OT- HELP! Completely screwed up Windows Instalation!

[Ben B]

Well I moved the RAM to another slot out of the 4 available, in case I'd got the slot numbers wrong.
Changed the cable connecting the CDROMs and still files had trouble copying over during instation. (Though no bluescreens this time, so maybe the RAM is correct now?)

A lot of them I just said 'retry' sometimes 20 times before it took it! On two of them I had to skip files.

Anyway, now windows changed to the more graphical instalation screens and has just had a fatal error with the instalation :-/

Info on the error is saying the signiture for the XP Setup is invalid. Is this cose the copy of Windows I have is not exactly kosher? Surely they dont build stuff into motherboards to detect that do they?


- Trying other DVD drive...

 

[mick]

try this

as soon as you turn the computer on, hit delete to setup, select advanced bios settings, select first boot device and change it from whatever it is IDE-0? to cdrom, once done press escape, then f10 to save. before restarting put your windows cd in the drive. and restart. your computer will check the hardware configuration, and proceed to copy thr disk files to the computer. you want a fresh installation, select the partition thats displayed, C;WINDOWS OR PARTITION 1, to install the new one. it'll tell you theres already an install here, and ask you to carry on with installation, which you do, it reccomends you dont, but you do, then it'll give you the option to format (NTFS FULL FORMAT), not the quick one cos you'll get errors, wait 10 mins, computer will restart, press del to enter setup, advanced bios, change first boot device back to your IDE? ESC, F10 and the computer will restart, leave the disk in, should be done in half an hour, might pop up one or two files cant be copied, they dont matter, just cancel them and carry on. email me on [email protected] to let me know how you get on

 

[Owen]

youve got problems with hardware, the file copy errors are probably not caused by the cd's themselves but by hardware errors. check your cd drive and hard disks and make sure they're set up correctly in the BIOS..

Owen.

 

[Ben B]

I've changed to another CD Drive, another CD, and another set of IDE cables. I'm not sure what other settings there are in the BIOS for CD or Hard drives. It's not like I'm doing anything funny like RAID.
I'm sure there aren't any Jumpers on the MoBo to change either

What sort of setting shall I look for int he BIOS?

The SATA drive didn't work at all - then I noticed a huge dent in the top of it- so I'll assume that that one's physically damaged, or some settings to do with SATA connections are the trouble here, and stick to IDE drives for the time being.


Another fresh format and the same copying errors are happening. So I need to figure out why!

EDIT- and another bluescreen!

 

[Ben B]

Something wrong with my IDE drivers perhaps? If it's having trouble reading/writing between drives?

 

[Peter]

Last time I had this much trouble installing windows it turned out that the memory timings in the bios were all wrong (despite being set to auto). Try running memtest - it doesnt need an OS - will tell you if your memory is working ok.

 

[Bill]

Used to work tech support for a large IT company, 99% of the time when it fails to copy a file, if you try and continue it fails on loads, it is usually a faulty stick of memory causing the problem.

Try and different one if you can, and if it works fine, send the new one back as faulty.

 

[Ben B]

Thanks for the advice

Still no joy even though I've tried everything I can think of and I've been at it all day!

The RAM I ordered was supposed to be a matched pair of 1GB sticks, but only one arrived. So when the other one arrives I can use that to check. (It's DDRII so I don't have any more like that in the office)

I've just changed the memory speed setting manually, but with the same problem!

I've emailed the manufacturers now too, see what they say.

I'm not back in the office til Monday now which is annoying. I'll see what happens then. Perhaps I'll change the MoBo for a different brand.

Cheers for today's help everyone anyway!

 

[Bill]

If the other stick has the same problem, I would suggest trying a different brand of RAM or motherboard.
Some motherboards such as ASUS are quite particular as to which brand memory they will run with, they rarely work well with cheap branded memory.

So either buy better quality memory or a different motherboard such as MSI etc. where it's not so important as to the quality of the memory.

 

[Mike]

As far as the blue screen of death occuring once you've got windows installed, i had the same problem with a recent rebuild, it turned out that the motherboard wasn't happy with the ram running at the speed it was. I changed it and got stability.
As for the "unable to copy file........" message, a couple of years ago i was getting the same problem. It turned out the cpu had managed to ****** itself. I replaced the cpu and it installed first time.

 

[Ben B]

Hmm, so now I dont know what to try next! The problems of buying kit online! I dont know whether to ask for a replacement CPU, motherboard or RAM!
It is budget RAM (Ebuyer Extra Value!)

It's not like I can ask them if I can just try it and send it back if it didn't help!
I've got no more of the same type of RAM lying about, cos it's DDRII Ram for newer systems than I had before.

Ben B

 

[Anonymous]

my amd 64 laptop used to blue screen every so often.kept saying memory problems and then doing a dump.(restarting)Replaced Fans cos thought may be overheating. i replaced memory and still it did it. turn ed out to be hard drive related!! try using a small hardrive...say 20gb then once upp and running you can ghost it across to another bigger hardrive without reinstalling.


ADe

 

[Ben B]

UPDATE- It works!

Just to let those who advised me know, it now works!
The culprit was Ebuyer Extra Value RAM!

It was only £100 for 2GB of dual channel, but I've just bought some Crucial (single channel whatever difference that would make) 1GB units for about £80 each, stuck just one of them in for now and it works great!

So whether it was the dual-chanel aspect it didn't like, or the cheap unbrandedness, I dont know.

I also bought a new HD too, in case that was at fault, but it doesn't look like I need to change it!

Thanks everyone for the advice on Friday when I was pulling my hair out!

Ben B

 

[Bill]

I knew it would be cheap RAM, advice to all, don't skimp out when buying RAM, get the good stuff lol.