Compaq Presario XP Home to Pro Upgrade reboot loop - SOLUTION

[fastabend]

Quick:
You cannot upgrade a Compaq desktop using a retail XP Pro upgrade. You
have 2 options:

Purchase the XP Upgrade from HP $199, part number is : PV768A#ABA
(This includes all of the drivers and "Customizations" that will allow
the upgrade to work over their "Customized" version of XP Home)

Perform a clean install with a Full version product. (You will lose
all Compaq installed programs, which cannot be recovered using the
Recovery CDs. You will also need to download all of your drivers from
their website separately.)


Long:

Recently tried to upgrade a new just out of the box Presario SR1910NX
from XP Home to XP Pro with a retail XP upgrade. After the file copy
process the computer gave me an error: "Setup Cannot Set the Required
Windows XP Configuration Information" The computer kept rebooting,
Safe Mode, Last Known Good etc would not work. The only option was to
F10 and recover the box to factory specs.

I contacted HP Tech Support and they said that the error was due to a
hardware compatability issue with the computer as per Microsoft
arrticle 316425. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316425/en-us

RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, update your BIOS, check your motherboard for
compatibility with Windows XP, and remove any added hardware.

Do not attempt to edit your BIOS settings. Consult your computer
documentation or obtain technical assistance from the manufacturer.


HP Support seaid to follow the steps in the article and reinstall.
Call them back if I had any problems. Basically a worthless article,
as everything is on board, cannot be removed and works with XP Home. I
rebuilt the machine with the PC restore. About an hour or so.

I then got back on HP Support Chat and got another tech. I explained
the situation again, and they responded as described at the top without
admitting that they:

Deliberately customized their software so that it will not work with a
retail upgrade
or
They do not offer any solution or help unless you buy Their upgrade.

Their recommendation was to buy their upgrade, perform a clean install
from a Full version, or contact Microsoft for some sort of magical
solution.

Personally I would think you can choose the Clean install option from
the XP Upgrade process run from XP Home, but haven't tried it. Good
Luck

Greg Fastabend

 

[Guest]

Sure you can easily do that with the xp cd (retail) you purchased,simply
install xp cd,boot to xp cd (set for this in the BIOS if needed,1st boot
device
or similiar),at xp cd boot screen select,install xp,new copy,delete the
partition
(xp home) create one,then xo formats and installs auto.....The only
drawbacks:
If xp becomes totally corrupted,you'll need to reinstall xp home from the
oem cds
you have,them follow above instructions.Youre benifits will outway compaqs
software junk anyway,true you'll need drivers,but the ones on youre oem cds
are obsolete now anyway....

 

[thegrid]

I had this same problem on my new Compaq laptop. After restoring from
the image partition, I re-ran the upgrade install and made it work.

I found this on another usenet posting:
"Check for files starting with edb in the c:\windows\system32\catroot2
folder. Rename this file (or delete the file completely) and run setup
again."

After doing that, the install still fails, BUT when it does, let it
re-boot. Continue with the "Windows XP Professional Setup" The install
will run and finish.

After the install completes, the "Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Setup" boot option is still there, but no longer works. It's the
default, so you need to select the "Microsoft Windows XP Home" boot
option.

You can fix this by msconfig, selecting the boot.ini tab. Select the
"Check all paths button". It will determine that the setup option is no
longer valid and give you the option to delete it. Do so.

I didn't change XP "Home" in the boot ini. It's really XP Pro and
doesnt appear upon bootup after the Setup option is removed.