WinXp installation hangs after reboot

[Nicola]

Hi all!
I just got a 250GB Maxtor HD (6Y250P0) which I connected to the Ultra
DMA bus on my P4C800-Deluxe Asus mobo. I used the MaxBlast 3 software
by Maxtor to format the disk (didn't partition it), and downloaded the
Promise Fasttrak RAID drivers from the asus website and created the
driver disk that WinXP installation CD asks for after pressing F6.
Everything seems fine so far: the system copies files and warns to
take floppy out of the bay before rebooting.
Then the system reboots... and that's where my troubles start!

GUI starts, and it hangs right at the beginning of the installation
procedure, when it says "39 minutes left". The little dots at the
right bottom corner of the screen stop winding, i.e., the progress bar
stops, and the CD-ROM stops rotating. Basically, it stops reading
files and the system just hangs...

If I botton-reset the PC, GUI claims that installation process will be
reinitialized, but then an error message pops up warning that the
proceure could not be completed (too fast to spot the file name in the
left top corner that causes the problem). The system then reboots, and
that goes on and on and on and on...

I have installed WinXP (BTW, the CD contains SP2) on the very same
system even if using a different HD (160GB by Maxtor) and attaching it
to the IDE controller.

Does anyone have any idea about the problem and the related solutions?
My kindest regards,
Nicola

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Disconnect all external devices except mouse, keyboard, and monitor. In
particular disconnect usb devices like an all-in-one printer.

It is not clear that the driver file is OK. Can you download it again? I
assume you used the self extracting utility to generate the floppy and did
not just copy the file to the floppy.

 

[TheNet]

Hi, thanks for your reply

Disconnect all external devices except mouse, keyboard, and monitor. In
particular disconnect usb devices like an all-in-one printer.

I too thought there may be problems caused by some device, but indeed there
wasn't any external device attached from the beginning....

It is not clear that the driver file is OK. Can you download it again? I
assume you used the self extracting utility to generate the floppy and did
not just copy the file to the floppy.

I downloaded drivers again from the asus website, and used the makedisk
utility to create the driver diskette. Now, after some more tries, the
installation hangs when the "Analysis of 239..GB drive on fasttx2k in
progress" message at the bottom line of the screen shows up, which is right
after the screen where I'm asked whether I want a new installation of WinXP
or to repair a previous one.
The computer hangs, no access to HD, CD-rom or floppy disk...

I've started the PowerMax utility to check the status of the HD, but tests
so far seem to be ok
I'm close to desperation... Any suggestions?

Nicola

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Have you posted to Asus? This sure sounds like a hardware issue. I would
verify with Asus that you have the correct BIOS settings for PATA and SATA.
Some of these settings are not intuitive.

 

[Nicola]

Have you posted to Asus? This sure sounds like a hardware issue.

I've come to the conclusion that it is an hardware issue indeed...
Yesterday, when formatting the HD through the maxtor utility, the
system went off and haven't been able to restart it...
I'll try again today and let know know.

I would
verify with Asus that you have the correct BIOS settings for PATA and SATA.
Some of these settings are not intuitive.

I'll post the asus newsgroup and ask them for advice about the correct
settings. Only thing I can tell you so far is that both BIOS and
controller drivers are the latest available on the web site.

Thanks again for your help. I'll keep you posted!

Nicola

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

The issue isn't the BIOS version. It is the BIOS settings. Once SATA is
involved there is a chance that the default BIOS setting will not boot the
primary drive. This is true of BIOS updates. You have to redo the settings
all over again after a BIOS flash. There are probably three or four
settings involving PATA and SATA.