[mcsmc]

Right now I'm using my laptop, because my desktop is completely inop. It was working just fine, but I was having some issues with some conflicting programs that uninstallation didn't solve, so I decided to reinstall Windows XP on the machine.

Since the hard drive the XP installation was on had another partition with data I wanted to backup, I used a USB IDE cradle, backed up the data, deleted the partitions, and reinstalled the drive on the desktop.

Desktop specs (custom machine):

3 hard drives (all WD): 2 160GBs and 1 250GB
-HOWEVER, I disconnected the other two hard drives for this reinstallation
-Hard drive currently connected/used for XP install is WD160GB
DVD-RW drive, I forget the brand but it's definitely not the problem at all
1024MB RAM (2 512MB sticks), memory test is always OK
ATI RADEON graphics card (again, I forget the exact model)
Creative SoundBlaster Live! sound card
Gigabyte mobo
Athlon 64 x2 3800+

So the computer boots fine, sees the HD and the DVD drive. It recognizes the XP CD as bootable, will boot from it. Windows Setup loads all the drivers, etc. And then, when it gets done with that, it says "Setup is starting Windows". Period. Microsoft says that can stay there for up to 30 minutes... I've let it say that for 45 minutes. I've reinstalled Windows a couple dozen times, it always comes up with the next part in under a minute. CTRL+ALT+DEL does NOT work after it gets stuck there, only the reset (or power off) button on the computer.

I've tried using the WD Data Lifeguard CD to reformat the drive several times, I've tried using two partitions, one about 60GB, one about 100GB. I've tried using the drive with just one large partition.

I've tried disabling the RAID options on my BIOS, in fact I think I've tried every BIOS option there is now.

I'm at my wits end, this project is on its second day. I just don't know what else to do. Can someone please help?

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is there anything else connected to the device controller other than the drive your booting from? im assuming its ide controlled. master and slave settings set properly?

[krmooo]

is there anything else connected to the device controller other than the drive your booting from? im assuming its ide controlled. master and slave settings set properly?

[mcsmc]

is there anything else connected to the device controller other than the drive your booting from? im assuming its ide controlled. master and slave settings set properly?

No, I have two IDE cables, one connected to the DVD drive, the other connected to the WD160GB HDD. The hard drive is jumper set to cable select, and the BIOS is set to use it as a Master.

[Tyger]

Time to round up the usual suspects. The install disk, the CD drive and your memory are all under suspicion at this time. Try the disk in another machine and see if it loads, try another drive in the machine you have, if that worked, check your memory with memtest86 if the two aforementioned worked. If that doesn't do it, back to square one.

[krmooo]

is there the option in your bios to remove the acpi support? if so try removing that.this would prevent devices expecting the ability for the operating system to write back configuration information from not succeeding. also if there is a mix if isa and pci devices and if you can, try removing any i s a devices. this could very well be a resource conflict

Edited by krmooo, 29 May 2007 - 02:01 PM.

[mcsmc]

Time to round up the usual suspects. The install disk, the CD drive and your memory are all under suspicion at this time. Try the disk in another machine and see if it loads, try another drive in the machine you have, if that worked, check your memory with memtest86 if the two aforementioned worked. If that doesn't do it, back to square one.

The install disk isn't the issue -- I've tried a few (all in great condition) with the same effect. The CD drive has worked flawlessly for awhile, I KNOW that isn't the issue (all other CDs such as the Western Digital Lifeguard Tools CD, and Hiren's Boot CD work fine). I can't imagine that memory would be an issue either, being that the computer was running fine before I formatted the hard disk. However, I'll test the memory and get back to you on that.

[mcsmc]

is there the option in your bios to remove the acpi support? if so try removing that.this would prevent devices expecting the ability for the operating system to write back configuration information from not succeeding. also if there is a mix if isa and pci devices and if you can, try removing any i s a devices. this good very well be a resource conflict

My BIOS' only ACPI option is Suspend options, s1 pos or s3 str.

I'm not sure what you mean by ISA devices.

[krmooo]

i s a= industry standard architecture i dont believe its this deep of a problem, pci vs isa

[krmooo]

in your bios settings are the plug and play devices set to no?

[mcsmc]

in your bios settings are the plug and play devices set to no?

I'll have to double check, but I don't think I have "no" as an option, I'll get back to you on that.


Memtest86 came up with zero errors.

[mcsmc]

In my BIOS, the only PnP options are under "PnP/PCI Configuration", and the options are "PCI 2 IRQ Assignment" and "PCI 1 IRQ Assignment", both set to "Auto" (other options are different one digit numbers... I'm assuming "auto" is safest).

[krmooo]

yes.. lets not fiddle with irq's. theres a conflicting hardware issue here at start-up im sure of it. but finding it from this keyboard without eyes and hands on isnt easy what about booting from one of the other hard drives. set your jumpers on this hard drive to master instead od cable select

[mcsmc]

yes.. lets not fiddle with irq's. theres a conflicting hardware issue here at start-up im sure of it. but finding it from this keyboard without eyes and hands on isnt easy what about booting from one of the other hard drives. set your jumpers on this hard drive to master instead od cable select

When I try that, I'll let you know the results. Thanks for the help thus far.