Can't reinstall ANY OS

**buksida** · March 17th, 2005, 10:20 PM

A customer has bought a Cely box in with major problems on Win ME. My instinct is to do the big "F" and setup a proper operating system.

The computer has other ideas.

Having done the big "F" here are the other problems I get:

Will not copy files from the CD, setup process stops.

Heres what I've tried:

Different CD Drive
DIfferent CDs (Win XP and Win 2000)
Installing Win 98 from the Hard disk (this just runs scandisk and then goes back to the command prompt)
Different RAM

Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated ... failing that I tell her the CPU fried and she needs to buy a new machine

**buksida** · March 17th, 2005, 11:04 PM

Just noticed that someone had "glued" the CPU cooler to the mainboard ... not a good sign.

**Kodiak** · March 17th, 2005, 11:09 PM

That is funny.

**geoscomp** · March 18th, 2005, 09:19 AM

Originally Posted by buksida

Just noticed that someone had "glued" the CPU cooler to the mainboard ... not a good sign.

Really? don't think I have seen that one yet....

**MAXIMUS2111-SPQR** · March 18th, 2005, 09:44 AM

try a diff hdd?

**Ferrit** · March 18th, 2005, 11:17 AM

Sounds like a PCCHIPS or clone motherboard
Exactly whay is it?

**confus-ed** · March 18th, 2005, 11:22 AM

Originally Posted by geoscomp

Really? don't think I have seen that one yet....

I dunno what the hell you'd have made of the one I found stuck on with chewing gum then !

**PCGirl** · March 18th, 2005, 06:40 PM

I sometimes have PCs that won't install the OS from a CD. This is usually because the cab files don't extract right. I have to copy the install files found on the CD to a directory on the HD (if win98 - it will be the win98 folder on the cd - please, oh please don't put ME on the machine...ME was just too buggy for words).

Do this: After you format the HD, at the c: prompt type: md c:\w98inst
(remember our old friend DOS? - We are actually making a directory on c: called w98inst)

Then, switch to your CD drive. Switch to the directory where the install files are this way - this example uses d: as the cd drive and w98 as the OS

c:\ d:
cd d:\win98
d:\win98 copy *.* c:\w98inst

This will copy all the setup files to the c:\w98inst directory on the hd.

switch to the c:w98inst directory on the hd and run setup.exe

It should work now - unless someone glued the hd together too...

Good Luck

**Archer** · March 18th, 2005, 07:09 PM

Did you test the hardrive with the manufacturers diagnostic tool?

**arch0nmyc0n** · March 19th, 2005, 02:15 PM

I've found that problems that you're experiencing are due to hardware issues. I suggest checking the RAM for errors. (http://www.memtest.org/) And scanning the hard drive for errors via the manufacturers diagnostic utilities (as Archer suggested).

If the guy was having errors all the time in WinME (other than WinME sucks) it's probably the RAM.

**compu_techman** · March 19th, 2005, 08:27 PM

Originally Posted by arch0nmyc0n

I've found that problems that you're experiencing are due to hardware issues. I suggest checking the RAM for errors. (http://www.memtest.org/) And scanning the hard drive for errors via the manufacturers diagnostic utilities (as Archer suggested).

If the guy was having errors all the time in WinME (other than WinME sucks) it's probably the RAM.

I have to agree with arch, I just finished a celly here today that would not accepta reinstall. After pulling out my hair and gettting all bent outta shape I ran Memtest and it turned out the ram was on the way out, changed it with known good stick and the install went in like a dream.

**buksida** · March 21st, 2005, 02:07 AM

Hmmmm, a bumper bag of responses to get thru ...

Board is an MSI ... I think still under warranty so I told her to take it back to the cowboys that sold it to her.

PCGirl - That was the second thing I tried after the CD install ... more BSOD's!

HDD tested - no probs.

Didnt have a spare stick of SD laying around to try, besides it was the weekend and I'd really had enough of the beast ... the glue thing did it!

**confus-ed** · March 21st, 2005, 03:32 AM

Originally Posted by buksida

... the glue thing did it!

Of course it did

(hence my jokey comment earlier about chewing gum ! ) - I'd concluded you knew damn well that poor thermal contact would give you 'instant overheat' under load (glue generally would insulate & not as it ought to & conduct heat away from the cpu core into the HS) & that was probably the cause of all of it. (including the 'random' bsod's in ME)

**buksida** · March 25th, 2005, 01:01 AM

Get this: the shop that sold her the computer are now trying to blame me for tampering with it. I spoke to the manager who told me "they come from our supplier like that" in reference to the glue on the mobo.

I asked him why the power supply had a 2003 sticker on it and the RAM and mobo were over 2 years old when the customer says she bought it a year ago!

He hung up.

**confus-ed** · March 25th, 2005, 03:29 AM

Originally Posted by buksida

..He hung up.

... knowing he was 'Sprung' !

Now it comes down to who the customer trusts, but either way its probably not good news for them, as it either goes back to the shop where it came from to probably get repaired 'Heath Robinson' style with chewing gum & string, or they pay you to put 'right bits' back in it (or salvage anyway whats good from it) & do it (hopefully

) right !