Failure to install XP, computer keeps restarting

[theboybatis]

Hello,

I'm having a few issues loading up Microsoft XP on a computer I’ve assembled myself, I wondered if anyone could help. As will become apparent I’m not a computer expert so I apologies in advance for any "schoolboy errors" that I make.

I've got a Gigabyte GA-945gzm-S2 motherboard, A Intel Pentium 4 631 3 GHz chip, OCZ technology PC2 5400 memory, and a Samsung SP2504C hard drive.

The hard drive appears in the BIOS but I haven't formatted it as I didn't know if this was necessary.

When the XP CD is in this seems to run ok okay and install up to the point where it needs to turn off and re-boot, at this point it either goes into a cycle of constantly rebooting up to the ACPI point or if the CD is in it will got through the entire installation procedure. It does seem to recognise that the Hard disk has already been formatted though.
I've tried moving the hard **** and CDrom positions for booting in the BIOS but this doesn't seem to achieve anything.

I've also got an old hard drive (Maxtor 3.5 series) which had XP on it, when I plug this in to the new computer (by replacing the CD rom in the IDE port) This also gets recognised and the xp boot gets as far a when the Microsoft logo appears very briefly and then the computer turns itself off and the cycle continues. This happen regardless of the mode chosen.

I hope someone out there can help.

Regards

Stephen

 

[fw2004]

Sounds like it could be a RAM problem, as Windows uses memory differently once it has booted the GUI.

But before you go any further, make sure that after the reboot, Windows is trying to run from the HDD, not the CD. Usually, you will get a prompt to hit a key if you want to boot from the CD. Do not boot from the CD after setup has completed to the reboot.

You should DL (assuming that you have another machine with access to the Internet) a DOS diagnostic utility that will boot from a CD, floppy, or USB flash drive. One such FREE set of utilities is "Ultimate Boot CD", at this url:
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
Create a bootable CD or flash drive and install the utils onto the drive. There are many utilities here. You can pick and choose which ones you think would be useful.

If you own a copy of Norton Utilities, it will boot from the CD and has lots of diagnostics you can run. You can also go to the manufacturer web site of your mobo and DL the diagnostics for your mobo.

Another thought is that your HDD requires special drivers for Windows, but that should have become evident during the setup.

There could also be incompatibility issues between components in your system.

Hope this was of some help to you.

FW

 

[ravisunny2]

Could be due to many reasons:

1. Bad RAM
a) If you have more than one stick, try one at a time
b) Download and run memtest+
http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

2. Problem with the CD/DVD drive
Try using a CD/DVD cleaner

3. Sometimes an internal PCI card, such as an internal modem can cause problems.
Strip the pc down to a bare minimum and try loading XP again

4. Also check your hard drive
I usually do a zero fill before a fresh installation.
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=720bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

5. Could be a problem with the XP CD.
Try cleaning it.

BTW, you boot from CD only the first time. Subsequently, on reboots, the pc should boot from the hard drive.

 

[theboybatis]

thanks

Thanks to you both, I will carry out the tests that you have suggested and I'll report back. If nothing else at least I'm learning a few things.

Stephen