Will Denny said:
How are you trying to install XP? Upgrade, re-install, 'Clean'?
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Will,
As I said in an earlier post, I upgraded from a well-running Win98 system to
WinXP Home. I downloaded updated setup files during the upgrade and ran the
compatibilty check first to make sure that I had the right drivers if they
were to be needed.
All appeared to go well and many restarts were completed successfully. When
the u/g had complete I ran the compatibility check on the CD, and it came up
clean. The next day, I was using the PC and needed to restart whereupon the
screen froze at the XP splashscreen. The moving bars only went across a
little, then it all froze. I found that I could restart in safe mode, so I
tried disabling all of the startup stuff in the system configuration utility,
but to no avail, it still froze on normal startup.
I next started in safe mode and started to run XP setup from the CD, all
went apparently well until a restart occurred at which point it froze again.
I restarted using the recovery console, then moved the autoexec.nt,
config.nt, command.com and kernel32.dll files to another folder and replaced
them with new ones from the Windows\Repair folder. When I restarted, setup
reappeared, and I had high hopes, but they were dashed as setup proceeded a
little further, then froze.
I now realise that attempting to reinstall Windows was the wrong thing to do
and that I should have persevered in safe mode atempting to find the
(probably simple) cause, but even that option is denied to me now, because
when I try to start in S/M, the setup program is still trying to complete and
I get a message which tells me that setup cannot run in S/M and that it will
restart. I knew what folders and information to delete in Win98 to prevent
setup from continuing when the PC restarted, but I have no idea in Win XP.
I've tried disabling Legacy USB support, and many other options, including
using VGA mode (still freezes) and booting with a standard K/B, mouse and
monitor only. My main concern is how can I disable setup so that I can get
back to S/M?
If I boot from the CD, I get the notification that setup is still running,
but if I choose to continue with it, the PC hangs after a very short time -
If I choose to exit setup with F3 I still get the message that setup is still
running when I attempt tp restart in S/M, and I haven't tried a new
installation, and don't really want to, as it invlolves a lot of stuff being
reinstalled.
Martin Ellis
