Sort of O.T. installation problem

I have posted this in other groups and so far have not received a
solution to this problem. I know it is a NT installation problem but
Win98se contributes to the mystry. Details below:

This computer was manufactured by Emachines and came with XP Home
installed. The original OEM CDs were included when it came to our
class room. The class is an advanced computer repair course at a local
college. We run a small computer repair business at nominal charges
(sometimes free) for the students and faculty so the class members can
get some real time contact with problems from the real world.

When the computer arrived it booted to the Advance Boot Menu where one
can select the method of booting, safe mode, etc. If you leave it in
the default boot it goes through the countdown and then reboots to
that same menu. It will do this all day if you let it. If you select a
different option, e.g. safe mode it will behave as if it was going to
do that but instead returns to that same boot menu.

These are the things we have tried not necessarily in order. Some as a
result of suggestions from other groups.

1. Boot to original OEM CDs to reinstall the OS. This just reproduced
the above described problem.

2. Ran delpart to remove all partitions and repeat #1. Nothing changed
we still get to the boot menu.

3. Replaced RAM and repeat. Nothing changed.

4. Different HD. Nothing changed.

5. Ran delpart again and tried to install XP from a known good
original MS CD. The installation goes until one gets to the blue
screen which says it is going to start Windows. It hangs there.

6. Tried to install W2K from a known good CD. W2K goes to the same
blue screen and hangs just as XP did. Note: There is no error message
just the normal blue screen on a windows installation.

7. In desperation tried to install Win98se. Surprise, installation
went normally and Win98se is in fact installed.

8.Put Partition Magic on and created a second partition for further
attempts to install XP.

9. All attempts to install either W2K or XP to drive D: produced the
same results as above.

10. It was suggested that the CD ROM drive might be a problem so: Ran
the six floppy disk set for XP installation for computers that won't
boot to the CD ROM drive. Disks 1 to 5 ran OK but disk 6 hung at the
same blue screen where it was going to start windows just as it did
when booting to the CD. Disk 6 didn't finish its thing.

11 Ran the four disk set for installation of W2K when CD doesn't boot.
All four disks ran but disk four got to the same blue screen and hung
there.

That is where we are "hung" up at present. Somewhere in the above
blizzard of attempts I reset the BIOS to the factory default to no
avail. There are no PCI cards in the computer and I have disabled
everything I can in the BIOS.

Emachine support said the machine was out of warranty and wanted to
sell us installation CDs at $20. I declined and that was all the help
I got. Please note: Several have suggested that there is a
comparability problem. The computer came with XP Home and we are using
the original CDs. That sort of rules out a compatibility problem.

Any additional suggestions will be welcomed. We of course want to
reinstall XP Home but the question is "Why would Win98se install and
neither XP or W2K install"? How can we get past that blue screen
"Starting windows"?

Unknown wrote:
I have posted this in other groups and so far have not received a
solution to this problem. I know it is a NT installation problem but
Win98se contributes to the mystry. Details below:

This computer was manufactured by Emachines and came with XP Home
installed. The original OEM CDs were included when it came to our
class room.

When the computer arrived it booted to the Advance Boot Menu where one
can select the method of booting, safe mode, etc. If you leave it in
the default boot it goes through the countdown and then reboots to
that same menu. It will do this all day if you let it. If you select a
different option, e.g. safe mode it will behave as if it was going to
do that but instead returns to that same boot menu.


1. Boot to original OEM CDs to reinstall the OS. This just reproduced
the above described problem.

7. In desperation tried to install Win98se. Surprise, installation
went normally and Win98se is in fact installed.

The computer came with XP Home and we are using
the original CDs. That sort of rules out a compatibility problem.

Have you seen the XP-Home on screen?
What compatibility?

Any additional suggestions will be welcomed. We of course want to
reinstall XP Home but the question is "Why would Win98se install and
neither XP or W2K install"? How can we get past that blue screen
"Starting windows"?

Hi!
Strange, but from what you describe the NT OS never appeared on the box.
So a simple querry.
What CPU and RAM are in this animal.
It seems that the disk was transferred from another box with NT
installed in the hope that "It will be OK, mate!".
The reason I write it is, Win98 behaved as it should and I am running
(OK, jogging) it on Pentium133 with 32M RAM. NT would not even spit in
direction of such "misery".
So give us the info on hardware and maybe we can answer better.

Stanislaw
Slack user from Ulladulla.

Hello Stanislaw,
Ulladulla
, stationed at Jervis Bay like forever
Sth coast NSW rocks


Stanislaw
Slack user from Ulladulla.

Have you ruled out hardware faults? Swapped out the CD drive, floppy drive, with
known-good? Tried booting with the CD-drive removed/disconnected?
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/communities...t/default.mspx

"Unknown" wrote in message
...
I have posted this in other groups and so far have not received a
solution to this problem. I know it is a NT installation problem but
Win98se contributes to the mystry. Details below:

This computer was manufactured by Emachines and came with XP Home
installed. The original OEM CDs were included when it came to our
class room. The class is an advanced computer repair course at a local
college. We run a small computer repair business at nominal charges
(sometimes free) for the students and faculty so the class members can
get some real time contact with problems from the real world.

When the computer arrived it booted to the Advance Boot Menu where one
can select the method of booting, safe mode, etc. If you leave it in
the default boot it goes through the countdown and then reboots to
that same menu. It will do this all day if you let it. If you select a
different option, e.g. safe mode it will behave as if it was going to
do that but instead returns to that same boot menu.

These are the things we have tried not necessarily in order. Some as a
result of suggestions from other groups.

1. Boot to original OEM CDs to reinstall the OS. This just reproduced
the above described problem.

2. Ran delpart to remove all partitions and repeat #1. Nothing changed
we still get to the boot menu.

3. Replaced RAM and repeat. Nothing changed.

4. Different HD. Nothing changed.

5. Ran delpart again and tried to install XP from a known good
original MS CD. The installation goes until one gets to the blue
screen which says it is going to start Windows. It hangs there.

6. Tried to install W2K from a known good CD. W2K goes to the same
blue screen and hangs just as XP did. Note: There is no error message
just the normal blue screen on a windows installation.

7. In desperation tried to install Win98se. Surprise, installation
went normally and Win98se is in fact installed.

8.Put Partition Magic on and created a second partition for further
attempts to install XP.

9. All attempts to install either W2K or XP to drive D: produced the
same results as above.

10. It was suggested that the CD ROM drive might be a problem so: Ran
the six floppy disk set for XP installation for computers that won't
boot to the CD ROM drive. Disks 1 to 5 ran OK but disk 6 hung at the
same blue screen where it was going to start windows just as it did
when booting to the CD. Disk 6 didn't finish its thing.

11 Ran the four disk set for installation of W2K when CD doesn't boot.
All four disks ran but disk four got to the same blue screen and hung
there.

That is where we are "hung" up at present. Somewhere in the above
blizzard of attempts I reset the BIOS to the factory default to no
avail. There are no PCI cards in the computer and I have disabled
everything I can in the BIOS.

Emachine support said the machine was out of warranty and wanted to
sell us installation CDs at $20. I declined and that was all the help
I got. Please note: Several have suggested that there is a
comparability problem. The computer came with XP Home and we are using
the original CDs. That sort of rules out a compatibility problem.

Any additional suggestions will be welcomed. We of course want to
reinstall XP Home but the question is "Why would Win98se install and
neither XP or W2K install"? How can we get past that blue screen
"Starting windows"?

Test the memory.
http://www.memtest86.com/

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

--

Brian A. Sesko
MS MVPShell/User
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm




"Unknown" wrote in message
...
I have posted this in other groups and so far have not received a
solution to this problem. I know it is a NT installation problem but
Win98se contributes to the mystry. Details below:

This computer was manufactured by Emachines and came with XP Home
installed. The original OEM CDs were included when it came to our
class room. The class is an advanced computer repair course at a local
college. We run a small computer repair business at nominal charges
(sometimes free) for the students and faculty so the class members can
get some real time contact with problems from the real world.

When the computer arrived it booted to the Advance Boot Menu where one
can select the method of booting, safe mode, etc. If you leave it in
the default boot it goes through the countdown and then reboots to
that same menu. It will do this all day if you let it. If you select a
different option, e.g. safe mode it will behave as if it was going to
do that but instead returns to that same boot menu.

These are the things we have tried not necessarily in order. Some as a
result of suggestions from other groups.

1. Boot to original OEM CDs to reinstall the OS. This just reproduced
the above described problem.

2. Ran delpart to remove all partitions and repeat #1. Nothing changed
we still get to the boot menu.

3. Replaced RAM and repeat. Nothing changed.

4. Different HD. Nothing changed.

5. Ran delpart again and tried to install XP from a known good
original MS CD. The installation goes until one gets to the blue
screen which says it is going to start Windows. It hangs there.

6. Tried to install W2K from a known good CD. W2K goes to the same
blue screen and hangs just as XP did. Note: There is no error message
just the normal blue screen on a windows installation.

7. In desperation tried to install Win98se. Surprise, installation
went normally and Win98se is in fact installed.

8.Put Partition Magic on and created a second partition for further
attempts to install XP.

9. All attempts to install either W2K or XP to drive D: produced the
same results as above.

10. It was suggested that the CD ROM drive might be a problem so: Ran
the six floppy disk set for XP installation for computers that won't
boot to the CD ROM drive. Disks 1 to 5 ran OK but disk 6 hung at the
same blue screen where it was going to start windows just as it did
when booting to the CD. Disk 6 didn't finish its thing.

11 Ran the four disk set for installation of W2K when CD doesn't boot.
All four disks ran but disk four got to the same blue screen and hung
there.

That is where we are "hung" up at present. Somewhere in the above
blizzard of attempts I reset the BIOS to the factory default to no
avail. There are no PCI cards in the computer and I have disabled
everything I can in the BIOS.

Emachine support said the machine was out of warranty and wanted to
sell us installation CDs at $20. I declined and that was all the help
I got. Please note: Several have suggested that there is a
comparability problem. The computer came with XP Home and we are using
the original CDs. That sort of rules out a compatibility problem.

Any additional suggestions will be welcomed. We of course want to
reinstall XP Home but the question is "Why would Win98se install and
neither XP or W2K install"? How can we get past that blue screen
"Starting windows"?

On Sun, 3 Apr 2005 14:16:54 -0400, "glee"
wrote:

,;Have you ruled out hardware faults? Swapped out the CD drive, floppy drive, with
,;known-good? Tried booting with the CD-drive removed/disconnected?

No we haven't ruled out hardware faults other than swapping a HD and a
different stick of RAM. We have used known good OS CDs. It would
appear that the hardware left is the MB and the CPU. We were going to
substitute the CPu but decided that couldn't be the problem. Maybe it
is the problem.

I can pull the CD drive tomorrow and a different floppy drive is
available.

The fact that one gets the same result when booting from the CD drive
and the floppy disks for both W2K and XP suggests that the problem is
elsewhere. But I am ready to try almost anything at this point.

On Sun, 3 Apr 2005 16:20:20 -0500, "Brian A."
gonefish'n@afarawaylake wrote:

,;Test the memory.
,;http://www.memtest86.com/
,;
,;http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Thanks but that is one of the first things we did and then we doubted
the memory tester and put in a new stick of RAM. We do have a rather
expensive memory tester in the computer lab. The memory tested OK.

Swap out the power supply also, as eMachines was known for PSU problems in tha past.
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/communities...t/default.mspx

"Unknown" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 3 Apr 2005 14:16:54 -0400, "glee"
wrote:

,;Have you ruled out hardware faults? Swapped out the CD drive, floppy drive,
with
,;known-good? Tried booting with the CD-drive removed/disconnected?

No we haven't ruled out hardware faults other than swapping a HD and a
different stick of RAM. We have used known good OS CDs. It would
appear that the hardware left is the MB and the CPU. We were going to
substitute the CPu but decided that couldn't be the problem. Maybe it
is the problem.

I can pull the CD drive tomorrow and a different floppy drive is
available.

The fact that one gets the same result when booting from the CD drive
and the floppy disks for both W2K and XP suggests that the problem is
elsewhere. But I am ready to try almost anything at this point.

"Unknown" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 3 Apr 2005 16:20:20 -0500, "Brian A."
gonefish'n@afarawaylake wrote:

,;Test the memory.
,;http://www.memtest86.com/
,;
,;http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Thanks but that is one of the first things we did and then we doubted
the memory tester and put in a new stick of RAM. We do have a rather
expensive memory tester in the computer lab. The memory tested OK.

Boy, I'd sure like to be able to borrow that expensive memory tester! ;-)
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/communities...t/default.mspx

Delpart wouldn't be as good as a wipe of the drive, can I suggest
DiskTool from Bart's site? It will fit on a floppy and 'erase' the
drive from the Drive test menu. Test the drive while you are there.
Bart's Utilities page - DiskTool wiper, tester
http://www.nu2.nu/utils/

Perhaps XP required a hidden partition that is no longer there and 98
doesn't? Just grasping at straws here...