Can't successfully load Windows!!

[Guest]

I purchased an Alienware M51 7700 laptop in October. Unfortunately, I did
not purchase the 1 year warrenty. Since the standard 90 day warrenty has
expired, their technical support won't even talk to me! So I'm hoping
someone here can help.

My motherboard fried. The part between the input power jack and the rest of
the motherboard had a slight short in it, and it finally got hot enough to
melt which caused a hard short. Several ceramic components popped, and smoke
went everywhere. I pulled the board out and decided to get a new one since
the computer wasn't under warrenty.

I recieved the new board about 2 weeks ago and installed it. The
motherboard vendor told me that this new one was updated so I had to
reinstall Windows XP home. I have about $6k worth of software and designs
(Solidworks models) that I cannot lose, and they are only on this hard drive,
unfortunatly. So I could not format the drive.

I am using ATA mode for the drive. It is set to ATA in the bios. This
version of the ATA IDE driver is propietary, so I have to load a 3rd party
driver in order for the Windows install CD to see the drive. I do this with
a USB floppy drive. When the CD boots, I hit f6 to tell it that I'll be
using 3rd party drivers, and when the time comes, I hit "S" to load the
driver.

Now comes the problem. When the CD gets all of its software written over,
it starts Windows. After a few moments, you get the Windows loading screen
where you have a time bar on the bottom. At 39 minutes to go (about 20
seconds in), it produces a popup window. This windows says something like
"[blank] is not listed as a valid Windows driver. Serious system damage
could occur if you install this driver. Press Yes to install, or No not to
install". When I say [blank], I mean there is no driver listed. It just
starts the sentence with the word "is".

If I press "yes", at 34 minutes to go I get a load of popups with the same
warning. This time the warnings list the drivers in question. One is an
infa-red gizmo, several are audio, several are other devices specific to this
Alienware laptop. No big deal, I guess I can expect that. If I tell them
not to install the driver, it will lock up about 10 minutes later. If it
tell them to install the driver, it gets through the process, but first
generates some new popups. Things like "Batter could not be loaded", and
"Disk Drive could not be loaded". Twice it says, "CD Rom could not be
loaded". When it makes it through the whole process, windows loads, but the
CD rom is no longer seen by Windows. It boots off of the CD rom just fine,
but when you boot from the hard drive under Windows XP, it does not see the
CD rom. A bunch of drivers are missing too (the ones that had the popups
saying such and such could not be loaded), but without the cd rom I cannot
load the drivers.

Ok, at the first popup (see begining of previous paragraph), I said "yes".
This time, I say "no". I don't get any popups this time, but when Windows
finishes loading and resets to boot off of teh HD for the first time, I get
the dreaded blue screen for a fraction of a second, and then it reboots
itself. It will stay in this cycle until you hold the power button down to
turn the computer off.

I called the vendor, and he said I must format the drive for a new clean
Windows XP install. Well, I can't do that, so I took the hard drive out and
purchased a brand new one. I have only the new one in the computer now. I
do exactly the same steps above, except I format the HD this time. Exactly
the same thing happens that I talk about in the above two paragraphs.

Ok, fine. It must be the software. I'm using the Alienware Setup Disk, so
maybe it just has the weird Alienware drivers on it and not the windows
drivers, right? Fine. I try it with a Windows XP Professional CD that I
purchased for my desktop last year. It installs just fine on the desktop
(I'm writing this post with it), and for kicks I installed it on a very old
laptop I used to use just to see if it would work. It did work, and the old
laptop with a Pentium 3 snail processor now has XP pro on it. It went back
on the shelf and probably won't ever be powered on again. I tried it on the
Alienware. Guess what? Exactly the same story. It won't install correctly.
I go through the exact same steps illustrated above, and the exact same
things happen.


So, after this long winded explanation, does anyone have any advice? I've
been building computers and installing operating systems for 20 years. The
bios is set up correctly. I'm totaly at a loss here. Please help!

Thanks.

 

[Sharon Franks]

Get the new drivers for your new MB from the manufacture.

--

Sharon Franks
MCC group
Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD)
Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT).

I purchased an Alienware M51 7700 laptop in October. Unfortunately, I did
not purchase the 1 year warrenty. Since the standard 90 day warrenty has
expired, their technical support won't even talk to me! So I'm hoping
someone here can help.

My motherboard fried. The part between the input power jack and the rest
of
the motherboard had a slight short in it, and it finally got hot enough to
melt which caused a hard short. Several ceramic components popped, and
smoke
went everywhere. I pulled the board out and decided to get a new one
since
the computer wasn't under warrenty.

I recieved the new board about 2 weeks ago and installed it. The
motherboard vendor told me that this new one was updated so I had to
reinstall Windows XP home. I have about $6k worth of software and designs
(Solidworks models) that I cannot lose, and they are only on this hard
drive,
unfortunatly. So I could not format the drive.

I am using ATA mode for the drive. It is set to ATA in the bios. This
version of the ATA IDE driver is propietary, so I have to load a 3rd party
driver in order for the Windows install CD to see the drive. I do this
with
a USB floppy drive. When the CD boots, I hit f6 to tell it that I'll be
using 3rd party drivers, and when the time comes, I hit "S" to load the
driver.

Now comes the problem. When the CD gets all of its software written over,
it starts Windows. After a few moments, you get the Windows loading
screen
where you have a time bar on the bottom. At 39 minutes to go (about 20
seconds in), it produces a popup window. This windows says something like
"[blank] is not listed as a valid Windows driver. Serious system damage
could occur if you install this driver. Press Yes to install, or No not
to
install". When I say [blank], I mean there is no driver listed. It just
starts the sentence with the word "is".

If I press "yes", at 34 minutes to go I get a load of popups with the same
warning. This time the warnings list the drivers in question. One is an
infa-red gizmo, several are audio, several are other devices specific to
this
Alienware laptop. No big deal, I guess I can expect that. If I tell them
not to install the driver, it will lock up about 10 minutes later. If it
tell them to install the driver, it gets through the process, but first
generates some new popups. Things like "Batter could not be loaded", and
"Disk Drive could not be loaded". Twice it says, "CD Rom could not be
loaded". When it makes it through the whole process, windows loads, but
the
CD rom is no longer seen by Windows. It boots off of the CD rom just
fine,
but when you boot from the hard drive under Windows XP, it does not see
the
CD rom. A bunch of drivers are missing too (the ones that had the popups
saying such and such could not be loaded), but without the cd rom I cannot
load the drivers.

Ok, at the first popup (see begining of previous paragraph), I said "yes".
This time, I say "no". I don't get any popups this time, but when Windows
finishes loading and resets to boot off of teh HD for the first time, I
get
the dreaded blue screen for a fraction of a second, and then it reboots
itself. It will stay in this cycle until you hold the power button down
to
turn the computer off.

I called the vendor, and he said I must format the drive for a new clean
Windows XP install. Well, I can't do that, so I took the hard drive out
and
purchased a brand new one. I have only the new one in the computer now.
I
do exactly the same steps above, except I format the HD this time.
Exactly
the same thing happens that I talk about in the above two paragraphs.

Ok, fine. It must be the software. I'm using the Alienware Setup Disk,
so
maybe it just has the weird Alienware drivers on it and not the windows
drivers, right? Fine. I try it with a Windows XP Professional CD that I
purchased for my desktop last year. It installs just fine on the desktop
(I'm writing this post with it), and for kicks I installed it on a very
old
laptop I used to use just to see if it would work. It did work, and the
old
laptop with a Pentium 3 snail processor now has XP pro on it. It went
back
on the shelf and probably won't ever be powered on again. I tried it on
the
Alienware. Guess what? Exactly the same story. It won't install
correctly.
I go through the exact same steps illustrated above, and the exact same
things happen.


So, after this long winded explanation, does anyone have any advice? I've
been building computers and installing operating systems for 20 years.
The
bios is set up correctly. I'm totaly at a loss here. Please help!

Thanks.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I purchased an Alienware M51 7700 laptop in October. Unfortunately, I did
not purchase the 1 year warrenty. Since the standard 90 day warrenty has
expired, their technical support won't even talk to me! So I'm hoping
someone here can help.

My motherboard fried. The part between the input power jack and the rest of
the motherboard had a slight short in it, and it finally got hot enough to
melt which caused a hard short. Several ceramic components popped, and smoke
went everywhere. I pulled the board out and decided to get a new one since
the computer wasn't under warrenty.

I recieved the new board about 2 weeks ago and installed it. The
motherboard vendor told me that this new one was updated so I had to
reinstall Windows XP home. I have about $6k worth of software and designs
(Solidworks models) that I cannot lose, and they are only on this hard drive,
unfortunatly. So I could not format the drive.

I am using ATA mode for the drive. It is set to ATA in the bios. This
version of the ATA IDE driver is propietary, so I have to load a 3rd party
driver in order for the Windows install CD to see the drive. I do this with
a USB floppy drive. When the CD boots, I hit f6 to tell it that I'll be
using 3rd party drivers, and when the time comes, I hit "S" to load the
driver.

Now comes the problem. When the CD gets all of its software written over,
it starts Windows. After a few moments, you get the Windows loading screen
where you have a time bar on the bottom. At 39 minutes to go (about 20
seconds in), it produces a popup window. This windows says something like
"[blank] is not listed as a valid Windows driver. Serious system damage
could occur if you install this driver. Press Yes to install, or No not to
install". When I say [blank], I mean there is no driver listed. It just
starts the sentence with the word "is".

If I press "yes", at 34 minutes to go I get a load of popups with the same
warning. This time the warnings list the drivers in question. One is an
infa-red gizmo, several are audio, several are other devices specific to this
Alienware laptop. No big deal, I guess I can expect that. If I tell them
not to install the driver, it will lock up about 10 minutes later. If it
tell them to install the driver, it gets through the process, but first
generates some new popups. Things like "Batter could not be loaded", and
"Disk Drive could not be loaded". Twice it says, "CD Rom could not be
loaded". When it makes it through the whole process, windows loads, but the
CD rom is no longer seen by Windows. It boots off of the CD rom just fine,
but when you boot from the hard drive under Windows XP, it does not see the
CD rom. A bunch of drivers are missing too (the ones that had the popups
saying such and such could not be loaded), but without the cd rom I cannot
load the drivers.

Ok, at the first popup (see begining of previous paragraph), I said "yes".
This time, I say "no". I don't get any popups this time, but when Windows
finishes loading and resets to boot off of teh HD for the first time, I get
the dreaded blue screen for a fraction of a second, and then it reboots
itself. It will stay in this cycle until you hold the power button down to
turn the computer off.

I called the vendor, and he said I must format the drive for a new clean
Windows XP install. Well, I can't do that, so I took the hard drive out and
purchased a brand new one. I have only the new one in the computer now. I
do exactly the same steps above, except I format the HD this time. Exactly
the same thing happens that I talk about in the above two paragraphs.

Ok, fine. It must be the software. I'm using the Alienware Setup Disk, so
maybe it just has the weird Alienware drivers on it and not the windows
drivers, right? Fine. I try it with a Windows XP Professional CD that I
purchased for my desktop last year. It installs just fine on the desktop
(I'm writing this post with it), and for kicks I installed it on a very old
laptop I used to use just to see if it would work. It did work, and the old
laptop with a Pentium 3 snail processor now has XP pro on it. It went back
on the shelf and probably won't ever be powered on again. I tried it on the
Alienware. Guess what? Exactly the same story. It won't install correctly.
I go through the exact same steps illustrated above, and the exact same
things happen.


So, after this long winded explanation, does anyone have any advice? I've
been building computers and installing operating systems for 20 years. The
bios is set up correctly. I'm totaly at a loss here. Please help!

Thanks.

I agree with Sharon Franks: Get the driver CD for the new
motherboard. Furthermore, aftter 20 years of installing OSs,
I suggest you consider changing your approach to installing
operating OSs: Whenever you buy or download an application,
keep the installation media and licence numbers in a separate
location. Installing them and forgetting about them will cause
obvious problems. Ask yourself from time to time: If your PC
self-destructed today, would you be in a position to load
all applications and data onto a new machine within 24 hours?
If the answer is no then you need to change your methods.
$6,000 is a lot of money to kiss good bye.

 

[Guest]

I did have the drivers for the new motherboard from the manufacturer. I
CAN'T LOAD THEM BECAUSE THE CD ROM ISN'T RECOGNIZED. Please read the entire
post. I know it's really long, and I apologize for that, but I wanted to lay
out as much information as possible. The only driver I can load, which comes
from the MB manufacturer, is the ATA IDE driver. That allows windows to see
the hard drive. But that does not solve my problem. My problem is that I
can't use the cd rom after windows loads successfully to load those
manufacturer supplied drivers.

I didn't kiss any money goodbye. That's why I bought the new hard drive.
The old one with all my stuff is safe and sound inside my desk. I can always
make it a slave and put it in another laptop, but I don't want to. Thanks
for the advice about downloaded material and liscenses, but what I wanted was
a solution to my problem.

Thanks again.

I purchased an Alienware M51 7700 laptop in October. Unfortunately, I did
not purchase the 1 year warrenty. Since the standard 90 day warrenty has
expired, their technical support won't even talk to me! So I'm hoping
someone here can help.

My motherboard fried. The part between the input power jack and the rest of
the motherboard had a slight short in it, and it finally got hot enough to
melt which caused a hard short. Several ceramic components popped, and smoke
went everywhere. I pulled the board out and decided to get a new one since
the computer wasn't under warrenty.

I recieved the new board about 2 weeks ago and installed it. The
motherboard vendor told me that this new one was updated so I had to
reinstall Windows XP home. I have about $6k worth of software and designs
(Solidworks models) that I cannot lose, and they are only on this hard drive,
unfortunatly. So I could not format the drive.

I am using ATA mode for the drive. It is set to ATA in the bios. This
version of the ATA IDE driver is propietary, so I have to load a 3rd party
driver in order for the Windows install CD to see the drive. I do this with
a USB floppy drive. When the CD boots, I hit f6 to tell it that I'll be
using 3rd party drivers, and when the time comes, I hit "S" to load the
driver.

Now comes the problem. When the CD gets all of its software written over,
it starts Windows. After a few moments, you get the Windows loading screen
where you have a time bar on the bottom. At 39 minutes to go (about 20
seconds in), it produces a popup window. This windows says something like
"[blank] is not listed as a valid Windows driver. Serious system damage
could occur if you install this driver. Press Yes to install, or No not to
install". When I say [blank], I mean there is no driver listed. It just
starts the sentence with the word "is".

If I press "yes", at 34 minutes to go I get a load of popups with the same
warning. This time the warnings list the drivers in question. One is an
infa-red gizmo, several are audio, several are other devices specific to this
Alienware laptop. No big deal, I guess I can expect that. If I tell them
not to install the driver, it will lock up about 10 minutes later. If it
tell them to install the driver, it gets through the process, but first
generates some new popups. Things like "Batter could not be loaded", and
"Disk Drive could not be loaded". Twice it says, "CD Rom could not be
loaded". When it makes it through the whole process, windows loads, but the
CD rom is no longer seen by Windows. It boots off of the CD rom just fine,
but when you boot from the hard drive under Windows XP, it does not see the
CD rom. A bunch of drivers are missing too (the ones that had the popups
saying such and such could not be loaded), but without the cd rom I cannot
load the drivers.

Ok, at the first popup (see begining of previous paragraph), I said "yes".
This time, I say "no". I don't get any popups this time, but when Windows
finishes loading and resets to boot off of teh HD for the first time, I get
the dreaded blue screen for a fraction of a second, and then it reboots
itself. It will stay in this cycle until you hold the power button down to
turn the computer off.

I called the vendor, and he said I must format the drive for a new clean
Windows XP install. Well, I can't do that, so I took the hard drive out and
purchased a brand new one. I have only the new one in the computer now. I
do exactly the same steps above, except I format the HD this time. Exactly
the same thing happens that I talk about in the above two paragraphs.

Ok, fine. It must be the software. I'm using the Alienware Setup Disk, so
maybe it just has the weird Alienware drivers on it and not the windows
drivers, right? Fine. I try it with a Windows XP Professional CD that I
purchased for my desktop last year. It installs just fine on the desktop
(I'm writing this post with it), and for kicks I installed it on a very old
laptop I used to use just to see if it would work. It did work, and the old
laptop with a Pentium 3 snail processor now has XP pro on it. It went back
on the shelf and probably won't ever be powered on again. I tried it on the
Alienware. Guess what? Exactly the same story. It won't install correctly.
I go through the exact same steps illustrated above, and the exact same
things happen.


So, after this long winded explanation, does anyone have any advice? I've
been building computers and installing operating systems for 20 years. The
bios is set up correctly. I'm totaly at a loss here. Please help!

Thanks.

I agree with Sharon Franks: Get the driver CD for the new
motherboard. Furthermore, aftter 20 years of installing OSs,
I suggest you consider changing your approach to installing
operating OSs: Whenever you buy or download an application,
keep the installation media and licence numbers in a separate
location. Installing them and forgetting about them will cause
obvious problems. Ask yourself from time to time: If your PC
self-destructed today, would you be in a position to load
all applications and data onto a new machine within 24 hours?
If the answer is no then you need to change your methods.
$6,000 is a lot of money to kiss good bye.

 

[Sharon Franks]

Your post is way too long. If windows is loading then download the drivers
or copy them 1 by 1 to your USB floppy. You also can use a boot disk with
cdrom support and copy the files to your HD, or connect the drives to the
ide just to get it working, copy the files then switch back to SATA. Or copy
them to a USB stick and use that.

--

Sharon Franks
MCC group
Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD)
Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT).

I did have the drivers for the new motherboard from the manufacturer. I
CAN'T LOAD THEM BECAUSE THE CD ROM ISN'T RECOGNIZED. Please read the
entire
post. I know it's really long, and I apologize for that, but I wanted to
lay
out as much information as possible. The only driver I can load, which
comes
from the MB manufacturer, is the ATA IDE driver. That allows windows to
see
the hard drive. But that does not solve my problem. My problem is that I
can't use the cd rom after windows loads successfully to load those
manufacturer supplied drivers.

I didn't kiss any money goodbye. That's why I bought the new hard drive.
The old one with all my stuff is safe and sound inside my desk. I can
always
make it a slave and put it in another laptop, but I don't want to. Thanks
for the advice about downloaded material and liscenses, but what I wanted
was
a solution to my problem.

Thanks again.

I purchased an Alienware M51 7700 laptop in October. Unfortunately, I
did
not purchase the 1 year warrenty. Since the standard 90 day warrenty
has
expired, their technical support won't even talk to me! So I'm hoping
someone here can help.

My motherboard fried. The part between the input power jack and the
rest of
the motherboard had a slight short in it, and it finally got hot enough
to
melt which caused a hard short. Several ceramic components popped, and smoke
went everywhere. I pulled the board out and decided to get a new one since
the computer wasn't under warrenty.

I recieved the new board about 2 weeks ago and installed it. The
motherboard vendor told me that this new one was updated so I had to
reinstall Windows XP home. I have about $6k worth of software and
designs
(Solidworks models) that I cannot lose, and they are only on this hard drive,
unfortunatly. So I could not format the drive.

I am using ATA mode for the drive. It is set to ATA in the bios. This
version of the ATA IDE driver is propietary, so I have to load a 3rd
party
driver in order for the Windows install CD to see the drive. I do this with
a USB floppy drive. When the CD boots, I hit f6 to tell it that I'll
be
using 3rd party drivers, and when the time comes, I hit "S" to load the
driver.

Now comes the problem. When the CD gets all of its software written
over,
it starts Windows. After a few moments, you get the Windows loading screen
where you have a time bar on the bottom. At 39 minutes to go (about 20
seconds in), it produces a popup window. This windows says something
like
"[blank] is not listed as a valid Windows driver. Serious system
damage
could occur if you install this driver. Press Yes to install, or No
not to
install". When I say [blank], I mean there is no driver listed. It
just
starts the sentence with the word "is".

If I press "yes", at 34 minutes to go I get a load of popups with the
same
warning. This time the warnings list the drivers in question. One is
an
infa-red gizmo, several are audio, several are other devices specific
to this
Alienware laptop. No big deal, I guess I can expect that. If I tell
them
not to install the driver, it will lock up about 10 minutes later. If
it
tell them to install the driver, it gets through the process, but first
generates some new popups. Things like "Batter could not be loaded",
and
"Disk Drive could not be loaded". Twice it says, "CD Rom could not be
loaded". When it makes it through the whole process, windows loads,
but the
CD rom is no longer seen by Windows. It boots off of the CD rom just fine,
but when you boot from the hard drive under Windows XP, it does not see the
CD rom. A bunch of drivers are missing too (the ones that had the
popups
saying such and such could not be loaded), but without the cd rom I
cannot
load the drivers.

Ok, at the first popup (see begining of previous paragraph), I said
"yes".
This time, I say "no". I don't get any popups this time, but when
Windows
finishes loading and resets to boot off of teh HD for the first time, I get
the dreaded blue screen for a fraction of a second, and then it reboots
itself. It will stay in this cycle until you hold the power button
down to
turn the computer off.

I called the vendor, and he said I must format the drive for a new
clean
Windows XP install. Well, I can't do that, so I took the hard drive
out and
purchased a brand new one. I have only the new one in the computer
now. I
do exactly the same steps above, except I format the HD this time. Exactly
the same thing happens that I talk about in the above two paragraphs.

Ok, fine. It must be the software. I'm using the Alienware Setup
Disk, so
maybe it just has the weird Alienware drivers on it and not the windows
drivers, right? Fine. I try it with a Windows XP Professional CD that
I
purchased for my desktop last year. It installs just fine on the
desktop
(I'm writing this post with it), and for kicks I installed it on a very old
laptop I used to use just to see if it would work. It did work, and
the old
laptop with a Pentium 3 snail processor now has XP pro on it. It went back
on the shelf and probably won't ever be powered on again. I tried it
on the
Alienware. Guess what? Exactly the same story. It won't install correctly.
I go through the exact same steps illustrated above, and the exact
same
things happen.


So, after this long winded explanation, does anyone have any advice?
I've
been building computers and installing operating systems for 20 years. The
bios is set up correctly. I'm totaly at a loss here. Please help!

Thanks.

I agree with Sharon Franks: Get the driver CD for the new
motherboard. Furthermore, aftter 20 years of installing OSs,
I suggest you consider changing your approach to installing
operating OSs: Whenever you buy or download an application,
keep the installation media and licence numbers in a separate
location. Installing them and forgetting about them will cause
obvious problems. Ask yourself from time to time: If your PC
self-destructed today, would you be in a position to load
all applications and data onto a new machine within 24 hours?
If the answer is no then you need to change your methods.
$6,000 is a lot of money to kiss good bye.

 

[Guest]

Thanks again for the response. I can't dowload anything because the network
adapter drivers are not there. I cannot use a USB memory stick because the
USB drivers are not there. All it does is boot. I can't do anything but
play Solitare. I like the idea with the boot disk. I'll try it and see if
it works. Thanks.

Your post is way too long. If windows is loading then download the drivers
or copy them 1 by 1 to your USB floppy. You also can use a boot disk with
cdrom support and copy the files to your HD, or connect the drives to the
ide just to get it working, copy the files then switch back to SATA. Or copy
them to a USB stick and use that.

--

Sharon Franks
MCC group
Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD)
Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT).

I did have the drivers for the new motherboard from the manufacturer. I
CAN'T LOAD THEM BECAUSE THE CD ROM ISN'T RECOGNIZED. Please read the
entire
post. I know it's really long, and I apologize for that, but I wanted to
lay
out as much information as possible. The only driver I can load, which
comes
from the MB manufacturer, is the ATA IDE driver. That allows windows to
see
the hard drive. But that does not solve my problem. My problem is that I
can't use the cd rom after windows loads successfully to load those
manufacturer supplied drivers.

I didn't kiss any money goodbye. That's why I bought the new hard drive.
The old one with all my stuff is safe and sound inside my desk. I can
always
make it a slave and put it in another laptop, but I don't want to. Thanks
for the advice about downloaded material and liscenses, but what I wanted
was
a solution to my problem.

Thanks again.

I purchased an Alienware M51 7700 laptop in October. Unfortunately, I
did
not purchase the 1 year warrenty. Since the standard 90 day warrenty
has
expired, their technical support won't even talk to me! So I'm hoping
someone here can help.

My motherboard fried. The part between the input power jack and the
rest
of
the motherboard had a slight short in it, and it finally got hot enough
to
melt which caused a hard short. Several ceramic components popped, and
smoke
went everywhere. I pulled the board out and decided to get a new one
since
the computer wasn't under warrenty.

I recieved the new board about 2 weeks ago and installed it. The
motherboard vendor told me that this new one was updated so I had to
reinstall Windows XP home. I have about $6k worth of software and
designs
(Solidworks models) that I cannot lose, and they are only on this hard
drive,
unfortunatly. So I could not format the drive.

I am using ATA mode for the drive. It is set to ATA in the bios. This
version of the ATA IDE driver is propietary, so I have to load a 3rd
party
driver in order for the Windows install CD to see the drive. I do this
with
a USB floppy drive. When the CD boots, I hit f6 to tell it that I'll
be
using 3rd party drivers, and when the time comes, I hit "S" to load the
driver.

Now comes the problem. When the CD gets all of its software written
over,
it starts Windows. After a few moments, you get the Windows loading
screen
where you have a time bar on the bottom. At 39 minutes to go (about 20
seconds in), it produces a popup window. This windows says something
like
"[blank] is not listed as a valid Windows driver. Serious system
damage
could occur if you install this driver. Press Yes to install, or No
not
to
install". When I say [blank], I mean there is no driver listed. It
just
starts the sentence with the word "is".

If I press "yes", at 34 minutes to go I get a load of popups with the
same
warning. This time the warnings list the drivers in question. One is
an
infa-red gizmo, several are audio, several are other devices specific
to
this
Alienware laptop. No big deal, I guess I can expect that. If I tell
them
not to install the driver, it will lock up about 10 minutes later. If
it
tell them to install the driver, it gets through the process, but first
generates some new popups. Things like "Batter could not be loaded",
and
"Disk Drive could not be loaded". Twice it says, "CD Rom could not be
loaded". When it makes it through the whole process, windows loads,
but
the
CD rom is no longer seen by Windows. It boots off of the CD rom just
fine,
but when you boot from the hard drive under Windows XP, it does not see
the
CD rom. A bunch of drivers are missing too (the ones that had the
popups
saying such and such could not be loaded), but without the cd rom I
cannot
load the drivers.

Ok, at the first popup (see begining of previous paragraph), I said
"yes".
This time, I say "no". I don't get any popups this time, but when
Windows
finishes loading and resets to boot off of teh HD for the first time, I
get
the dreaded blue screen for a fraction of a second, and then it reboots
itself. It will stay in this cycle until you hold the power button
down
to
turn the computer off.

I called the vendor, and he said I must format the drive for a new
clean
Windows XP install. Well, I can't do that, so I took the hard drive
out
and
purchased a brand new one. I have only the new one in the computer
now.
I
do exactly the same steps above, except I format the HD this time.
Exactly
the same thing happens that I talk about in the above two paragraphs.

Ok, fine. It must be the software. I'm using the Alienware Setup
Disk,
so
maybe it just has the weird Alienware drivers on it and not the windows
drivers, right? Fine. I try it with a Windows XP Professional CD that
I
purchased for my desktop last year. It installs just fine on the
desktop
(I'm writing this post with it), and for kicks I installed it on a very
old
laptop I used to use just to see if it would work. It did work, and
the
old
laptop with a Pentium 3 snail processor now has XP pro on it. It went
back
on the shelf and probably won't ever be powered on again. I tried it
on
the
Alienware. Guess what? Exactly the same story. It won't install
correctly.
I go through the exact same steps illustrated above, and the exact
same
things happen.


So, after this long winded explanation, does anyone have any advice?
I've
been building computers and installing operating systems for 20 years.
The
bios is set up correctly. I'm totaly at a loss here. Please help!

Thanks.

I agree with Sharon Franks: Get the driver CD for the new
motherboard. Furthermore, aftter 20 years of installing OSs,
I suggest you consider changing your approach to installing
operating OSs: Whenever you buy or download an application,
keep the installation media and licence numbers in a separate
location. Installing them and forgetting about them will cause
obvious problems. Ask yourself from time to time: If your PC
self-destructed today, would you be in a position to load
all applications and data onto a new machine within 24 hours?
If the answer is no then you need to change your methods.
$6,000 is a lot of money to kiss good bye.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I did actually read your whole post but it would have
taken me far too long to memorise every detail and
visualise what exactly you were up to. A condensed
version might have worked better.

There are several ways of getting drivers onto a hard
disk without Windows up and running. Here are a
few. This works best when the hard disk has a
separate data partition.
- Temporarily connect the disk as a slave disk in
some other WinXP/2000 PC, then copy the drivers.
- Boot the machine with a Bart PE boot CD, then
do as above.
- Buy or borrow another CD drive. They don't cost much.
- Create FAT32 rather than NTFS partitions, then boot
boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk (www.bootdisk.com)
and copy the drivers to the hard disk. The boot disk contains
a number of CD drivers. Later on you can convert the
FAT32 partitions to NTFS.

Manufacturing a Bart PE boot CD takes a few hours but
it is IMHO an indispensable tool for the IT support
professional such as yourself. You can get the tools from her:
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/#download

Thanks again for the response. I can't dowload anything because the network
adapter drivers are not there. I cannot use a USB memory stick because the
USB drivers are not there. All it does is boot. I can't do anything but
play Solitare. I like the idea with the boot disk. I'll try it and see if
it works. Thanks.

Your post is way too long. If windows is loading then download the drivers
or copy them 1 by 1 to your USB floppy. You also can use a boot disk with
cdrom support and copy the files to your HD, or connect the drives to the
ide just to get it working, copy the files then switch back to SATA. Or copy
them to a USB stick and use that.

--

Sharon Franks
MCC group
Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD)
Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT).

I did have the drivers for the new motherboard from the manufacturer. I
CAN'T LOAD THEM BECAUSE THE CD ROM ISN'T RECOGNIZED. Please read the
entire
post. I know it's really long, and I apologize for that, but I wanted to
lay
out as much information as possible. The only driver I can load, which
comes
from the MB manufacturer, is the ATA IDE driver. That allows windows to
see
the hard drive. But that does not solve my problem. My problem is that I
can't use the cd rom after windows loads successfully to load those
manufacturer supplied drivers.

I didn't kiss any money goodbye. That's why I bought the new hard drive.
The old one with all my stuff is safe and sound inside my desk. I can
always
make it a slave and put it in another laptop, but I don't want to. Thanks
for the advice about downloaded material and liscenses, but what I wanted
was
a solution to my problem.

Thanks again.

:


I purchased an Alienware M51 7700 laptop in October. Unfortunately, I
did
not purchase the 1 year warrenty. Since the standard 90 day warrenty
has
expired, their technical support won't even talk to me! So I'm hoping
someone here can help.

My motherboard fried. The part between the input power jack and the
rest
of
the motherboard had a slight short in it, and it finally got hot enough
to
melt which caused a hard short. Several ceramic components popped, and
smoke
went everywhere. I pulled the board out and decided to get a new one
since
the computer wasn't under warrenty.

I recieved the new board about 2 weeks ago and installed it. The
motherboard vendor told me that this new one was updated so I had to
reinstall Windows XP home. I have about $6k worth of software and
designs
(Solidworks models) that I cannot lose, and they are only on this hard
drive,
unfortunatly. So I could not format the drive.

I am using ATA mode for the drive. It is set to ATA in the bios. This
version of the ATA IDE driver is propietary, so I have to load a 3rd
party
driver in order for the Windows install CD to see the drive. I do this
with
a USB floppy drive. When the CD boots, I hit f6 to tell it that I'll
be
using 3rd party drivers, and when the time comes, I hit "S" to load the
driver.

Now comes the problem. When the CD gets all of its software written
over,
it starts Windows. After a few moments, you get the Windows loading
screen
where you have a time bar on the bottom. At 39 minutes to go (about 20
seconds in), it produces a popup window. This windows says something
like
"[blank] is not listed as a valid Windows driver. Serious system
damage
could occur if you install this driver. Press Yes to install, or No
not
to
install". When I say [blank], I mean there is no driver listed. It
just
starts the sentence with the word "is".

If I press "yes", at 34 minutes to go I get a load of popups with the
same
warning. This time the warnings list the drivers in question. One is
an
infa-red gizmo, several are audio, several are other devices specific
to
this
Alienware laptop. No big deal, I guess I can expect that. If I tell
them
not to install the driver, it will lock up about 10 minutes later. If
it
tell them to install the driver, it gets through the process, but first
generates some new popups. Things like "Batter could not be loaded",
and
"Disk Drive could not be loaded". Twice it says, "CD Rom could not be
loaded". When it makes it through the whole process, windows loads,
but
the
CD rom is no longer seen by Windows. It boots off of the CD rom just
fine,
but when you boot from the hard drive under Windows XP, it does not see
the
CD rom. A bunch of drivers are missing too (the ones that had the
popups
saying such and such could not be loaded), but without the cd rom I
cannot
load the drivers.

Ok, at the first popup (see begining of previous paragraph), I said
"yes".
This time, I say "no". I don't get any popups this time, but when
Windows
finishes loading and resets to boot off of teh HD for the first time, I
get
the dreaded blue screen for a fraction of a second, and then it reboots
itself. It will stay in this cycle until you hold the power button
down
to
turn the computer off.

I called the vendor, and he said I must format the drive for a new
clean
Windows XP install. Well, I can't do that, so I took the hard drive
out
and
purchased a brand new one. I have only the new one in the computer
now.
I
do exactly the same steps above, except I format the HD this time.
Exactly
the same thing happens that I talk about in the above two paragraphs.

Ok, fine. It must be the software. I'm using the Alienware Setup
Disk,
so
maybe it just has the weird Alienware drivers on it and not the windows
drivers, right? Fine. I try it with a Windows XP Professional CD that
I
purchased for my desktop last year. It installs just fine on the
desktop
(I'm writing this post with it), and for kicks I installed it on a very
old
laptop I used to use just to see if it would work. It did work, and
the
old
laptop with a Pentium 3 snail processor now has XP pro on it. It went
back
on the shelf and probably won't ever be powered on again. I tried it
on
the
Alienware. Guess what? Exactly the same story. It won't install
correctly.
I go through the exact same steps illustrated above, and the exact
same
things happen.


So, after this long winded explanation, does anyone have any advice?
I've
been building computers and installing operating systems for 20 years.
The
bios is set up correctly. I'm totaly at a loss here. Please help!

Thanks.

I agree with Sharon Franks: Get the driver CD for the new
motherboard. Furthermore, aftter 20 years of installing OSs,
I suggest you consider changing your approach to installing
operating OSs: Whenever you buy or download an application,
keep the installation media and licence numbers in a separate
location. Installing them and forgetting about them will cause
obvious problems. Ask yourself from time to time: If your PC
self-destructed today, would you be in a position to load
all applications and data onto a new machine within 24 hours?
If the answer is no then you need to change your methods.
$6,000 is a lot of money to kiss good bye.

 

[Guest]

That's some great advice. Thank you. I'll try it out.

I did actually read your whole post but it would have
taken me far too long to memorise every detail and
visualise what exactly you were up to. A condensed
version might have worked better.

There are several ways of getting drivers onto a hard
disk without Windows up and running. Here are a
few. This works best when the hard disk has a
separate data partition.
- Temporarily connect the disk as a slave disk in
some other WinXP/2000 PC, then copy the drivers.
- Boot the machine with a Bart PE boot CD, then
do as above.
- Buy or borrow another CD drive. They don't cost much.
- Create FAT32 rather than NTFS partitions, then boot
boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk (www.bootdisk.com)
and copy the drivers to the hard disk. The boot disk contains
a number of CD drivers. Later on you can convert the
FAT32 partitions to NTFS.

Manufacturing a Bart PE boot CD takes a few hours but
it is IMHO an indispensable tool for the IT support
professional such as yourself. You can get the tools from her:
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/#download

Thanks again for the response. I can't dowload anything because the network
adapter drivers are not there. I cannot use a USB memory stick because the
USB drivers are not there. All it does is boot. I can't do anything but
play Solitare. I like the idea with the boot disk. I'll try it and see if
it works. Thanks.

Your post is way too long. If windows is loading then download the drivers
or copy them 1 by 1 to your USB floppy. You also can use a boot disk with
cdrom support and copy the files to your HD, or connect the drives to the
ide just to get it working, copy the files then switch back to SATA. Or copy
them to a USB stick and use that.

--

Sharon Franks
MCC group
Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD)
Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT).



I did have the drivers for the new motherboard from the manufacturer. I
CAN'T LOAD THEM BECAUSE THE CD ROM ISN'T RECOGNIZED. Please read the
entire
post. I know it's really long, and I apologize for that, but I wanted to
lay
out as much information as possible. The only driver I can load, which
comes
from the MB manufacturer, is the ATA IDE driver. That allows windows to
see
the hard drive. But that does not solve my problem. My problem is that I
can't use the cd rom after windows loads successfully to load those
manufacturer supplied drivers.

I didn't kiss any money goodbye. That's why I bought the new hard drive.
The old one with all my stuff is safe and sound inside my desk. I can
always
make it a slave and put it in another laptop, but I don't want to. Thanks
for the advice about downloaded material and liscenses, but what I wanted
was
a solution to my problem.

Thanks again.

:


I purchased an Alienware M51 7700 laptop in October. Unfortunately, I
did
not purchase the 1 year warrenty. Since the standard 90 day warrenty
has
expired, their technical support won't even talk to me! So I'm hoping
someone here can help.

My motherboard fried. The part between the input power jack and the
rest
of
the motherboard had a slight short in it, and it finally got hot enough
to
melt which caused a hard short. Several ceramic components popped, and
smoke
went everywhere. I pulled the board out and decided to get a new one
since
the computer wasn't under warrenty.

I recieved the new board about 2 weeks ago and installed it. The
motherboard vendor told me that this new one was updated so I had to
reinstall Windows XP home. I have about $6k worth of software and
designs
(Solidworks models) that I cannot lose, and they are only on this hard
drive,
unfortunatly. So I could not format the drive.

I am using ATA mode for the drive. It is set to ATA in the bios. This
version of the ATA IDE driver is propietary, so I have to load a 3rd
party
driver in order for the Windows install CD to see the drive. I do this
with
a USB floppy drive. When the CD boots, I hit f6 to tell it that I'll
be
using 3rd party drivers, and when the time comes, I hit "S" to load the
driver.

Now comes the problem. When the CD gets all of its software written
over,
it starts Windows. After a few moments, you get the Windows loading
screen
where you have a time bar on the bottom. At 39 minutes to go (about 20
seconds in), it produces a popup window. This windows says something
like
"[blank] is not listed as a valid Windows driver. Serious system
damage
could occur if you install this driver. Press Yes to install, or No
not
to
install". When I say [blank], I mean there is no driver listed. It
just
starts the sentence with the word "is".

If I press "yes", at 34 minutes to go I get a load of popups with the
same
warning. This time the warnings list the drivers in question. One is
an
infa-red gizmo, several are audio, several are other devices specific
to
this
Alienware laptop. No big deal, I guess I can expect that. If I tell
them
not to install the driver, it will lock up about 10 minutes later. If
it
tell them to install the driver, it gets through the process, but first
generates some new popups. Things like "Batter could not be loaded",
and
"Disk Drive could not be loaded". Twice it says, "CD Rom could not be
loaded". When it makes it through the whole process, windows loads,
but
the
CD rom is no longer seen by Windows. It boots off of the CD rom just
fine,
but when you boot from the hard drive under Windows XP, it does not see
the
CD rom. A bunch of drivers are missing too (the ones that had the
popups
saying such and such could not be loaded), but without the cd rom I
cannot
load the drivers.

Ok, at the first popup (see begining of previous paragraph), I said
"yes".
This time, I say "no". I don't get any popups this time, but when
Windows
finishes loading and resets to boot off of teh HD for the first time, I
get
the dreaded blue screen for a fraction of a second, and then it reboots
itself. It will stay in this cycle until you hold the power button
down
to
turn the computer off.

I called the vendor, and he said I must format the drive for a new
clean
Windows XP install. Well, I can't do that, so I took the hard drive
out
and
purchased a brand new one. I have only the new one in the computer
now.
I
do exactly the same steps above, except I format the HD this time.
Exactly
the same thing happens that I talk about in the above two paragraphs.

Ok, fine. It must be the software. I'm using the Alienware Setup
Disk,
so
maybe it just has the weird Alienware drivers on it and not the windows
drivers, right? Fine. I try it with a Windows XP Professional CD that
I
purchased for my desktop last year. It installs just fine on the
desktop
(I'm writing this post with it), and for kicks I installed it on a very
old
laptop I used to use just to see if it would work. It did work, and
the
old
laptop with a Pentium 3 snail processor now has XP pro on it. It went
back
on the shelf and probably won't ever be powered on again. I tried it
on
the
Alienware. Guess what? Exactly the same story. It won't install
correctly.
I go through the exact same steps illustrated above, and the exact
same
things happen.


So, after this long winded explanation, does anyone have any advice?
I've
been building computers and installing operating systems for 20 years.
The
bios is set up correctly. I'm totaly at a loss here. Please help!

Thanks.

I agree with Sharon Franks: Get the driver CD for the new
motherboard. Furthermore, aftter 20 years of installing OSs,
I suggest you consider changing your approach to installing
operating OSs: Whenever you buy or download an application,
keep the installation media and licence numbers in a separate
location. Installing them and forgetting about them will cause
obvious problems. Ask yourself from time to time: If your PC
self-destructed today, would you be in a position to load
all applications and data onto a new machine within 24 hours?
If the answer is no then you need to change your methods.
$6,000 is a lot of money to kiss good bye.