[Laurencia7]

I have researched till I am at wits end, and my eyes are bleeding from all the posts. I tried all solutions with my pc, and nothing has worked.

I have a Gateway PC with 1GHZ Processor Pentium 3, and 512MB Memory, quantum fireball 20 gb hard drive, ati radeon 7200 series GFx card. I have my original graphics card, but updated the driver for xp. I researched before I bought the "upgrade" (I had ME before) and they said my PC fit requirements to upgrade.

The problem I have is, I have tried to install my windows xp upgrade a couple of times, and the install goes fine partition, and format drive for clean install. Everything works, but then when I reboot it shows the prompt screen and windows xp status bar and intro, then black screen.

I reboot and press f8, and sometimes it boots in safe mode, and sometimes it does not. Safe mode has all 32 bits of image quality. But one previous time it rebooted to normal windows display, and it was 4 bits of color, at 800 by 600 resolution.

When I try to reboot to normal mode, it goes fine and the hard drive is receiving info, then the hard drive stops blinking, and goes no where. Seems to be not getting any data from the main computer to boot windows. I have had issues with my drive with blue screen sporadically over the years. But it makes no awful noises, and seems to have worked fine for install.

My question is, is it my graphics card (even though it works fine until I reboot) or my hard drive? or my motherboard cannot handle the upgrade? I want to know, just for sanity...and whether I have to buy new cards or etc. I tried all updated drivers, and none work.

thanks, pleeeeeeease answer me I am so desperate. (btw writing from my macbook right now, but my mother needs to other pc)

Leigh

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something got me back to the 4bit monitor and everything booted. I did selective start up and the only thing it looks like I unchecked was the ATI Smart software...

if I have the wrong driver, then what should I have for a Radeon 7200 series that works for XP, I got this one from the official website.

[Laurencia7]

something got me back to the 4bit monitor and everything booted. I did selective start up and the only thing it looks like I unchecked was the ATI Smart software...

if I have the wrong driver, then what should I have for a Radeon 7200 series that works for XP, I got this one from the official website.

[edge2022]

Make sure that your hard drive isn't the issue here first. Go here and download Seatools For Windows: http://www.seagate.c...000dd04090aRCRD
Install it, and run the long diagnostic on your hard drive.

I think you can upgrade to XP, but it might be stressing your computer a little too much.

[Laurencia7]

Thanks edge,

I have a Quantum Fireball HD, so will Seagate tools work on it?
I am not sure where to get diagnostics for a Quantum.

I am sure my PC is being stressed a tad, the only thing that confuses me is it starts fine several times (this morning) on it's own. And when I left, it was back to square one.

The HD does does not respond, or have an indicator light when the black screen is up, it is like it is in status.

I will try to see if it is my HD, it is older. Do Hard drives need Drivers?

[edge2022]

I will try to see if it is my HD, it is older. Do Hard drives need Drivers?

The drives themselves don't but the controllers do.

Seatools will work on any IDE/SATA drive. Run the long diagnostic, and post the results.

So now XP is installed, but only sometimes, it will go past the boot screen, right?

[Laurencia7]

Sometimes it goes past the XP status bar to a black screen. Then sometimes it loads windows normally, in regular resolution or rarely 4 bot color. If buying a new grx card would solve it, I would but I want to make sure.

I will post the results when I get home tonight, at work now away from PC.
Thanks again.

[edge2022]

Ok. I will be waiting for the results.

[Laurencia7]

would a memory upgrade, when I check my mother board, help in my PC handle XP better? is 1 GB good, or 2?

[edge2022]

A memory upgrade would really help. 1 or 2GB is fine, depends on what your motherboard can handle, and how much you are willing to spend.

[Laurencia7]

I tried crucial.com last night, and it did not give me a definitive answer on how much my motherboard could handle, it just told me how much I had. Could that be because all my slots for memory are full? I cannot take any out, because then XP would not run at all.

So far, my PC is working now on selective start up. I took out an "updated" ATI driver for my monitor. and put in the old one from my Windows ME cd. So far so good.

It is a tad slow, but that is to be expected.

I ran the Seagate diagnostic last night, the long one, and smart one...and it passed twice.

So it seems maybe my hard drive was just having issues before because of my old OS, or it had a bug that the new install fixed.

The only thing that shows is the pop up windows for xp like "you know balloons" in the start menu are never clear until I wait a minute, they come up first as spaced unreadable color lines. Don't know if that is a monitor or card issue.

Hopefully all goes well, if I install more programs. I am afraid to tax the system.
Any suggestions on how to install programs? or what steps I should take so it won't wig out again?

Thanks for all your help. Windows.com is yet to get back to me, and they wonder why their customers are so annoyed.

[rshaffer61]

Follow the next steps and we can try to find the max memory and offer you suggestions

Download and install EVEREST
Open it.
1: In left pane expand Computer folder.
2: Click once on Summary
3: In upper menu, go Report
4: And then to Quick Report-Summary
5: Save it in text file, and paste it in your next post.


DO NOT INCLUDE ANYTHING UNDER THE LINE THAT SAYS "DEBUG- PCI"

[edge2022]

Windows.com is yet to get back to me, and they wonder why their customers are so annoyed

Also give us the make and model of your computer.

The only thing that shows is the pop up windows for xp like "you know balloons" in the start menu are never clear until I wait a minute, they come up first as spaced unreadable color lines. Don't know if that is a monitor or card issue.

To make sure that it is either the card or the driver, try using another monitor.

Your hard drive looks to be ok.

[Laurencia7]

Thank so much guys.
I know Windows

I will try the scan when I get home, for now here is my current config, with exception of having more memory (512MB)


Model: PERFORMANCE1000
Serial Number: 0022740196

Cables
17-inch IDE Cable for Ultra/66 Ultra/100 R0 [Part #8004683]
CBL FDD R0 [Part #8004685]
CD-ROM Cable R0 [Part #8004682]
Cases and Case Hardware
St. Francis Mid-tower Case Revision 1 [Part #3500848]
STK LBL PIII Box R0 [Part #9001436]
STK LBL PIII CASE R0 [Part #9001435]
THUMBSCREW FOR CASE COVER [Part #8001039]

Floppy Drives
Mitsumi 3.5-inch Floppy Disk Drive Revision 1 [Part #5501205]
Hard Drives
Quantum 20-GB 4500-RPM Ultra 100 Hard Disk Drive [Part #5501693]
Keyboards
USB Samsung Pleomax Multi-Function Keyboard
Memory
512-MB 133/100/66-MHz 64-Bit 4-Clock 16x8 SDRAM DIMM [Part #5000529]
Mice
Logitech USB Standard Mouse

Monitors
Gateway VX720 17-inch Flat-CRT Monitor with 16-inch Viewable Area [Part #7002201]

Motherboards
Intel (Fedora) motherboard Pentium III - 1000-MHz [Part #2512700]

Network Cards
Westell Dual Connect (Verizon) Modem
Optical Drives
Lite-On DVD/RM Drive
Mitsumi 20X/48X IDE CD-ROM Rev. 2 [Part #5501717]
Power Supplies
200-Watt Power Supply [Part #6500457]

Sound Cards
Creative Labs Audio PCI 128D Digital Sound Card (Updated to new one)
Speakers
Boston Acoustics BA265 Analog Speakers [Part #7002305]

TV Tuner Cards
Hauppauge WinTV PCI TV Tuner Card [Part #6001237] (updated Driver for xp)

Video Cards
32MB ATI Radeon SDR AGP Graphics Accelerator [Part #6001675]

[rshaffer61]

"Power Supplies: 200-Watt Power Supply [Part #6500457] "

Is this accurate, 200 Watt power supply? I bet that is just screaming with XP and 512 megs of memory. I don't even think I could find one that low anymore.

This "TV Tuner Cards
Hauppauge WinTV PCI TV Tuner Card [Part #6001237] (updated Driver for xp)" I can only imagine is putting a strain on the PSU.

[Laurencia7]

It is from 2001.
The power is going to be an issue? what will be my main issue?

I asked Gateway, and they said I can only handle 512 of Memory. Wish makes no sense considering the crappy computers we have a at work, can handle ten times that in memory as it was scanned.

My TV Tuner card is just from ingesting video, or watching TV. It came with the PC, and at 128MB or memory as it came with. Seems to work just fine, but could it be conflicting with my system?

I am just trying to avoid buying a new PC. This one used to be my main one, until I shelled out a Grand! for my New Macbook. I was just trying to update the OS for my mother. She just uses Office, and web. So we can buy new software, or get a printer to work with this old thing.

I know I cannot add to many programs, I just want basics for her. Is it going to be ok after all?

Edited by Laurencia7, 07 June 2009 - 06:36 PM.