Problem installing Win XP Home on laptop

[kapslocked]

Hello,

I'm having trouble installing Windows XP on my laptop and I am
wondering if some of you can help.

I had a dual boot system, that I had created by installing linux
(fedora 4 core) on a windows xp home system.

A couple of days ago, the windows tanked. A boot to windows xp home
brought me to "lsass.exe error - object name not found" popup window
just before login, with an OK button, clicking which simply rebooted
the system. I read about it on the net, and figuring it was a virus,
decided that I'd reinstall windows (or format the windows partition).

When I booted the laptop with the windows xp home sp1 installable cd,
it behaved thus:
1. The cd was accessed, and I was prompted thus "Press any key to boot
from the CD ..."
2. Upon pressing a key, it displays "Setup is inspecting your
computer's hardware configuration" for just 2-3 seconds, and then the
screen goes blank (and blue). The CD access stops, but the hard disk
continually gets accessed.

I can boot to a linux installation CD, and complete an installation of
linux. I also booted into linux and deleted all the partitions on the
hard disk. I also deleted grub as the boot loader / manager. Still no
luck. I just can't manage to install windows.

Anybody got some idea what's going on?

The laptop is a HP Pavillion 5700. The Windows XP CD isn't bad - I had
a Windows XP Professional CD available (that wasn't the original CD of
the laptop - I borrowed it from a friend, to check what's going on) -
it also does exactly the same.

Any tips would be thankfully received.

Kapil Sharma

 

[rohan24x7]

I am facing the exact same problem...Kapil if you know the solution do
post it here or mail me - (e-mail address removed) and i will do the same.
Rohan

 

[rohan24x7]

Hello Kapil...the following worked for me so you may try it as well.

Well tinkering with my partition table i finally got succcess. However,
i had to sacrifice my linux partitions. I was tired so did it all at
once. But somebody else facing the same problem..try this. Remove any
linux partitions that are primary then see if it picks up.
Alternatively, remove all linux partitions. Label them FAT32, and it
will pick up.