Keeps turning off during winxp installation

[PacMan]

Hi, I have a Compaq Armada 7400 laptop. I’m trying to install my Win XP pro. I boot from CD, it loads all the win xp files, then goes to the screen to repair, or continue. Then The laptop just shuts off.. Sometimes, I can get to the screen after and see my hard drive space and have to hit the F8 to “agree” and bam, again, just turns off.

I have the power hooked up and I tried even taking off the battery to give it direct power, and I tried with fully charged battery. It doesn’t seem to be a power issue..? How do I get into the Bios of this thing? I hit F1, F2, delete, at the sturt up, but just goes to start booting from cd.

Any help or suggestion is greatly appreciated.
Thank you,

[shamus]

F10 will get you into Compaq bios.

[Guts3d]

Make sure that the airway for the laptop isn't being blocked, to ensure that it isn't a heat issue I would get it into cmos and leave it there for a bit to test.

[3fingersalute]

F10 will get you into Compaq bios.
Some compaq's have the BIOS installed on a small partition of the HD, so if it's ever been repartitioned, there is no accessible BIOS per-say. If that's the case, you need to download the SoftPaq from Compaq.com

[shamus]

Some compaq's have the BIOS installed on a small partition of the HD Your right, most of them do. Always hated that...

[PacMan]

Really appreciate your help and advice. I think it has something to do with the HD. I was thinking it was a cooling issue as well and checked to see if the fan was working, it is working fine and not blocked. I have a Win 2k CD as well, and it does not restart or turn off teh system. I am able to get in and when trying to format the drive, it says I cannot. With a Win 98 cd, I was able to format, was not able to complete the installation (.cab file is missing) error reading the CD.

So, at this point, I was thinking I need to replace the HD until I read that I need to install a “SoftPaq”? I’ll research it (I never knew that). Yeah, unfortunately, F10 was not working to let me go into BIOS. But Again, thank you everyone for all your advice and your expertise. I’ll try installing this “SoftPaq.” Keep you updated.

[jza734]

It never hurts to turn and run memtest (the best memory tester) on the unit as well. Xp can be finicky with some combinations of ram - i've always had luck swapping out modules. However, I've worked on plenty of 7400's, and i've never tried to load xp on it.
Usually too slow.

If you need help w/ memtest look here
(i use the memtest+ version)
http://www.memtest.org/

[PacMan]

I have installed the Bios, still same problem. Dont have extra mem to try swap. I have successfully installed xp on this laptop before. After about 3 months, the user “messed it up” and attempted to fix it before bringing it back to me. So I was reinstalling the operating system again when it kept turning off on me. You know, like I stated, I am able to get in to the installations with win2k. When I format the HD, it gets stuck at 62% and I can hear the good old “click” sound. After about 3 mins of being stuck on 62% and clicking, it says it could not be formatted. (lol) I’m pretty sure it’s the HD. Surprisingly, when installing win 98, it formats fine with fat32. Then I get an error “CDR204: read error” (or something like that). I think I’m just gonna order a 20 gig HD (saw one for $40) and hopefully it works. But yeah, I have worked on this laptop before, and did install XP with no problems. It has just enough memory (64mb) to install it. But this laptop has been dropped before by user, in which i had to replace the LCD. Seems teh HD finally just died.

That’s the next thing to try, thanks for the help everyone.