XP Installation Woes

  • Thread starter Thread starter BJ
  • Start date Start date
B

BJ

Hello.

I just built a new pc and am trying to install a fresh copy of XP.
The hardware is:

ASUS A7N266-VM/AA Motherboard (w/Nforce2)
Athlon XP 1800
Corsair 256MB Value Select VS256MB266
Maxtor 40GB hdd
old CDROM (tried 3 different ones).

I boot from the cd since I am starting with a blank harddrive, and
begin the install process... this part gets done fine, but after it
reboots to finish the installation process it only lasts a few
seconds. It has done a couple different things:

Usually it bluescreens with either a IRQL_NOTLESS_OR_EQUAL or a
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA, and sometimes with the page fault it
mensions win32k.sys.

Occationally it will restart itself as soon as it bluescreens, and
sometimes it wont even bluescreen but simply restart itself.

Twice after rebooting and letting it boot back up and try to restart
the setup it has given me a 'Fatal Error' and displayed a log that
mentioned sxs something?... didn't write that one down.

Anyway, I have tried 2 different sticks of 256 ram,
downloaded and ran the memorytest program,
tried installing from 3 different cd-rom drives,
installing using both EIDE slots,
installing with only the PRIMARY EIDE slot enabled,
installing with caching and shadowing disabled,
installing with boot virus scan disabled,
also disabling power options in bios and maybe others that i cannot
recall because it's too late.

I am pretty sure it is not the CD because I have tried 2 different CDs
and they do the same thing.

Therefore I am thinking it is either:
1) The motherboard is defective (i hope not)
2) The harddrive is defective
or
3) The cpu is acting up

I don't think the cpu is overheating, each time i check the hardware
monitor it seems to show a cpu temperature of 105F.

I am too tired to think of anything else to try at the moment, so any
suggestions/insights would be greatly appreciated.

Also, if anyone knows of any hardware testing utilities (harddrive)
available on the net??

Thanks
~B†
 
IRQL_NOTLESS_OR_EQUAL usually indicates a driver or memory error. Although I have
personally had problems with the inbox drivers, these are rare. So, the "value"
memory may need to be looked into. I've heard that ASUS boards can be finicky about
memory. Mine is.

--

Randy Byrne
Microsoft MVP (Windows Technologies)
http://support.microsoft.com/support/mvp
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Do not email me, please use the newsgroup so that everyone benefits.
 
I am having the same problem you are. It is an ASUS A7N8X-X nForce2/
Athlon XP 2600+.

Mine came as a barebones, I only added a brand new HD and a used
CD-ROM. I can usually get the disk formatted and then it will either
blue screen with an error "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" and
also: "Tech Info: *** STOP: 0X000000D1 (0X77F6BD39, 0X0000000A,
0X00000000, 0X77F6BD39)"

I've tried this on XP Home and Windows 2000 Pro. and seem to be
having the same problems with each.

Sometimes it will actually get to coping the setup files, once it got to
94% and stopped on some .inf file for a half hour before I unplugged it.
I'm wondering if I have some bad memory... it was pre-installed and I
haven't touched it.

Hope you hear something, please look at my post as we may get an
answer there.

Thanks,

Raymond
 
Ok I fixed the problem it seems. I took some kingston ram out of my
working AMD 2800+ and put it in this machine and it went through the
installation and hasn't had a problem since. I guess I either got an
incompatible type of ram or bad ram (but corsair makes the best ram,
right? )

B
 
Update:

ASUS added 'better DDR support' in bios rev 1005, they are at 1007.
Installing the newest bios made the motherboard cooperate with the
ram.

B†
 
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