I'm stuck in W2K Install and can't get out

[towerT]

I’m a neobyte running a licensed W2K Pro SP4, on a PentIV 2.4 GHz with a 40 GB Western Digital ultra ATA/100 HD, 512 MB Micron PC2100 266Mhz DDR, VIAP4M266 chipset. I started getting some runtime and abnormal termination errors in MediaPlayer9, and one about not being able to access the EnumCachedPasswords in MPR.dll (or thereabouts) first associated with MP9 and then with my Panda anti-virus. My Radeon 9000pro card started acting up with grayed out icons followed by increasingly frequent freeze-ups so I decided to reinstall the OS, but when it gets to the product key entry page the keyboard(s) freezes up. I’ve tried four different boards, ps2 and USB and they all do it. I’ve run the W2K emergency restore disks (as well as Panda’s which does a virus scan) I can get into the F8 Safe Mode page and the BIOS and have run some diagnostics, and everything seems to check out – and the keyboard works fine at that point¡ , but not matter how I boot, whether from the Ide, floppy or W2K CD I get “W2K set-up is being restarted…” it asks for my W2K disk, analyzes my computer, pretends to install the drivers for my mouse (which works fine) and keyboard, and gets as far as the product key page – no further. Anyone have any ideas¿ Any help would be deeply appreciated.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

Take a look HERE for instructions on how to do a repair install.

If that doesn`t work then maybe a complete reformat and reinstall is the way to go.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

 

[towerT]

Howard, thanks for your message. I tried all of the suggestions and could only get back to the key-in screen. I tried WD's HD diagnostic and couldn´t get past the command.com error message. I've finally reformatted my HD, and the install (and key entry) worked fine. The inability to get around the command.com problem makes me think I was dealing with a virus that Panda couldn´t detect, but I haven´t come across any other references to this particular 'sudden keyboard death syndrome'.

The silver lining is not only do I have a clean system now (from which I write this) but more importantly I've discovered this incredible site. Thanks
to all who make TechSpot the phonomenon that it is.