[Pitbull69]

ok I made a previous post about My windows disc being scratched. and that windows wouldnt get passed 39 minutes on the windows setup...
I have since borrowed 2 more XP discs and have exactly the same problem... Today my new DVD drive arrived... again the same problem... I have also tried it on 2 harddrives and get the exact same problem... I am now totally stumped as to what it can be... I havent tried mem test because I couldnt find a memtest that worked whilst comp was booted in windows and it wont let burn anything to make a bootable dos version... has any1 any suggestions as to what can be stopping it from installing....

I have a copy of windows on my other sata drive that does boot so I can do some tests on that but im not sure what to test...

any help would be greatly appreciated... thanks

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I Have not had the privilege of reading your previous post. Most probably what is happening is your settings for the SATA in the BIOS is wrong. If you could please explain again exactly what is happening when you try installing.

I say this as i have just spent 2 days trying to reinstall XP on a compaq computer that i had to replace the original motherboard with a FIC MB that came close to the original hardware of the factory MB. Problem after problem has come up doing this. I finally wiped the SATA HD and started all over just to run into PIX problems. After finally finding out i needed to set the MB to boot from the boot order i set for it it is finally installing XP to the computer. One problem i may have is it is taking a very long time to install so i wonder if the HD is in PIO mode. So, i may not be done solving problems with this computer yet.

I've built many, many computer's and never had so many problems with just a motherboard replacement. Guess that's what i get for taking on a older Compaq SR1151 computer for fixing.

I hope i can direct you to where your problem is, but i will need more information.

SRX660

[SRX660]

I Have not had the privilege of reading your previous post. Most probably what is happening is your settings for the SATA in the BIOS is wrong. If you could please explain again exactly what is happening when you try installing.

I say this as i have just spent 2 days trying to reinstall XP on a compaq computer that i had to replace the original motherboard with a FIC MB that came close to the original hardware of the factory MB. Problem after problem has come up doing this. I finally wiped the SATA HD and started all over just to run into PIX problems. After finally finding out i needed to set the MB to boot from the boot order i set for it it is finally installing XP to the computer. One problem i may have is it is taking a very long time to install so i wonder if the HD is in PIO mode. So, i may not be done solving problems with this computer yet.

I've built many, many computer's and never had so many problems with just a motherboard replacement. Guess that's what i get for taking on a older Compaq SR1151 computer for fixing.

I hope i can direct you to where your problem is, but i will need more information.

SRX660

[Pitbull69]

thanks for the reply.. I will try my best to explain what is happening...

I turn pc on with windows XP disc in the drive... press any key to install windows... it then runs through all the usual checks and brings me to the install screen, there I ask it to format drive C: off it goes then it runs the setup just the same way like the format.. long rectangle in middle of screen with a yellow bar rising froim left to right until its done.. at this point it reboots... then on reboot it goes to the windows setup screen where it tells me I have 39 minutes for setup... it scrolls through all the wonderful things windows will do for me once installed on the right handside.. underneath there are 5 orange squares that show its loading they scroll through quite a few times then it just stops on the 2nd orange square from the left... here it does no more.. the light on my dvd drive stops and it can sit like that all night... I have tried on 2 harddrive.. I have also taken out all ram and tried each of the 4 gig sticks 1 at a time and each gives the same problem..


I have a sata drive with my old windows install on, so if theres any tests I can run on components from there I would be glad to try.. as I really need to solve this problem...

I have now tried 3 copies of windows, a brand new DVD drive and all ram individually and also tried 3 different harddrivess... all to no avail... I am clueless as to what to try next...

[Pitbull69]

It appears I have taught myself a lesson today... a clean pc is a working pc... I opened up my case and see there was quite a bit of dust on my processor fan, so with that I gave it a good clean... I then realised because my graphics card faces down I cant really see it.. so I took it out and wow it was thick with dust..... After giving this a good clean with a paint brush and a hoover I then went around the whole case giving it a good clean... and to my suprise, 1st try it installed windows no problems what so ever... I normally clean my pc once a month.. Yet in under a month it got the dusty it wouldnt work...

but at least its running now... gonna have to keep a more careful eye on the inside from now on though...