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Building Computer and Need Help!

Discussion in 'All other topics' started by Auslander, Aug 12, 2005.

  1. Auslander

    Auslander Senior member

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    yesterday, my AMD FX55 and matching Gigabyte motherboard and ram came in through Fedex. i had planned on upgrading my system from my athlong 2600+. at first, i tried just putting first hard drive in to see if i could just re-register as i had done before. however, whenever it gave me the registration option, the whole computer froze before it could load my background and i had to restart. at points, the computer beeped and restarted on its own.

    no biggie, i thought. i'll just install windows on my second hard drive and go from there. i put windows 98 on my drive (although i had several errors and made a few attempts...every time i started it at last, windows explorer had and error and made me restart just to do it again). but at one point i was quick enough to get the XP Pro setup going. i tried a clean install at first, but a few files couldn't be copied from my cd. bummer. so then i tried the upgrade. that had errors several time and froze completely a few minutes ago. now, i'm getting an error that C:windows\system32\config\windows is missing. it says i should be able to repair it from my cd, but no such luck as i can't really boot from that cd.

    so, whatcha think? could my hard drive be going, maybe? i'm not sure how i've gotten so many errors. both discs are scratched, but not that badly.

    and what do you think would make my system keep restarting with the first hard drive. couldn't be overheating, do you think?
     
  2. Auslander

    Auslander Senior member

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    i remember having similar troubles trying to install xp pro in the past...i had to go back to xp home...i suppose the supernatural forces of the universe have decided that i can never install pro or something.
     
  3. Auslander

    Auslander Senior member

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    lol, as a further update, i am currently running the infamous Fdisk on the old hard drive. i've deleted the primary dos partition and am creating a new one, as that last install of 98 wouldn't load windows upon restart. this is the last thing i can think of for a fresh install. i hope someone more experienced than i will be able to help soon.
     
  4. Auslander

    Auslander Senior member

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    still can't get windows 98 to run, and the pc still restarts after a few seconds of being on the log-on screen with the hard drive i haven't cleared anything from. i still try to re-register it, and it still freezes up and restarts. i'm about to go out and buy a new hard drive.
     
  5. Auslander

    Auslander Senior member

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    couldn't pick up a new hard drive, but i was able to locate a copy of the full version of xp home. it formats the drive (ntfs)and copies some of the files, then gives me errors say "blah blah was not copied correctly" or something like that at anywhere from 25 to 75%. i have disconnected one of my two optical disk drives, as well as my floppy. no printer or anything else is hooked up. at the moment, it's just hard drive, fans, disc drive, and mobo/proc/ram. still having problems, though.
     
  6. Doofy

    Doofy Regular member

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    The only times i have had this problem with winxp refusing to go over
    and win98 was due to dodgy ram. I took out the ram swapped it over soon as OS was up and running popped the ram back in. Been running fine ever since, dunno if this is gonna help you but got to be worth a try....
     
  7. Auslander

    Auslander Senior member

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    i'm getting through at this point to where it says "39 minutes left" until the installation is complete. then, i get a fatal error. product catalogs were not installed and setup cannot continue. anyone know what this means?
     
  8. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    Doofy, wouldn't suggest do that again as you were lucky once, might not be so lucky the next time.
    auslander, remove the ram from the motherboard & take a pencil eraser to the gold contacts on the sticks to remove oxidation than reseat the ram.
     
  9. Auslander

    Auslander Senior member

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    would brand new ram have oxidation on it, ddp? oh, and does it sound to you like i'm in need of a new hard drive?
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2005
  10. Auslander

    Auslander Senior member

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    did what you said, ddp. it gets down to about 24 minutes left, then freezes and restarts again. i'm quite frustrated at the moment. :(
     
  11. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    haven't read thread fully yet, but how about copying contents of '98 and XP Pro CD's to somewhere on hard drive and installing from hard drive instead of from cd ?
     
  12. Auslander

    Auslander Senior member

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    i would try that, but i don't have a functional OS on the hard disc to do so.

    at this last point, the computer became frozen on the 34 minute marker, "installing devices" for about 15 minutes...i restarted...the progress bar was not moving, but the little green squares that light up like old signs in Las Vegas were still lighting up in a row.

    and here it is again, currently stuck about 2/3's of the way through "installing devices"...it's not frozen, but no progress is being made.
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2005
  13. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    how about downloading a '98 (maybe '98 special edition) bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com, putting one of the hard drives into the old pc, whipping out existing hard drive out (and not touching said hard drive with anything!). you can then copy '98 install cd onto that hard drive after making said hard drive bootable, then trying that hard drive in new pc
     
  14. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    i've spent far too many hours on stuff like this over far too many years. one hint i was gonna suggest (but you've already done it) would be to take out as many cards/devices for the install phase. that's worked for me countless times, the install of most of Microsoft's OSes has barfed on me at some point, one surefure fix has has always been to take out all cards for install, also another thing to do (sounds stupid) is to reset the bios to defaults, even if it's a new machine..
     
  15. Auslander

    Auslander Senior member

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    and it restarted on me as i was entering my cd key! back to good ol' 39 minutes! :(

    i have a bootable copy of xp home...at this point, i might as well leave 98 in the dust...it doesn't even really work with th 64 bit system now. does it seem to be a hard drive error? kinda need to figure that one out as soon as i can, cuz if i'm going to get a new drive this week i need to leave soon. arg.

    i could just get a new drive, format it, and try to boot it with the cd and see if that fixes it. i'm pretty afraid that it's just a heat-damaged hd, but i'm not sure. thank for what your doing, creaky :)
     
  16. Auslander

    Auslander Senior member

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    i set the bios to default, but it wouldn't past the disconnected floppy. i'll try it again on the next restart, though.
     
  17. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    theres not one install that's ever beaten me, some have had me flummoxed and sat there for like 8hour sittings.
     
  18. Auslander

    Auslander Senior member

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    so, as long as those green squares are animated, something is being done, right? perhaps i shouldn't have restarted it. :(
     
  19. Auslander

    Auslander Senior member

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    just got the blue screen of death. error with ntfs.sys. "page in non-paged area" or something of that nature. restart, and the installation continues. i'm still thinking hard drive problems...the mobo, ram, and proc were all built for each other, and it shouldn't matter with the disc drives, psu, fans, etc. my graphics card (9600XT A-I-W) appears to be functioning just fine *knock on wood*. the hard drive is the only thing i can think of.
     
  20. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    could well be, but ya gotta get to wipe it first...
     

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