Cant install XP on Dell.

I got quite a few nasty virus' and trojans on my pc, so after backing up some stuff I decided to do a factory reset to clean it all and start again. I couldnt find a factory reset option, only system restore, so instead I decided to just reformat and install XP over again.
This is where the problems start, first of all its a Dell GX270 or maybe a GX270N, not brilliant but good enough for basic stuff.
When I put the XP Pro disc in and chose to boot from CD, it would start the install and get to the blue screen, before the user agreement part, and after its finished loading the setup files about to go onto the agreement I get the blue screen of death.
So, instead I took the hard drive and put it in my sisters pc and installed XP pro that way, and it all went perfectly, but now when I put it back into the Dell, it comes up with the options, start normally, last recent settings etc. and whatever I press it will just restart itself and do the same over again. I dont know what else to try any help please?

 

It's probably a driver problem. Dells have there own modified drivers that usually aren't found on a windows xp disc. (usually only found on the dell's recovery cd).

But all is not lost, you can download the dell xp drivers for your particualar machine, when you install windows it gives you an option to install any computer specific drivers during the installation.

You can also slipstream those drivers into your windows xp cd, but that is more complicated.

 

I'll try it but do you know what I could put in Google to search for?
Because if I just put in Dell Optiplex GX270 XP Drivers then I just get sound, graphics and internet drivers, which I'll need of course but I'd be happy if I can get it to boot up at the minute.
Thanks alot by the way.

 

Use the service code (from the label on the PC) to get the correct drivers.

BTW, you may have other problems lurking around your computer if you couldn't do a direct install from CD.

Using XP installed on another system will just complicate things.

If you really want to get it running correctly, IMHO you should work to get the install working on your machine rather than taking an install from another machine.

 

Yeah I know what your saying, I just thought if I could get it to install on another PC id know it wasnt the hard drive with a fault, and maybe it would work, but this is a Dell were talking about, things usually dont work.
I've looked all over before for a service code to put in on the dell website but there isnt one, theres a bit of a sticker where it probably was. I bought the PC already used so for some reason they must have removed the code label. I have no luck So is there nothing else I can do now without the service code?

 

Thanks for all the help.
I dont know anyone who has a usb cd/dvd drive and I dont really have the money to buy one. Also ive did a search on Dell's site but it comes up with loads of different drivers, BIOS, Graphics etc. which one would I need? I get a blue screen when booting normal and one when loading the XP install disc, and I know its not the hard drive as it works fine in another PC.
And if I got the right driver, where would I load them up? The only chances I'd get are at the start of the XP install where it says press F2 for Automated System Recovery or F6 for RAID something, before it crashes, is it one of these two I'd use?

 

I have seen hundreds of dell's.. from 486 onwards. I must have30 or so on my cluster.

Investigation of the hdd configuration is needed.. the machines which have a system restore option have a hidden partition which will lock the pc to the oem dell version of xp.

I could go into exactly why you get blue screens when you try installing retail xp.. but it isn't worth the effort.. why you want to install a pile of crap like xp on a dell 270 which runs pclimux like a star is puzzling.. but if you must....

The problem is easy to get around.. remove the hidden system partition XD

 

I do have a life y'know XD

The same rule applies to packard-bell machines.. I think they learned it from compaq who used to stick the bios settings on the hdd.. death of hdd or formatting by muppet caused a "162 system options not set" error.. and was almost impossible to fix.

Anyway.. I learned this one after scratching my head over 5 dell 270's.. 4 would install clusterix fine.. the 5th just had a wobbler and slung out various errors from parity check2 to black screen of death
qparted solved it.. hahaha

Next time we see one.. the clue is it will install fine with the hdd in a different machine.. but unless that is a nice old dell (like my Grace... p2-400) it's no chance of working back in the original machine.

 

Well you've all been very helpful, as usual on this site.
So, if I just need to delete the hidden partition, how would I do that if I cant get to the format partition bit during install? (blue screens right before) God I feel so dumb. -_-
I'll make sure not to buy a Dell next time. Im stuck using a P3 500mhz for now
Once before I got someone to take a look at it, and they re installed windows ok on it, but they didnt install no drivers on it, so I had to go hunting on my PS3 for them and it was a lot of hassle, so I dont really wanna ask them again, plus they've already did it once before.
Could those virus' damaged part of my hard drive and thats whats causing it?
I'll see about getting that error code for you aswell, i've disconnected it all at the minute, but from what I remember it was something like 0x00000065 and it had some words at the top but I cant remember them, I'll post what they was later today.
Thanks again

 

sorry if i am in the wrong thread,
i have a PC that needs to be restored but cannot boot from CD.i decide to put the hard drive into another PC and install from disc.After installation i put the hard drive back into the old PC and try and boot.It comes up with the blue screen of death. can any one help me on this.thx

 

ok thx

 

i thought the same thing and looked at it with paragon hdd manager and i cleaned it up and made it 1 partition of it and it still does that to me ,.......but any distro of linux works good ??????, (confused look !) cheers

 

First time back in a long time, things changed a bit , and sadly enough i seen the date after i posted it and read it ......noob i guess !...lol my apologies

 

well I guess we could discuss how some OEM manufacturers a few years ago locked their bios to a certain hdd partitioning configuration and also to M$ operating systems..

Toshiba were tied in by M$ with a whole series of their laptops.. Dell tried the same and made so many enemies among their large corporate customers they seemed to have had a change of heart..
Bios versions between the two machines which were happy to run anything and the one which had a wobbler when the hidden system partition was removed were different.. the later bios removed the problem.. I'm still not sure why ONLY pclinux would install and run happily.. and that's still going to remain a mystery until the next 270 crawls through the door with screwed up vista on it

It was a dirty antitrust tactic ..from a company who should know better.

Just a FYI for people who are not installing on a Toshiba (don't remember the model numbers offhand) and Dell 270 series with the 108-b-a1 bios and getting these problems..

Dodgy ram.. or more likely read only files lurking on the hdd from the previous failed installation .. killdisk run to 10% on the first partition or the first 10% of the unpartitioned drive cures it 99% of the time. Split the drive in half.. use one half (20-25 gigs is more than enough) for unstable breaks all the time M$ "product" if you can justify calling such a pile of buggy crap that .. and the other half (all the rest) as data (your films and music and stuff you don't want to lose every 6 months or virus wipeout or ram crash corruption) and a final 10 gig or so slice right at the end.. make these PRIMARY partitions..

How the unix pro's treat windoze installs.. shift "documents and settings" (what a retarded name for /home/*user*) to the data half.. and image your install.. just copy it to a dvd after all the drivers are working and before installing anything .. tape disk to inside of case somewhere out of the way .. leave a 10 gig slice at the very end of the drive.. install everything you want.. then switch windoze off.. boot puppy.. copy everything (keeping structure intact) to the last partition.. that's your working full OS backup.. when.. not if WHEN it screws up again you can boot puppy.. delete all the crap on C: and copy it all back from your backup drive.. simple as.. no need for stupid imaging programs.. all you need to do than is update your antimalware stuff and you are away.. you can scan your /home.. and any nasties should be gone.. it's like a proper working version of system restore .. especially if you make all the files read only once they are backed up there.... all your programs.. and if you are sensible and don't let things store to "documents and settings" all your bookmarks for browsers.. site preferences.. everything.. will be as last backup .. That's how I have gone from a callout to a screwed up xp installation every month taking 4 or 5 hours.. to a callout every month taking 10 minutes... because I get sick of doing callouts to the same morons who have the same problems all the time.. I'm not the most patient person with retards!! I'm happy to take their cash.. but I don't like wasting hours fixing it which I could use to far more profit in the pub.. and it's winter.. and it's cold..