Confuzzed computer - will it, won't it

[Sharam]

You need to download the full SP3 then use nLite to make a bootable XP Corp CD with SP3 already on it.

You said you had to apply the SP3 in Safe Mode meaning the CD you are using does not have SP3.

When you start your clean install, your SP3 will be gone if the CD you have right now has older SP on it.

 

[Sharam]

my xp cd is a corperation (meaning no product key is needed and i can do as many installtion as i like) so will it still work with that and what the risk of it damaging the disk as it's not something i can get hold of easy
I'll do the power test after memtest has finished in the morning

(by the way are you in the US cus i'm in the uk-i was just thinking time zones)

not true, the corporate has a key also but does not require activation and unlike VLM has no limit. Most probably your IT admin used something like nLite to include the key in so you don't have to enter it.

 

[Sharam]

XP Corporate edition is only for corporations not individuals
MS can not offer any support for individuals who use this

Newegg is selling valid XP CDs with the key and all.

XP Pro: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116515

XP Home: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116511

True

I sell enterprise AV as well as OS through my suppliers, with AV, we allow the employees to install a copy at home as well for their own protection if they work at home and bring it to work.

With corporate OS, only the management and certain employees get to install a copy at home (for work use) as well.

 

[Tritton]

ok so I just tried booting the computer with out either of the drives and the graphic's card and it booted fine, and when I restarted the computer it booted fine again so would this suggest it may be the power after all.
and memtest showed no errors

problem using nlite
when I try browse and select my CD drive a warning message comes up saying 'select where to save CD installation files for modification chose of creat an empty folder'

 

[Sharam]

Yes it does point to the power supply, both optical drives draw about 48W from the +12V rail to spin (2A each but the newer drives around 1.5-1.8A) and about 10W each from the +5V rail to read and write. The Vid card as I mentioned 117W while idle from all the positive rails. The difference from 75W that is provided by the PCI-E slot, has to come from the +12V rail.

Let me look at the link you provided and get back to you.

Sorry, seems like I missed a part, you do need to tell nLite where you want the work to be saved, either make a new folder or point to where you save your stuff.

 

[Tritton]

ahh ok thanks

 

[Sharam]

k, so memtest is now running
I already tried diconnected the DVD rom drive but I haven't tried disconnecting both
as for power unit are you suggesting To get a new one, if so would this be a fair chose http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-PSU500
by the way I'm using a power adapter to connect to the HDD if thats any use

the motherboard is A74MX-k (edit) or do you still need nLite to be ran

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/Product/Motherboards/detail_overview.aspx?id=en-us0000379 this might help

I don't feel comfortable recommending power supplies for UK since they are internally different than what is designed for North America.

If anyone from UK has other suggestion for a power supply for your needs based on our discussion, please let us know.

After checking lot of on-line stores in UK, all the ones I read, don't show detail, I can't get any info on the one you selected, it says it has 2 X 120mm fan which I find hard to believe, it has no PCI-E 6pin plug.

I found the web site for the HIPER 425 WATT 18db Silent PSU ATX with full details, this one seems to be OK, with 2 +12V rails each at 17A max (not combined) and with enough output on the +3.3V and the +5.V rails. I hope the +12V1 and +12V2 yellow wires are distinguished so you can better distribute power to your system. Try and use separate wires for your drives rather than using one or two for your 2 optical drives, the SATA, and the floppy, do not use the same cable that is used for the drives for a case fan. Here is the same power supply from novatech

As always, please check and see if there are any BIOS updates for the motherboard before starting XP install.

Check the web site for all your components and see if there are newer drivers than what is provided on the CDs, if there are newer drivers, save them to a USB stick or burn a CD, make sure the drive or the CD are free of infection before connecting it to your new installation.

During installation, delete all partitions, create new partition /s, format them (quick is OK) then proceed with XP install, this way your MBR is clean.

Don't connect any other hard drives with data on them until your XP is fully patched with a working AV and all it's updates.

As soon as XP is installed, install your chipset drivers first.

If you use the integrated ATI 2100, do not install it's video drivers till you have .NET Framework 2 at the least (available from foxconn or Windows Update)

It is best not to be connected to the internet during XP install till you have installed an AV (saved to the drivers CD or something) specially if you are not behind a firewall (router would be OK).

If you use Office products, do Microsoft update in Custom mode rather than Windows update, do not accept any hardware update from Microsoft or Windows Update, get them from the manufacturers site.

Remember, even with your XP Pro CD with SP3, there are some 50 or 60 critical updates that you have to install in Custom not Express mode.

Let us know how everything goes.

 

[Tritton]

So lets see
get new Power unit
get BIOS updates (how do you do this once files are downloaded)
Find any driver up dates
clean Xp install
chipset drivers
install AV -update
windows update (custom)
other drivers etc
then transfer data over

chance the current graphic'scard will stay as it does what needed of it and my brother is happy having to pay out a 3 time for the power unit

 

[Sharam]

Here is the BIOS file, please double check and ensure it is for that motherboard.

Download the Driver Free Disk For BIOS Flashing from BootDisk.com to your desktop

Download the BIOS image file to your desktop and extract.

Place a blank floppy disk in the drive and double click on the drdflash.exe

After your boot disk is made, copy all three files 813F1P05.ROM, AFUDOS.EXE and flash.bat to the floppy disk.

Boot the computer up with boot order changed to floppy first in the BIOS, once at the command prompt (A:\) type flash and press enter, this will run the batch file (flash.bat), don't interupt the flashing process, after prompted, re-boot the system, enter the BIOS and load the defaults, set boot order to CD-ROM first, make any other changes you need in the BIOS based on your configuration, save and exit, with the new XP SP3 CD in the drive, turn the system ON and proceed with XP install.

You should be more happy than your brother! His system will run better and you get less or no calls with problems you have to fix

Keep us posted.

 

[Tritton]

I'm happy, I've leant a great amout for this (thanks to you guys)

the link for the BIOS I didn't download that one as did I needed it as is was for supporting AM3's I downloaded the other two
so can I flash all 3 updates at once then

 

[Sharam]

The latest has the older fixes included.

Depending on the BIOS Engineer, there might be more small fixes they do not publish, doesn't matter if you have AM3 or not, always get the most recent BIOS image file even if it does not address your exact issue.

 

[Tritton]

cool thanks

 

[Tritton]

ok flashing the BIOS and it would of seem to of stopped but there is no clear promt to restart
it has been likew it for a while what would happen if I restarted

I was give the following instruction on flashing my BIOS

(https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic122987-2.html)

Here is the BIOS file, please double check and ensure it is for that motherboard.

Download the Driver Free Disk For BIOS Flashing from BootDisk.com to your desktop

Download the BIOS image file to your desktop and extract.

Place a blank floppy disk in the drive and double click on the drdflash.exe

After your boot disk is made, copy all three files 813F1P05.ROM, AFUDOS.EXE and flash.bat to the floppy disk.

Boot the computer up with boot order changed to floppy first in the BIOS, once at the command prompt (A:\) type flash and press enter, this will run the batch file (flash.bat), don't interupt the flashing process, after prompted, re-boot the system

The computer is not doing anythink it just have a lot of numbers/info at the top followed by A:/ then the cursor

there is no sign of a promt for me to restart
I really need help with this
I have already looked at https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic75555.html

 

[Sharam]

Sorry had a late night, kind of on a night shift at the moment!

That does not sound normal, can you explain the steps you took and the prompts on the screen, I'll have a look at the batch file and see the syntax and switches they have used.

Could you give us an update on this?

 

[Tritton]

don't worry about the late night thing I was sort of in the same boat my internet went so couldn't of go on

as far as the steps when I followed them the only other thing that was as normaly as it though it would be is when I did drdflash.exe thing was that it couldn't find some sectors

as for what is says on the screen

[PMODE/W]: about:00
EXCEPTION:06
then after that there about about 4 lines of things like EAX:, ESI, DS of of which are followed by some letter and numbers
then the very last time it has A:\> then the cursur

 

[Sharam]

If the system is on at the command prompt, DO NOT TURN IT OFF or RE-START it

If the disk is bad or the drive is dirty, you cannot create a boot disk. Did you create a boot disk, it sounds like you did. You have to ensure the disk is good and drdflash.exe completes with no errors

Either the download was corrupted somehow or we have to do an older update first then the latest.

Sorry but in times like this we need to be sure and your reply does not answer my questions fully, I know what instructions I gave you but was wondering about steps you took.

It looks like nothing was erased or written to the CMOS, that is good.

You should have seen something like the screen bellow yours would have said A:\ instead of C:\ with a different version of AFU


Click to maximize pic



If the utility did not load as you can see in the picture (your version if different might not look the same), again, nothing was written to the CMOS and you can turn the system OFF. If you are not sure, ask before doing this.

Howis the new power supply coming along, did you get it yet? Let's not do the flash for now.

 

[Tritton]

yea power is great of it today(tue)
and I did see anything like the screen shoot
as for the steps I took, when it couldn't find some sectors at first I tryed click 'retry' that didn't work so pressed irnore. I also used a use floppy drive.
when it came to doing the flash, I typed in flash like you said wait a few seconds till I saw it doing 'stuff' though that it was working and then left the room, came back and it was on the screen shown I've decribed

 

[Sharam]

OK, that is good, the error you reported is a generic PMODE execute error, didn't want to throw more on your plate till making sure the flash utility didn't run.

In the future, do not attempt a BIOS flash with a disk that fails format or utilities such as DRDFLASH, since if the flash procedure goes wrong or if there is data corruption, the board would refuse to POST, luckily AMI has a simple recovery procedure, thank God we didn't have to go there.

If things are running good, let's leave it as is, you can report the current BIOS version if you want just out of curiosity

Good job overall Ryantech!

 

[Tritton]

well I can confirm that it didn't delect anything
so moving on to the XP install. the new xp CD with SP3 slipedsteamed in it doesn't work. when I put the CD in it wouldn't do anything. I also tried putting it in my computer and nothing will load. further more when setting up a VM I did capture ISO and it loaded but when it was installing it said it a file was missing or corrupted. so that suggest to me I'm going to have re make the ISO and re burn the CD would you agree

 

[Sharam]

Yes, somehow, your ISO became corrupted, if you have no issues on the system you used to create the ISO, you should run it again. Couple years ago, nLite had issues under certain OS, I even had issues Slipstreaming XP SP2 manually using a Win2K machine.

What is the OS on the system you are using to run nLite?

I will load nLite and double check the steps I posted for you to follow.

Another member reported success with my instructions but not sure if they just created the ISO, burnt a copy or if they used it to install or check and see if they can boot with the CD.

I haven't had any issues with nLite myself!

EDIT: Here is a guide created by nLite, you do need to have .NET Framework 2.0 installed, perhaps it is a good idea if you did all Microsoft or Windows update before using nLite!

My link should get you to the Main page of the guide, you want to click on the Requirements then there are 3 parts, if for some reason my link doesn't take you there, go to nLit's Home Page, click on Guides in the menu then choose your preferred language.

 

[Tritton]

ok the computer pretty much all done. just got to put the data back (after doing checks on the data)
the only issue is the CD drive it still doesn't work and when something trys to auto play it just brings up a comand line

 

[Sharam]

Command line as in the black window or a dialog box?

You said there is a DVD-ROM and a DVD-RW, which one gives you problems, is the other OK? Did you use the one with problem to install XP?

I believe they are both PATA (what everyone else calls IDE) is the one at the end of the cable set to master and the one connected to the middle connector set to slave (I like this better than cable select) or both are on cable select? Cable select would be OK but if master/ slave used, ensure the master is connected to the end of the data cable (first connector and not the middle connector).

If all seems OK, try another ID cable, you can also try each drive alone by itself as Master just to see, if problem still there, just use the good drive, either remove the "bad" drive or disconnect the power and data cables and leave it in if you don't have a drive bay cover.

 

[Tritton]

black box
DVD-ROM
Is set to cable select (DVD-RW set to slave and on middle connector)

and I try it on master after it finished updating what may take a bit

 

[Sharam]

when using cable select, set both drives to cable select, otherwise the one connected to the end set to Master and the middle one to Slave.

 

[Tritton]

ok so set it to master and with one disk it thew up a application error another did nothing, what I think I may do is out it in my other computer and see if it works