About to throw computer out window...installing XP probs

[Ron Prestenback]

I haven't been able to get XP beyond the "Setup is starting Windows" screen at the beginning of text mode setup. Here is what I have done.

There are two KB articles in reference to XP hanging at that screen. Both recommend exactly what you'd expect: update your mass-storage drivers, disable ACPI in BIOS, manually specify non-ACPI HAL in setup, remove all peripherals, etc.

I have removed everything in the computer. Here is what I have-
AMD Athlon 700 Mhz 200 FSB - by Acorp
VIA Chipset/686B Southbridge
512M PC133 SDRAM (purchased together, and confimed good) - by Micron
6.4G Fujitsu HD (something like that)
onboard sound
NVidia GeForce2 - 32MB

Everything else was removed from the computer. I disabled sound in the BIOS, as well as USB ports, and System and Video BIOS caching and shadowing.

This is a fresh install, after having Win2K on the computer. I deleted the Win2K partition with Partition Magic 7, then rebooted, then created a new FAT32 partition with PM7, then rebooted (partition and format in one swipe).

I then used Win98 Fdisk to double-check my partition. I then tried installing from the CD. No go - it freezes on the Starting Windows screen. I tried copying the entire CD to the HD, diabling and disconnecting my CDROM, and running setup manually from DOS - copies all files fine, then reboots itself, then again, freezes at the Starting Windows screen. I have another computer (400MHz Intel with 128M SDRAM), so I tried installing on that computer - no problems.

Double-checked my jumper pins on the HD; they are correct. I have the latest BIOS (which is 2 years old...but my MB mf hasn't released a new one). The only thing I've found that may be the cause is the VIA chipset. There are Via drivers available (4.35 4in1) that are supposed to enable functionality with XP, but how do I get these drivers to load during Setup? I tried researching the F6 thing, but a txtsetup.oem is required to tell XP what the drivers are for.

I tried renaming the .inf file that comes with the 4in1, and also with the IDE and sound drivers individually, to txtsetup.oem, but there are certain lines that don't have the right syntax I suppose, because it tells me that line 85 has a syntax error, then if I delete line 85 (haha - I'm *sure* those were just extra lines anyway), now it doesn't like line 123 or something.

Anyway, I gave up and reinstalled Win2K, but XP was a gift, and it starting to look as though it'll have to wait for a new MB at least, but I was wondering if anyone else had any ideas...
Thanks

Ron

[DigitalDreamer]

Had the same problem as you did. Take out your Geforce card and put in another vid card lying around and install XP. After installing XP reinstall Geforce card and there you go. I had this problem on 3 machines that all had geforce cards in them.

Hope this helps...

[Darren Wilson]

It definatly isn't the chipset Ron (installed fine on the few VIA/686B based systems I have installed XP on), and I have also seen the issues that you are stating reported on various sources across the Internet. One of the many reasons why I won't use nVidia based cards.

[Polychronopolis]

Hate to say that I never had a problem installing with my GeForce MX 32 meg card.. I did have to install the drivers to allow Open GL to function.

--So Says Poly..

[Ron Prestenback]

Hey. Just wanted to check and let you guys know that removing the video card worked like a charm. Thanks alot. You have saved both a computer and a window...

However, I am now confronted with an interesting problem. I've installed probably 10 times on various customer's computers, and I've never received this one either. I'm at the logon screen after first running setup, and it won't let me log in. I created two user accounts, for me and my roommate during setup, and neither of them work. Regardless of whether I leave the password field blank or fill it in, it tells me that the domain????? couldn't be found. I didn't configure it during setup to join a domain, and, as I said, I installed this particular CD on my other computer with no problems. I tried CTR-ALT-DEL and I got the classic logon screen, and Administrator account wouldn't log on either (and now that I think of it, it didn't ask me for an administrator password during setup).

Anyway, I'm going to try a couple of things....I'll check back in a little while to se if anyone else has had this problem..

(Why is only my personal copy giving me such a headache, and every other installation I've done went without a hitch?.... Damn you Murphy!)

[Darren Wilson]

If you are using XP home, you can't log onto domains. MS only left network domain support in Professional.

[Ron Prestenback]

To Darren: I'm using Professional - and it wouldn't give me an option to NOT logon to a domain. It wouldn't even allow F8 during startup. Anyway, I kept going nowhere, so I started a reformat/reinstall for this reason.

I think perhaps what messed things up was a previous install gone bad. The first time I was able to successfully get past my first problem, I had ACPI enabled (which never worked in Win2K). Well, sure enough, XP didn't like it either, and froze mid-way through the install. (I tried three times with the same results.) So I removed ACPI in the BIOS, then chose to repair the installation, not wanting to start over from scratch. I was almost complete with the install at the point where it would freeze, and I didn't want to (since I have now spent a good 24 hours total trying to install XP on this one machine) start the installation over AGAIN.

Anyway, as previously stated, it didn't ask me for an administrator password. It also did not ask me for a computer name and network configuration options as it has on other installs. I think that using the repair installation option assumes that these items have already been performed, and skips them. Thus, when you get to logon screen, none of that information is there - i.e. you can't log in to a null domain. Only thing I can think of...I'll know in about 30 minutes when this install completes.

[format c:]

You mentioned using PM 7 for partion and format the drive , I installed Win xp home edition by booting off of the cd , formatting my c: partion as fat 32 , then installed clean using my Win 98 cd as proof of product verification
I also own an Nvidia gforce2 mx 4 400 based card , I have had no problems
Hope you get fixed up

[Garak]

ive had no problems installing with my Geforce 2 200MX 64meg video card, just lucky i guess.

[Ron Prestenback]

The full reinstall from scratch worked...sortof.

It froze again on the "Rregistering Components" screen, but completed after I reset the computer. So I guess the lesson here is "Don't select the repair option if you haven't completed Setup".

To format c: and Garak - I don't know anything about the problem with the Nvidia card during setup, but I have a GeForce 2MX. Not MX200 or the 400. I don't know if perhaps this is why you didn't get the same result. I need to look into this Nvidia bug a little more to know for sure.

In general, now that XP is installed, things seem to be going smoothly...at least once I got all the updated drivers installed. XP incorrectly identified my NIC, so it installed the wrong driver, and it took me 10 years to download the correct one (which was only a 1M d/l on a cable modem). I don't think XP likes my machine very much. I have an Acorp motherboard, and the particular model that I have is about the cheapest they come, so perhaps that's the problem.

I'm now onto getting used to the interface, which, as a user coming from Win2K (an OS that is wide open in terms of configuration in comparison to XP) has been rather difficult. HAHA it took me an hour looking in KB and system help to find out how to change folder and file security and ownership permissions! I really really want to go back to Win2K at this point...but then I guess that would be giving up...haha...You won't win computer!

Ron

[Ron Prestenback]

Well, things have settled down...I suppose my computer can stay under the desk for now...

Finally got everything ironed out. After downloading the Nvidia 21.83 XP drivers, it seemed to fix a random lockup problem I was having (especially in video intensive games).

Things are going smoothly; I've got XP looking about as close as I can to 2000.

I have another question that I haven't been able to find any information on. I like my folders to show as details, instead of large icons. However, I don't want every folder to be this way, only one specific area of my HD where I have a group of files that will be constantly changing dates and times. However, no matter what I do, the Remember each folder's view settings option in Folder Option doesn't work. Making sure that this is selected, I will right click anywhere inside a folder, then select View--->Details. It changes the view to details. Click on another folder, then back to the original folder (either immediately after, or later on) and it's right back to Large Icons. In fact, the only way I can get it to stay as Details view is to select "Set all folders like this one" while I'm looking at a folder in Details view.

This was a problem I also had in 2K, so it's not XP specific. I believe it has something to do with a program I'm using - either HkSFV (to do CRC checks on files using an .sfv file), or cfaNFO (to view .NFO files [similar to a readme.txt, written in ANSI]).

I tried using other programs, but I still have the same results. Something that occurs simply by installing the shell extension for that type of file? Perhaps... .nfo files are also Microsoft system Information Files....

Ron

[Warp_Core]

Friend of mine couldn't get XP on and we tried everything; but he's got a GeForce. So thanks for the tip DigitalDreamer, and I'll let you know how it works out (I've got an old NVidia something he can use)

[Radical Dreamer]

I have a GF2 and didnt have any trouble with it, actually, winXP pro has been the best os that I have ever used.

[charlescpu]

I don't know why you had problems...

Look at my configuration 3 years old and no problem. Everything work quite fine! Maybe you're BIOS just not in the mood.......maybe an upgrade?