maddening failure to install any OS. - Page 3

**Baby Lee** · 02-07-2005, 05:24 PM

I'm trying to set up a new computer for my father and am having a dickens of a time with the OS install.

Here are the particulars.

Motherboard - Soyo SY-P4RC350
Processor - Intel Celeron D 320, 2.4 GHz, 533 FSB, 265Kb L2 Cache
Hard Drive - Western Digital 200Gb, 7200 RPM, 8 Mb Cache
DVD-RW Drive - Digital Max 16x DVD Dual Drive
Video Card - ATI Radeon 9100 Pro [on board]
------------ATI All in Wonder Radeon 8500DV [AGP] - this is the one I'm using.

OS - Windows 2000 CD boot, CD install [later tried XP Pro to similar luck]

I should also mention that he bought a cheapie case with an Austin 300W ATX power supply. I initially thought that might be the problem, so I swapped in my own Q-Max 350W power supply. No better luck there either.

-----

Anyways to the problem.

I use the WD bootable CD to partition the HD to the 137 GB limit the OS has until you install SP3-4.
I then restart with the Win2K bootable CD. It goes through it's initial file xfer and goes to "starting windows 2000." I get the initial pages about accepting the EULA and what partition I want to install the OS on just fine. Then it starts installing files [the blue DOS screen with the yellow progress meter]. Then around the time it's copying 'digimon.dll" it starts saying the read failed. Then the read failures come hot and heavy, until I get a different blue screen with a 'DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL' error, a bunch of reference #s and an instruction to check bios, disable new hardware, etc.
I've tried;
changing power supply
unplugging chassis fans and taking case sides off instead [to lessen power supply load]
changing from AGP card video to onboard video
changing IDE cables [several times]
putting both DVD and HD on the same primary IDE cable.
futtering with master/slave and cable select in most all iterations.
swapping out my dad's DVD writer for my own Liteon 811S.
Letting W2k format/partition the drive instead of the WD software.

Each time, I get the same problem.

Also, I used my own XP Pro installation CD instead. It would either [at around the same point in the installation process], restart the system right in the middle of file xfer, or come up with a 'xxxx file corrupt' message screen.

Also, on the off chance the CDs actually both crapped out at the same time, I successfully installed both OSes on a clean HD I have in my own ASUS P4-2.4G system.

I'm usually pretty good at applying the scientific method to diagnosing computer problems, but I'm out of ideas. Anyone have a direction I should go?

As I write, I came up with another avenue. Perhaps I shouldn't designate that the OS will be W2K SP3-4 when the WD software partitions. Since I'm installing W2K pre-SP4, then adding on with SP4 afterwards. I'll reassemble the other PC and let you know if that works. Otherwise, I welcome all input.

Thanks in advance.

**Baby Lee** · 03-04-2005, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unlurking

Gratz!

What was the name of the company?

SOYO

**Saulbadguy** · 03-04-2005, 04:07 PM

You can buy from SOYO Direct? Hmm.

I had a similar experience with a bad motherboard. It was fubar, so I called to get an RMA. The "Guy who does RMA's" was on Jury duty, so I had to wait. Kept calling over a 3 week period, and when I finally get a hold of the "guy who does RMA's", he tells me "Sorry, 30 day period is over. Contact the manufacturer."

I did contact the manufacturer though. ASUS sent cross shipped with me, and everything worked out.

**Baby Lee** · 03-04-2005, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

You can buy from SOYO Direct? Hmm.

I had a similar experience with a bad motherboard. It was fubar, so I called to get an RMA. The "Guy who does RMA's" was on Jury duty, so I had to wait. Kept calling over a 3 week period, and when I finally get a hold of the "guy who does RMA's", he tells me "Sorry, 30 day period is over. Contact the manufacturer."

I did contact the manufacturer though. ASUS sent cross shipped with me, and everything worked out.

No, dealing with Soyo was on me. Pops bought the MOBO, Case and Chip during the day after X-mas sales at Microcenter. He wanted to put it together, but mom and I showed him the closet of unfinished projects [also, I was trading out my video card to him and putting in one I got that day too in mine], so I took it back with me to St. Louis, only I didn't get around to assembling it until Feb. Took me a week to find out what was wrong. By that time, Microcenter's 30 policy was up, and besides they were still all the way across the state.

**Baby Lee** · 03-04-2005, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

I did contact the manufacturer though. ASUS sent cross shipped with me, and everything worked out.

What ASUS do you have? I use the P4PE and, aside from the 4x AGP bus, I LOVE it. Onboard gigabit LAN. Onboard 5.1. Onboard firewire, 6 USB 2.0 slots, onboard Raid. SATA. 4 PC-2700 slots. Kickass seabass.

**Saulbadguy** · 03-04-2005, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

What ASUS do you have? I use the P4PE and, aside from the 4x AGP bus, I LOVE it. Onboard gigabit LAN. Onboard 5.1. Onboard firewire, 6 USB 2.0 slots, onboard Raid. SATA. 4 PC-2700 slots. Kickass seabass.

The P4PE is what I had before I upgraded to the Abit IC7-G.

**Baby Lee** · 03-11-2005, 10:29 AM

OK, I got the MoBo back, put everything back together. When I boot into Win2K the CPU is constantly at 100% load. Everything is mega slow as a result. If I boot to WinPE [by CD-Rom], CPU usage is just 4% or so. I thought maybe things were just set up wrong, so I wiped the HD and reinstalled. Still at 100% CPU usage. Also, the install took 10% as long.
Four observations, I'll let you judge the relevance.
First, the CPU/Cooler interface had paste between them. I didn't disturb, but also didn't replace the paste on reinstallation.
Second, the ZIF slot was not totally zero insertion force. I had to jiggle the latch a little to get the CPU to fall into the pin holes.
Third, while in WinPE some of the system checking programs gave info on AGP. A couple said the AGP bus was not enabled. But I don't see anything in the Bios to disable/enagle the bus, and in Win2K, the AIW 8500 is shown to be working properly.
Finally, the system hangs on a CD Rom boot if a program calls up the Atapi driver.

**Baby Lee** · 03-11-2005, 12:25 PM

'System Idle Process' seems to be the culprit, using up to 99% of the CPU, while using only 16K of memory.

EDIT: OK I see that SIP is just a placeholder, and it's normal for it to be high when the PC is doing much, but still the CPU utilization is always up around 100%. And it's certainly sluggish, especially considering it's just the bare OS on the HD right now.

DenverChief · 03-17-2005, 01:09 AM

Problem solved.......

02-07-2005, 05:24 PM
Baby Lee Supporter Join Date: Aug 2000 Casino cash: $8318275	maddening failure to install any OS. I'm trying to set up a new computer for my father and am having a dickens of a time with the OS install. Here are the particulars. Motherboard - Soyo SY-P4RC350 Processor - Intel Celeron D 320, 2.4 GHz, 533 FSB, 265Kb L2 Cache Hard Drive - Western Digital 200Gb, 7200 RPM, 8 Mb Cache DVD-RW Drive - Digital Max 16x DVD Dual Drive Video Card - ATI Radeon 9100 Pro [on board] ------------ATI All in Wonder Radeon 8500DV [AGP] - this is the one I'm using. OS - Windows 2000 CD boot, CD install [later tried XP Pro to similar luck] I should also mention that he bought a cheapie case with an Austin 300W ATX power supply. I initially thought that might be the problem, so I swapped in my own Q-Max 350W power supply. No better luck there either. ----- Anyways to the problem. I use the WD bootable CD to partition the HD to the 137 GB limit the OS has until you install SP3-4. I then restart with the Win2K bootable CD. It goes through it's initial file xfer and goes to "starting windows 2000." I get the initial pages about accepting the EULA and what partition I want to install the OS on just fine. Then it starts installing files [the blue DOS screen with the yellow progress meter]. Then around the time it's copying 'digimon.dll" it starts saying the read failed. Then the read failures come hot and heavy, until I get a different blue screen with a 'DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL' error, a bunch of reference #s and an instruction to check bios, disable new hardware, etc. I've tried; changing power supply unplugging chassis fans and taking case sides off instead [to lessen power supply load] changing from AGP card video to onboard video changing IDE cables [several times] putting both DVD and HD on the same primary IDE cable. futtering with master/slave and cable select in most all iterations. swapping out my dad's DVD writer for my own Liteon 811S. Letting W2k format/partition the drive instead of the WD software. Each time, I get the same problem. Also, I used my own XP Pro installation CD instead. It would either [at around the same point in the installation process], restart the system right in the middle of file xfer, or come up with a 'xxxx file corrupt' message screen. Also, on the off chance the CDs actually both crapped out at the same time, I successfully installed both OSes on a clean HD I have in my own ASUS P4-2.4G system. I'm usually pretty good at applying the scientific method to diagnosing computer problems, but I'm out of ideas. Anyone have a direction I should go? As I write, I came up with another avenue. Perhaps I shouldn't designate that the OS will be W2K SP3-4 when the WD software partitions. Since I'm installing W2K pre-SP4, then adding on with SP4 afterwards. I'll reassemble the other PC and let you know if that works. Otherwise, I welcome all input. Thanks in advance.
Posts: 95,642

03-04-2005, 04:07 PM	#32
Saulbadguy When a nightmare becomes real Join Date: Nov 2003 Casino cash: $1166966	You can buy from SOYO Direct? Hmm. I had a similar experience with a bad motherboard. It was fubar, so I called to get an RMA. The "Guy who does RMA's" was on Jury duty, so I had to wait. Kept calling over a 3 week period, and when I finally get a hold of the "guy who does RMA's", he tells me "Sorry, 30 day period is over. Contact the manufacturer." I did contact the manufacturer though. ASUS sent cross shipped with me, and everything worked out. __________________ http://www.goemaw.com
Posts: 47,007

03-11-2005, 10:29 AM	#36
Baby Lee Supporter Join Date: Aug 2000 Casino cash: $8318275	OK, I got the MoBo back, put everything back together. When I boot into Win2K the CPU is constantly at 100% load. Everything is mega slow as a result. If I boot to WinPE [by CD-Rom], CPU usage is just 4% or so. I thought maybe things were just set up wrong, so I wiped the HD and reinstalled. Still at 100% CPU usage. Also, the install took 10% as long. Four observations, I'll let you judge the relevance. First, the CPU/Cooler interface had paste between them. I didn't disturb, but also didn't replace the paste on reinstallation. Second, the ZIF slot was not totally zero insertion force. I had to jiggle the latch a little to get the CPU to fall into the pin holes. Third, while in WinPE some of the system checking programs gave info on AGP. A couple said the AGP bus was not enabled. But I don't see anything in the Bios to disable/enagle the bus, and in Win2K, the AIW 8500 is shown to be working properly. Finally, the system hangs on a CD Rom boot if a program calls up the Atapi driver. __________________ We need the kind of courage that can withstand the subtle corruption of the cynics - E.W.
Posts: 95,642

03-11-2005, 12:25 PM	#37
Baby Lee Supporter Join Date: Aug 2000 Casino cash: $8318275	'System Idle Process' seems to be the culprit, using up to 99% of the CPU, while using only 16K of memory. EDIT: OK I see that SIP is just a placeholder, and it's normal for it to be high when the PC is doing much, but still the CPU utilization is always up around 100%. And it's certainly sluggish, especially considering it's just the bare OS on the HD right now. __________________ We need the kind of courage that can withstand the subtle corruption of the cynics - E.W. Last edited by Baby Lee; 03-11-2005 at 12:34 PM..
Posts: 95,642

03-17-2005, 01:09 AM	#38
DenverChief Pedantic Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Rocky Ford Casino cash: $4692617	Problem solved.......
Posts: 16,419