Reinstalling XP - Reboots at installing devices

[Buck]

I am attempting to reinstall XP. At 'Installing Devices'
the PC reboots. This is about the 10th time. I have read
about deleting a file in the system32/drivers folder,
NLTWINAX.SYS, but I can't get to a command prompt.

HELP!!!

 

[Malke]

I am attempting to reinstall XP. At 'Installing Devices'
the PC reboots. This is about the 10th time. I have read
about deleting a file in the system32/drivers folder,
NLTWINAX.SYS, but I can't get to a command prompt.

HELP!!!

Are you doing a clean install - formatting the hard drive and then
installing Windows - or trying to do an upgrade install (install in
place)? If the former, then 1) be sure you don't have peripherals
connected when you are installing; 2) do a RAM test; 3) if the RAM is
OK, do a hard drive diagnosis.

Malke

 

[Guest]

I am doing a reinstall. Besides, how can I get to a
command prompt even to reformat my hard drive? I have
disconnected my printer, modem, scanner. All I have
connected is my mouse and monitor. Do I need to remove any
internal cards or hardware? I do have a cd-rom drive and
dvd drive. I am at the early stages of PANIC!! Any steps
would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Malke]

I am doing a reinstall. Besides, how can I get to a
command prompt even to reformat my hard drive? I have
disconnected my printer, modem, scanner. All I have
connected is my mouse and monitor. Do I need to remove any
internal cards or hardware? I do have a cd-rom drive and
dvd drive. I am at the early stages of PANIC!! Any steps
would be greatly appreciated.
and then>>installing Windows - or trying to do an upgrade install
(install in>>place)? If the former, then 1) be sure you don't have
peripherals>>connected when you are installing; 2) do a RAM test; 3)
if the RAM is>>OK, do a hard drive diagnosis.

Why should you be in a stage of panic? If you have to wipe the drive and
clean install, you can always reinstall your programs and restore data
from backups. You do have backups, right? No, you don't need to remove
any internal pc cards unless you have something out of the ordinary, a
very recent SCSI controller for instance (but even then you can hit F6
during the first stage of installation to add in the 3rd party driver)
You do a clean install by setting your computer to boot from the cd-rom
by going into the BIOS when the computer first starts up and setting
the boot order to 1) cd-rom; 2) hard drive (ide 0 if not scsi); 3)
removable devices (floppy). Then you boot with the Windows XP cd and do
a clean install by formatting the drive and/or partition.

I would definitely do a clean install. If that fails, then you probably
have bad hardware as I mentioned in my first post.

HTH,

Malke

 

[Guest]

At bootup, the XP CD is in the cd-drive. The PC
recognizes that the XP setup did not finish and the
following occurs, 'Setup is now restarting'. Goes through
the same routine of 'Installing devices'. At the 34
minutes left to install, the PC reboots, same thing, I
can't get past this point, nor can I boot from the 6 XP
floppy boot disks. When I attempt that, the process gets
into the 3rd diskette and an error occurs, rebooting.

 

[Malke]

At bootup, the XP CD is in the cd-drive. The PC
recognizes that the XP setup did not finish and the
following occurs, 'Setup is now restarting'. Goes through
the same routine of 'Installing devices'. At the 34
minutes left to install, the PC reboots, same thing, I
can't get past this point, nor can I boot from the 6 XP
floppy boot disks. When I attempt that, the process gets
into the 3rd diskette and an error occurs, rebooting.

(lots of snippage)

Then it's time to do hardware testing, like I suggested in the last two
posts. Start with the RAM. I like Memtest86 from www.memtest86.com.
Download the precompiled Windows version and make a bootable floppy
with it. Boot with the floppy and let the test run overnight. If the
RAM is OK, then test the hard drive with a diagnostic utility
downloaded from the mftr.'s website. If you can't do this yourself,
take the machine to a good local computer repair shop (not CompUSA or
Best Buy).

Malke