XP Pro SP2 on newly built comp

[Thinnermist]

Hello,
My Windows XP Pro SP2 setup gets through formatting my hd(500gb) and all the way down to Installing Windows but once the install bar gets to about half way and says installing devices my comp restarts and it loads up to this point and starts to install and then restarts again in a continuous loop, its at about 34 mins left (to give you an idea of where it is in the d/l). I set my bios to optimal defaults and I messed with them as well but can't find out what is wrong. My boot device is my CD drive. I built the computer, first time I've done it and I had windows xp home sp1 on there but I couldn't update to pro SP2 so I reformatted my hd since I didn't have anything on there yet and now I can't get XP Pro SP2 to install. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Here are my specs If that makes a difference:

desktop mem- 2x 2gb
hard drive- 500 gb
Motherboard- Foxconn P45A-S LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel
Processor- Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core
vid card- Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16

I appreciate any help.

[caperjack]

any chance the board has onboard video ,if yes try installing winxp with out the pci-e card installed

[OlyComputers]

It's panicking on driver installation. You usually see this on repair installs but it can happen if windows doesn't like some installed hardware (usually video). Pull out everything but video, one ram chip ram, CPU, and HDD. If at all possible put a different video card in (since your board doesn't have onboard video). Since this is a pretty capabile system you probably upgrade relively often, and may have a PCI-E video card laying aruond to swap for.

I haven't faced this problem recently, but that particular problem is a very common one (like I said, more often in upgrades and repairs but still common) so you might google "XP install crashes at 34 minutes" for more information on the issue.

Just good practice:
Make sure the disk is clean of scratches and smudges.
If an install fails (on a clean partition) more than twice start from scratch, reformatting the partition and installing all new files.

[Thinnermist]

I don't have another vid card sitting around, the only one I do have I don't have the serial number for. would I be able to take my old computer and connect my hard drive to that, install sp2/3 and then just connect it to my new setup and then install my drivers for my motherboard/vid card?
Also when I had sp1 on there and installed my vid card an error came up saying that it isn't certified or had a logo or something. would that affect this at all?

thank you.

[caperjack]

I don't have another vid card sitting around, the only one I do have I don't have the serial number for. would I be able to take my old computer and connect my hard drive to that, install sp2/3 and then just connect it to my new setup and then install my drivers for my motherboard/vid card? Also when I had sp1 on there and installed my vid card an error came up saying that it isn't certified or had a logo or something. would that affect this at all?

thank you.

video card =shouldn't need the s/n ,just the model #

you old computer most like will not boot to the drive to do what you say .
don't worry about certified or logo go say yes !!!

[Thinnermist]

video card =shouldn't need the s/n ,just the model #

you old computer most like will not boot to the drive to do what you say . don't worry about certified or logo go say yes !!!

I don't think I have the model # sticker on it either, someone gave it to me but it's old so I didn't use it. I'll double check on that though.
So my old computer(it ran sp2 with no problems) won't install sp2/3 on the hard drive so that I can transfer the hard drive to my new computer? It has no extra mem, only the one hard drive in it and everything is integrated(vid/sound).
That is what I did I just clicked yes on them but wasn't sure if that would affect it haha. Thanks for clearing that up though.

[caperjack]

I don't think I have the model # sticker on it either, someone gave it to me but it's old so I didn't use it. I'll double check on that though. So my old computer(it ran sp2 with no problems) won't install sp2/3 on the hard drive so that I can transfer the hard drive to my new computer? It has no extra mem, only the one hard drive in it and everything is integrated(vid/sound). That is what I did I just clicked yes on them but wasn't sure if that would affect it haha. Thanks for clearing that up though.

you are losing me,what do you actually mean by this [So my old computer(it ran sp2 with no problems) won't install sp2/3 on the hard drive so that I can transfer the hard drive to my new computer? ] ,

.what im saying is if you install winxp on a hardrive in one computer it will not bootup if you put it in a different computer because of the different hardware in the 2nd computers .

[Thinnermist]

you are losing me,what do you actually mean by this [So my old computer(it ran sp2 with no problems) won't install sp2/3 on the hard drive so that I can transfer the hard drive to my new computer? ] ,

.what im saying is if you install winxp on a hardrive in one computer it will not bootup if you put it in a different computer because of the different hardware in the 2nd computers .

Ok, that is what I was asking. So the only way to get xp to install on my new comp is if I change the vid card? I haven't been able to find anything else out online and won't be able to try to fix it until later this afternoon.

[Thinnermist]

Does anyone think that this will work? I came across it in a google search but don't want to waste my time when I finally get the chance to try and fix it if it won't work.

* Let the XP hang up at 34 minutes remaining for the first time
* remove the CD from the CDROM and reboot
* Dont enter the CD when the installation asks for it, instead open the DOS prompt (Shift + F10)
* goto C:/Windows and type setupapi.log, hit enter
* The setupapi.log file opens in a notepad
* Scroll to the very last few lines in the file and search for the word “inf”
* You will notice that in the last few moments the installation created a file with the extension “.inf” before dying out (in my case it was the faulty modem for which XP created the file mdmcxpt.inf).
* It means that the device mentioned in the last few lines is faulty and you have to make the installation skip through it.
* Close the notepad and go to the folder C:/windows/inf in command prompt
* Browse through the files to find the “.inf” which was related to the faulty device.
* Straightaway delete the inf file (eg: del mdmcxpt.inf)
* now put in the XP installation CD and Continue the installation

It will not put in the drivers related to the faulty device and so it wont freeze this time

[OlyComputers]

That's really for "upgrade installs, but there's a chance that after you delete the faulty driver (that windows just put on there) it will work.

XP can be transferred from one computer to another with Various success. it's not like 98 or 2000 where it worked every time, but I'd say about 25% of the time you can put an XP hard drive in a different system and it will load.

PS: Your current system uses a PCI-Express video card. An older AGP will not work, but if this card is a PCI (not very common but it does happen) you can put it in one of the PCI (NOT PCI-E) slots and use that. Don't worry if it's "certified for windows" XP can use ANY video card that will fit in a modern computer.

[Thinnermist]

oh, ok, than I probably shouldn't waste my time trying that. I also wasn't sure about the changing my hard drive between systems but if its about a 25% chance I don't have the time to try and install it and it not work today. That will be a last resort I suppose. The other video card I have is an ATI Radeon x700 pro 256mb. It says it needs a PCIE slot. The only problem with that though is it says i need the s/n and p/n from the stickers on the card and all that the card has is a silver sticker with AGP: and then some numbers and a barcode. And the Article No:######## and a MS- number/letter combination.
Would it be usable until xp is installed?

-I'm going to try switching my vid cards out to the x700 from my eah4850 after I wash my car and do a few things around my place before I get a chance to sit down and see if this works. I'll check back to see what your opinion is before I do though.

Thank you for all your help so far.

[Thinnermist]

The dos method I found online and posted here asking if it would work didn't work. When I put in my other vid card and went to bootup it just beeped about 5-7 times and nothing turned on except my fans.

Any other ideas? I am currently looking online and thinking about flashing my bios to see if that will fix it.

[OlyComputers]

The one thing that's coming to mind... Does your video card need it's own power? Many video cards require a dedicated power cable, usually a 4, 6, or 8 pin (I believe it's a 6-pin in this case). If it needs one and doesn't have it the system will not display anything at start-up.

As far as the other video card, that's just confusing. You shouldn't ever need the serial number off the card, unless it's for validation on some kind of bundled software. But if your system is generating an error when you connect it there must be some problem with the card (or it's not set properly).

[Thinnermist]

My current vid card does require a 6pin and I know it's working because the fan is on and lights flash when I power down.

The other card said it needs it if I install it, not now, I was mistaken. It just won't work though and I had it set in the same pcie slot as my other card so I know it's not the pcie slot.

I also have my usb mouse/ethernet cable unplugged. Only things plugged in are my keyboard(the purple keyboard plug), my monitor, and my power cord.

I tried loading with each of my different desktop mems and neither of them fixed the problem, just made me waste like 4 hours reformatting my comp a couple more times.

Also I only have one CD/DVD drive connected, I don't have another CD drive/floppy drive so I was unable to flash my bios. Unless you know a way that I can do it without a second drive?

[caperjack]

I tried loading with each of my different desktop mems and neither of them fixed the problem, just made me waste like 4 hours reformatting my comp a couple more times.

time to call a tow truck and haul it to a mechanic

[Thinnermist]

time to call a tow truck and haul it to a mechanic

haha thanks, but I don't like spending money where I don't need to. I'll figure it out eventually and just keep using my laptop until then.

[caperjack]

haha thanks, but I don't like spending money where I don't need to. I'll figure it out eventually and just keep using my laptop until then.

yup! me to