Cannot install XP?

[MrEdd@CSS]

I work at a school as the sys admin. We have just had a new teacher start
who came to me with his own problem machine. It's a Packard Bell about 18
months old with XP Home Edition. It was very slow, on checking it had
hundreds of viruses that had infected almost all his exe files (he has a 14
year old who was using Kassaa).

I decided the best thing was to format and start again, I also deleted the
recovery partition. Unfortunately I now cannot get XP or 2000 or even
Window 98 to install. I get the message that it can't copy certain files.
I have tried different CDRoms and different CD Drives but get the same
message that the disks maybe corrupt. I can use these disks on any other
machine and they work okay but not on the Packard Bell IMedia machine. I
have been to Packard Bell's website and downloaded their bios updates and
tried these but still no joy. I have tried brand new XP and W2k media and
also brand new DVD and CD drives. I have many brand new copies of XP W2k
and as we have the Microsoft Education Agreement but none work, they are
reported as being corrupt or unreadable. I figure it must be some setting on
the Packard Bell IMedia machine that is stopping it from reading the CD's.

Has anyone else seen this and is there a workaround?

Thanks

Edd

 

[MrEdd@CSS]

I work at a school as the sys admin. We have just had a new teacher start
who came to me with his own problem machine. It's a Packard Bell about 18
months old with XP Home Edition. It was very slow, on checking it had
hundreds of viruses that had infected almost all his exe files (he has a 14
year old who was using Kassaa).

I decided the best thing was to format and start again, I also deleted the
recovery partition. Unfortunately I now cannot get XP or 2000 or even
Window 98 to install. I get the message that it can't copy certain files.
I have tried different CDRoms and different CD Drives but get the same
message that the disks maybe corrupt. I can use these disks on any other
machine and they work okay but not on the Packard Bell IMedia machine. I
have been to Packard Bell's website and downloaded their bios updates and
tried these but still no joy. I have tried brand new XP and W2k media and
also brand new DVD and CD drives. I have many brand new copies of XP W2k
and as we have the Microsoft Education Agreement but none work, they are
reported as being corrupt or unreadable. I figure it must be some setting on
the Packard Bell IMedia machine that is stopping it from reading the CD's.

Has anyone else seen this and is there a workaround?

Thanks

Edd

 

[Testy]

Since you deleted the 'recovery partition' you are pretty much screwed. The
files you need were there, contact the manufacturer for assistance or buy a
full retail version.

Testy

 

[MrEdd@CSS]

Since you deleted the 'recovery partition' you are pretty much screwed. The
files you need were there, contact the manufacturer for assistance or buy a
full retail version.

Testy

Thanks for your comments, but surly if the bios is reset then we should be
able to put on anything we like. Does Packard Bell fix their machines in
such a way that the hardware requires their software only? What if the
owner wished to do other things with a machine besides what PB supply? Also
surly what they have done can be undone? I don't need to purchase a full
retail version as I can put XP Pro on any machine the school has, the
Education Licence we have allows us to use our own Corporate Key Microsoft
supplied, beside I have the original boot disk and Home Edition CD Key. I
just want to upgrade to XP Pro. We have the licences for this and I have
never had this problem with hundreds of other machines I have upgraded.
Just seems to be happening to this PB machine.

Any comments please

Edd

 

[Testy]

What happens when you try to boot from the XP CD?

Testy

 

[MrEdd@CSS]

What happens when you try to boot from the XP CD?

Testy

Exactly as I described above.... I get error messages saying that there
maybe problems with the CD. I have tested all the brand new CD's in new CD
Drives and get the same response each time. These CD's and drives all work
in other machines. The Packard Bell machine seems to be unable to read from
any CD Drive or CDRom.

Thanks

Edd

 

[Spinner]

Exactly as I described above.... I get error messages saying that there
maybe problems with the CD. I have tested all the brand new CD's in new CD
Drives and get the same response each time. These CD's and drives all work
in other machines. The Packard Bell machine seems to be unable to read from
any CD Drive or CDRom.

Thanks

Edd

When you try to install, does it fail on a different file each time?
If so, you most likely have a bad memory chip.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Problems copying files or corrupted files during installation are
most often caused by defective or sub-standard hardware; in order of
likelihood, either RAM, the hard drive, or the motherboard. On much
less frequent occasions, a bad CD or defective CD drive can also cause
this.


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[MrEdd@CSS]

Greetings --

Problems copying files or corrupted files during installation are
most often caused by defective or sub-standard hardware; in order of
likelihood, either RAM, the hard drive, or the motherboard. On much
less frequent occasions, a bad CD or defective CD drive can also cause
this.


Bruce Chambers

Yippee! That was it.... The only thing I hadn't changed was the memory. I
swapped the memory for a couple of new sticks and now its working and all
software is installed. This is the first time I have seen this in nearly 10
years of building and configuring workstations. I guess the learning curve
is still throwing curly ones huh! <g>

Thank you Bruce, very-muchly

Edd

 

[MrEdd@CSS]

Greetings --

Problems copying files or corrupted files during installation are
most often caused by defective or sub-standard hardware; in order of
likelihood, either RAM, the hard drive, or the motherboard. On much
less frequent occasions, a bad CD or defective CD drive can also cause
this.

Thanks Bruce
That was the problem... I changed the memory and all is well and installed
like a hot knife through butter. The interesting thing is I put the old
memory into another machine and XP installed with no problems... <gofigure>
Thanks again

Edd

 

[Malke]

Thanks Bruce
That was the problem... I changed the memory and all is well and
installed
like a hot knife through butter. The interesting thing is I put the
old
memory into another machine and XP installed with no problems...
<gofigure> Thanks again

Edd

Hi, Edd. Actually, there is nothing terribly surprising about the memory
working well in a different machine. Motherboards are very fussy about
the memory they require, and obviously the memory was compatible with
the second motherboard.

Malke