old partition and it would not do it and to this day don't know why?
Any way Gparted boots the machine and can remove the old partition safely and completely, I usually do it a couple of times just to make sure.
If I had noticed PM hadn't done it's job it would have saved me quite a bit of head scratching but like I said this may not be the cure, and like yourself tried two copies of XP!

Hope you get it sorted soon, it must be a bit annoying not to be able to use your upgraded machine.

Regards, Ian.

 

Going by what you just said here it looks like your just trying to get away with installing windows over that top of you previous install That's never a good Idea

when windows setup asks where you want the install to go choose the HDD/Partition and select Format than do your clean install

 

Sorry, but you've misunderstood both my aim and my description of what has actually happened. If you'll read my OP again you'll perhaps appreciate that what you are advising is exactly what I've been trying to do. and being prevented by the installation CD not being read/processed. I'm seeking some way of forcing that to happen, so that I will be enabled to do a clean instal of XP, on a formatted partition.

If you have anything to contribute to helping me solve that problem, I'd love to hear it. Otherwise...

 

@ Arie

bump

 

Hi me again, sorry to hear you are still having problems!

I really do think you should make sure there is nothing left on the drive, when windows installs it creates it's own new partitions and just formatting is not enough.

If you have access to another machine and a drive caddy or docking station you can plug your drive in and delete the partition, there is no need to make a new partition or format it Windows will do this and it is better that it does.

You can download Partition master from CNet.com:-

http://download.cnet.com/EaseUS-Partition-Master-Home-Edition/3000-2248_4-10863346.html

If you want to do this on the machine the drive is intended for then download the GParted bootable option of your prefered choice at SourceForge.net

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

This will boot the machine and enable you to delete anything left on the drive

Windows will not repeat not install under the "custom" new install option if it finds any trace of a previous install of windows, trust me it just won't.

Just formating the drive does not remove the original System partition, it contains windows files and will be detected by the install program, it's really worth a try.

Hope you get sorted!

Regards Ian.

 

Hi ianamal

Very appreciative of your helpful suggestions.

Having come up against a brick wall with trying to use the installation CD, I concluded the only thing left to try was your suggestion to use GParted to delete (possibly more than once) my C. drive,
(EDIT - I meant not the whole drive but the partition on which Windows is currently installed)...
in the hope that the installation CD would then become active. A long shot but - as you remarked - worth a try, there being no other alternatives being suggested ATM.

I've delayed doing this so far only in the expectation of getting some comment on it from Arie first.

I could do this, downloading GParted to a usb drive. However since my Puppy Linux live-CD has GParted on it I've been planning that I would use that to delete the C: drive on the same machine. Do you see any problem with that approach?

 

Eureka! Light has at last appeared at the end of the tunnel.

Having deleted my system partition with GParted and re-started Windows Setup, this time Setup went through the process of installing the files (which it last did two days ago but had been refusing to do since 'til now; whether this was a fluke or resulted from deletion of the system partition I'll now never know - since it was randomly doing this already before the deletion was made).

This, as before, culminated with a BSOD - but this time I noted-down the error-codes as advised by Steve R Jones (above), and Googled them. The stop code was 0x0000007B and the second hex code following was 0x00000034. Googling led me to this article:- http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbyerrormessage/a/stop0x0000007b.htm
which gives as one likely cause "device driver issues (especially those related to hard drive and other storage controllers) ", and goes on to suggest among other things changing "the SATA mode in BIOS to IDE mode ".

I did this, and hey presto! Setup is now in the process of installing XP, as a clean install, on a formatted C: drive primary partition. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that no more glitches will crop up during the rest of the process.

Had Fate not intervened two days ago to prevent me from once more getting to the BSOD at that time in pursuance of Steve Jones's suggestion I would have avoided two days of extreme frustration. Quite why when switching to a new (SATA-only) motherboard this problem should occur seems completely inexplicable to me - considering my hard drives are the same (SATA) as before. Likewise to set the SATA setup in BIOS to IDE, for an all-SATA board, totally counter-intuitive. But there it is: take it or leave it. All part of life's rich tapestry, as the saying goes.

 

Sadly, another glitch has indeed cropped-up, but since the nature of it is different in kind from that which gave rise to this thread I'm starting a new one.

 

Hi glad it's working!
I've just this second loaded up GParted so that I give you the correct information, never mind.LOL.
I normally set bios to AHCI but dont know what yours was set to before, but no point once you had already formated it.
Your old board could have been legacy or IDE and if your new board was set to something different Windows wont boot but you can alter the registry to enable it to.
Hope this is helpful, always check the system config and bios of old and new before swapping a drive.

 

I'm now able to make what I devoutly trust will be my last post in this thread (into which I see my newer thread has been consolidated).

In the clear light of a new day I've been able to find my own solution to the further glitch referred-to above. In case it's of use to anyone else, the following is an account of what I did.

After finding that Setup had allocated drive letter 'I:' to my system partition and furthermore that after I'd changed the other drive letters back to their previous ones my computer would no longer boot into Windows, I decided to start all over again and deleted the new partition 'I'.

I subsequently resorted again to my faithful Puppy Linux live-CD and used GParted to create a primary partition in the unpartitioned space which the deletion of my pre-hardware-update system drive c: had left behind, and also got GParted to flag it as 'boot'.

As a consequence, when I ran Setup again it no longer allocated drive-letter 'C' to my first logical partition but to the new primary partition instead (with the logical partitions retaining their previous lettering). Mission accomplished.

XP is now installed, on my c: drive.

I remain entirely mystified as to why it should ever have been necessary to go through all the convolututions with respect to the SATA configuration which I already described, SATA having been around now for - what is it,10 years? - and IDE having been consigned to 'legacy' status only.