WIN XP stops the install at 34 min. remaining

[Guest]

I am trying to load XP Pro on an old Dell dimension XPS300 which has a
4.3 GB Seagate SCSI HD. I formatted first for a clean install but, though
the setup procedure started off ok when it begin installing the WINDOWS files
it got as far as...."34 miutes left" and the monitor went dark. After
removing all but essential HW I restarted the process several times with the
same dismal result. With shift-F10 I could look at the DOS display of C. The
setupact.log file indicated that a file, "ismif32.dll" failed to load. I have
searched for this file and although MS references it I have not been able to
find and download it. And if I did where would I put it so that the install
process would continue. Any and all suggestions out of this dilema would be
gratefully appreciated.....Thanks...........
.................................................CinciDave

 

[Malke]

I am trying to load XP Pro on an old Dell dimension XPS300 which has a
4.3 GB Seagate SCSI HD. I formatted first for a clean install but,
though the setup procedure started off ok when it begin installing the
WINDOWS files it got as far as...."34 miutes left" and the monitor
went dark. After removing all but essential HW I restarted the process
several times with the same dismal result. With shift-F10 I could look
at the DOS display of C. The setupact.log file indicated that a file,
"ismif32.dll" failed to load. I have searched for this file and
although MS references it I have not been able to find and download
it. And if I did where would I put it so that the install process
would continue. Any and all suggestions out of this dilema would be
gratefully appreciated.....Thanks...........

That particular error means a hardware problem. There is no way you can
run XP on a 4.3GB hard drive. XP SP2 alone - all by itself without any
swap file working and no programs installed - takes up approx. 1.5GB.
Then you want at least a few GBs for swap. I would say that 10GB would
be the bare minimum with 20GB being more realistic but still very very
cramped. In Real Life(tm) I wouldn't install XP on a drive smaller than
40GB if I expected to actually *use* the computer for anything.

You also didn't mention what processor and how much RAM this box has,
but any computer that was designed with a 4.3GB hard drive is *not*
going to be able to run XP. Forget about it.

Malke

 

[paulmd]

That particular error means a hardware problem. There is no way you can
run XP on a 4.3GB hard drive. XP SP2 alone - all by itself without any
swap file working and no programs installed - takes up approx. 1.5GB.
Then you want at least a few GBs for swap. I would say that 10GB would
be the bare minimum with 20GB being more realistic but still very very
cramped. In Real Life(tm) I wouldn't install XP on a drive smaller than
40GB if I expected to actually *use* the computer for anything.

You also didn't mention what processor and how much RAM this box has,
but any computer that was designed with a 4.3GB hard drive is *not*
going to be able to run XP. Forget about it.

XP should install on this box nonetheless (It won't run WELL, but it
will do it, if you set High performance defaults, and diasable
hibernation, use the default for swap file). There's a hardware issue
almost certianly, would suggest 1 of 4 major culprits, hard dirve, RAM,
Cd drive, CD media.

You simply cannot install xp on less that 64MB RAM, though. And you
*shouldn't* install below 256MB.

An XP machine SHOULD be in the p3 class or better, but will run on a p1
with 64MB of ram (I've SEEN it). Win98 would be a bettor choice for
this machine, hands down.

 

[Guest]

I've installed xp on a 3GB system (SP1 mind you) so i'm sure that it would
work... Maybe RAM? Motherboard? CD-Rom?

 

[Guest]

Thanks all for your input. The processor is a Pentium II and there are 512mb
RAM. Actually I had run XP on this PC with another 80 GB HD as master. I
removed the 60GB HD to use as a backup for my newly purchased DELL and am
trying to refurbish this one to donate to a local high school. My thought if
XP doesn't work was to load ME first and then upgrade to XP if possible.

An after thought... is it possible that the jumper settings on the 4.3GB
which were set as slave and which I neglected to change are screwing things
up?

 

[paulmd]

Thanks all for your input. The processor is a Pentium II and there are 512mb
RAM. Actually I had run XP on this PC with another 80 GB HD as master. I
removed the 60GB HD to use as a backup for my newly purchased DELL and am
trying to refurbish this one to donate to a local high school. My thought if
XP doesn't work was to load ME first and then upgrade to XP if possible.

An after thought... is it possible that the jumper settings on the 4.3GB
which were set as slave and which I neglected to change are screwing things
up?
--

Maybe. Worth a try. Masterless slave may be ungood. Definately a
filecopy issue of some kind.

Run diagnostics on that hard drive.

 

[Guest]

Well I removed the jumper, but the same abrupt ending occurred. The HD was
checked and formatted and was found to be error free.

Earlier I looked at the error log and it indicated that some file
<ismif32.dll> was not loaded. I can't find that rascal anywhere although it
was referenced in an MS data base search. Do you have any idea what this item
does and why the XP setup protocol requires it?.........Thanks again for
hanging in for me.
...............CinciDave

 

[S.Sengupta]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307153

regards,
S.Sengupta[MS-MVP]

 

[Guest]

Thanks, I looked at this page, Q307153, but it does not seem to apply to me
as I have reformatted the HD. I will look for the file, catroot2, but I don't
think it is in the directory.
--
CinciDave

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307153

regards,
S.Sengupta[MS-MVP]

Well I removed the jumper, but the same abrupt ending occurred. The HD was
checked and formatted and was found to be error free.

Earlier I looked at the error log and it indicated that some file
<ismif32.dll> was not loaded. I can't find that rascal anywhere although it
was referenced in an MS data base search. Do you have any idea what this item
does and why the XP setup protocol requires it?.........Thanks again for
hanging in for me.
..............CinciDave


:

 

[neil]

Would windows need drivers for a SCSI controller or is it fully supported by
XP.
Just a thought.
Neil

 

[paulmd]

Well I removed the jumper, but the same abrupt ending occurred. The HD was
checked and formatted and was found to be error free.

That's only 1 part of the equation eliminated.

The next thing to do is look at the surface of the install disk, is it
dirty/scratched/cracked?

And then download and run memtest86+ to see if you have a RAM problem.

After that, try swapping out the CD drive.

 

[Guest]

Nothing thus far seems to help me out of this dilemma. I'd like to reformat
and start again but with or without the XP disk windows starts and ends at
exactly the same point. Shift-F10 yields the command prompt, but It will not
allow me to format any of the windows files......How can I start a reformat
procedure so that I can try to load ME.......???????????????