Win XP Pro CD Install Mysterious Read Errors

I have a very mysterious and thus far unsolvable problem with trying to install Windows XP Professional on a Pentium 4 machine. I've been building my own custom computers since the 486 days and I have never encountered a situation quite like this one..

The machine is made up of the following components:

Pentium 4 - 3.0 Ghz CPU
Gigabyte 8KNXP Intel 875P Chipset Motherboard
2 - OCZ PC3200 DDR 1GB DIMMS
EVGA 7600GT AGP 8X video card
WD 320GB SATA/300 Caviar Blue HD (Boot Drive, forced to SATA150 via jumper)
Maxtor 160GB SATA/150 DiamondMax Plus 9 HD (D: Drive)
Plextor PX-820A 20X DVD Super Multi Drive
Plextor Plexwriter Premium 52X CD Burner

The PROBLEM at hand is that the Windows XP Pro installation repeatedly fails with error messages saying things like "cannot copy msxm16.dll, please check that the XP CD is in the drive and try again ". It does not always fail on the same file, it can actually vary with different attempts.. What is consistent is that it ALWAYS fails to read several files from the CD.

Hey, I've heard of this before you may say...but wait, read on, as it gets more interesting..

This first happened with my original Win XP Service Pack 1 install CD that I purchased back in early 2004. I obviously was able to read the CD without incident when I built the machine in 2004. This machine had been in use for almost 5 years with only one incident that required me to use the original install CD. Three years ago, I had my SATA drivers blown away from a crash caused by a video game. At that time, I was able to successfully perform a repair install using my original XP install CD. No problems until 5 weeks ago..

My Win XP OS appeared to become corrupted somehow... I had used Norton on my system up until this past August when I switched to McAfee. In late November McAfee started to fail to update itself and ultimately would fail to run at all. Then certain programs would not run correctly, with strange error messages. I was able to uninstall McAfee, but thereafter, was unable to install two different anti-virus programs, both crashing during the install process (not OS crash, but crash of the AV installer programs). So I had no way of performing a virus scan at this point.

I break out my trusty original Win XP CD to perform a repair install on the boot drive. This fails with the infamous "cannot copy file" errors. After several more attempts at repair installs, the boot drive will no longer boot at all..

Next step, I buy a brand new WD 360GB SATA/300 hard drive. Set the jumper to force SATA/150 so it will work with my Mboard's older built-in Sil 3112 SATA controller. I partition and format the drive without issue, using the included WD Data Lifeguard Tools CD.

I attempt a FRESH install using my original Win XP CD, and get the same "cannot copy file errors "! Now I am getting agitated..

I then try a total of 4 different optical drives with the XP CD. Two of them CD drives, and two DVD drives. All four drives produce the "cannot copy file" errors. I try two different sets of DIMM modules, making sure there is NO overvoltage on them in the system BIOS. Still.....the install does not work. Also tried using 2 different IDE ports on the motherboard. Tried two different copies of the Sil 3112 SATA driver loaded from two different floppy drives for the "hit F6 to load special device drivers routine ". Still get the same "cannot copy file" errors.

I give up and contact Microsoft to order a replacement XP CD, thinking that the one I have must have gone bad somehow, even though it is has NO scratches or smudges on it.

I ended up having to wait 4 weeks to get a replacement CD as they were on back order according to Microsoft..

I finally get the CD yesterday, actually they sent me a 3-pack for some unknown reason... They are all Win XP Pro with Service Pack 3. Anyway, I delete the old partition, make a new partition and format it. Pop in one of the NEW Win XP install CDs and what happens...the same "cannot copy file" errors!!!

This is unbelievable! I have gone through the drill with the new CD twice now with no results. I have the one Plextor DVD drive attached to the correct black end of the 80 wire IDE cable and its jumper is set for Master. And it still will not work, still cannot install XP..

All that I can think of to try at this point is another IDE cable, and hooking the DVD/CD drive up to IDE port 3 or 4 on the Mboard instead of ports 1 and 2 which I have always used in the past and have tried thus far.

If I cannot get this computer back up and running, I will be forced to build a new machine, using a new motherboard and CPU, etc.. All my current software is 32-bit and I am not in the position to purchase new 64-bit software. There are no other indications that show any problem with my motherboard or CPU other than this failure to read from two different XP install CDs.

Perhaps someone out there has some sort of suggestion as to what I might do to fix what has become a VERY BIG problem. I've never had a machine do this, be UNABLE to install an OS on it before. The machine has been down for 5 weeks now and it is very depressing and upsetting.

I will add a final bit of info. The Plextor DVD burner (one of the two optical drives in the machine) was purchased new in late August. I only attempted to burn a DVD twice since I installed it and both times, the burn failed with write errors.. The check of the burned files did not match 100% with the files on the hard drive, yet the DVD was accessible and when I loaded test images off of it (.tif image files), they all appeared to be normal.

Again any help would be appreciated!

 

Since you have swapped out everything except SMPS, board & CPU, I would start by swapping SMPS.

Also use only one RAM module while installing & see if it makes any difference [happened to me once - Windows wouldn't install with 2 modules but would happily run with both installed ].

Also clean CPU fan. It may be heat related issue.

 

Thanks for the suggestions rsinfo.

I don't have another power supply, motherboard or CPU to swap with. I built this machine 5 years ago this month to last as long as possible. The CPU fan is as clean as a whistle, along with the interior of the computer case. The CPU is cooled via a Thermalright SP-94 100% copper heatsink (premium overclocking heat sink with heat pipes, though I have NEVER overclocked the CPU) and a Panaflo 92mm fan which sits on top of it. I have made sure there is NO overvoltage setting on the DIMMS.

Power Supply is a PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 512 ATX-PFC. This was their "black" top of the line unit at the time in early 2004. The warranty on this unit will expire at the end of this month. It had a 5 year warranty! I built this machine to last! Was really hoping I could get another year's use out of it before buying the parts to build an i7 Core machine.

The second set of DIMMS I tried were Mushkin PC3500 512MB DDR DIMMS which I had run in the machine until this past August. I currently have the newer pair of OCZ Platinum PC3200 1GB DDR DIMMS installed. Only reason I got the new DIMMS was to double my system RAM.

I've never run the machine with only 1 DIMM installed.. They are dual channel DIMMS. I guess your suggesting this because with only 1 installed, that one DIMM will run at a slower speed than it would in dual channel mode, therefore perhaps helping to copy the files from the CD without having a problem. I will give it a shot and see what happens..

 

This sure does sound memory related - I've seen it quite a bit before - exact same symptoms. Manually set your OCZ to their specs - both the timings and the voltage.

 

I have heard of people manually setting DIMM timings and voltages in the past, but I can see no way of doing this with my motherboard! I remember being surprised when I bought the board 5 years ago that there appeared to be no way to accomplish this..

The mboard is a Gigabyte GA-8KNXP Intel Canterwood 875P P4 Socket 478.

The BIOS is: "CMOS Setup Utility - Copyright 1984-2004 Award Software ".

All it seems to have relating to memory is a "Frequency/Voltage Control" which is setup as follows:

CPU Host Clock Control [Disabled]
x CPU Host Frequency(Mhz) 200
x AGP/PCI/SRC Fixed 66/33/100
Memory Frequency For [Auto] *set using DRAM SPD data
Memory Frequency(Mhz) 400
AGP/PCI/SRC Frequency(Mhz) 66/33/100
DIMM Overvoltage Control [Normal] (Normal, +.1V, +.2V, +.3V)
AGP Overvoltage Control [Normal]
CPU Voltage Control [Normal]
Normal CPU Vcore 1.5250V

When I originally built the machine I used Mushkin PC3500 DIMMS and set the DIMM Overvoltage to +.2V. This caused blue screen crashes when trying to install Win XP. I then reduced the DIMM Overvoltage to +.1V and the install proceeded without a problem. I used the Mushkin DIMMS with this voltage setting for over 4.5 years.. When I replaced the Mushkin with OCZ PC3200 DIMMS I left the voltage set to +.1V. All seemed to work fine. Since I started having the problems and the read errors on the XP install CD, I changed the DIMM Overvoltage setting to NORMAL, which is what it is currently set for.

I don't understand how to enter a custom latency timing for the DIMM modules?? It does not appear to be possible to do so. Nor is there a setting to select a specific DIMM voltage, only just the four Overvoltage settings of NORMAL, +.1V, +.2V or +.3V. It states both in the BIOS and in the Mboard manual that when Memory Frequency is set to AUTO the BIOS sets the Memory Frequency by using the DRAM SPD data on the DIMM itself.

Under the Memory Frequency setting, besides AUTO, there are three manual selectable options: 1.33, 1.66 and 2.0 I guess this is referring to Memory Frequency for the Front Side Bus. I've never had to mess around with these kind of settings before so I am unfamiliar with them..

Am I missing some method of manually setting the DIMM Timing and Voltage as was suggested? Is this not possible with Award BIOS??

So far I have not had a chance to try installing XP with only ONE DIMM installed in the mboard..

 

I tried to install WIN XP from the new CD, this time using only ONE DIMM module running in single channel mode. Still got the same "cannot read file" errors, this time I got the errors only about 9% on the progress bar! Before with both DIMMs running in dual channel mode, it would get 50% to 70% on the progress bar before the first error message.

The drive I am trying to install on is a new unused 320GB Western Digital Caviar Blue. I have been able to successfully run the included Data Lifeguard Tools software (on a CD) to partition and format the drive prior to the failed install attempts of the OS. I have NEVER gotten an error message of any sort when reading the WD supplied CD, only the XP CDs generate the error messages.

This probably doesn't have anything to do with my problem, but I thought I would mention it. During the XP install routine, it asks me to select between the following:

1 Format the partition by using the NTFS file system (Quick)
2 Format the partition by using the NTFS file system
3 Leave the current file system intact (no changes)

I have been selecting the 3rd option to leave the current file system intact. The WD hard drive must obviously have been pre-low level formatted from factory. The Data Lifeguard Tools have already created one partition of the full capacity of the drive on it, so I DON'T THINK I need to be selecting option number 1 or 2... Would I benefit somehow to select 1 or 2 instead of leaving the current file system intact? As far as I know, Win XP Service Pack 3 should be able to recognize a partition larger that 137GB, as my old XP boot drive was a 160GB drive formatted with only one partition. Though, I cannot remember whether I had the XP install program format the partition or not..as it has been 5 years ago that I set that drive up. I have not found anything on the internet that has clarified whether it is best to have the XP install format the partition, or use the formatted partition made by the Data Lifeguard Tools software. Maybe someone that is reading this knows which is best to do?

It is a good thing I happen to have a MacBook laptop or I would have no way of even accessing the internet or posting this message.