Upgrading an ME based HP Pavilion to XP

[John Henderson]

1. I have built/assembled 3 computers from scratch that
work wonderfully.
2. The HP Pavilion model in question is an HP 8766c
w/1024 k memory and the latest 2.02 bios from HP.
3. Got the CD from HP direct titled "Upgrading Pavilion
PC from Me to XP.
4. NOTHINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG has worked beginning with f
disk, loading 98 the a new Me then try upgrade to XP.
Tried all versions of XP including Media edition. It will
simply not complete an upgrade giving all kinds of crazy
and different and inconsistent error messages as to why
it cannot complete the task.
5. I was--amazingly--once able to get WIN 2000 on it and
it worked for over a year but when I tried to upgrade
from there it would not work then I wiped everything off
and started from scratch with Me on and nada.
6. COMPUSA has unit now and they are all frustrated.
Cannot load XP either any version. They have checked all
the hardware and it is functioning fine; they even blew
everything off the drive, formatted and started from
scratch just as I did.
7. HP has called me to say that sometimes it works
sometimes it doesn't and refunded my CD money for the
transition disk.
9. I hate to throw away a 900 Pentium 3 machine away that
is otherwise perfectly sound but I want XP.

CAN ANYBODY HELP?????????????

I bet this is the tougest one on the board in a long time.

Thanks in adavance,
John Henderson

 

[Bob Dietz]

1. I have built/assembled 3 computers from scratch that
work wonderfully.
2. The HP Pavilion model in question is an HP 8766c
w/1024 k memory and the latest 2.02 bios from HP.
3. Got the CD from HP direct titled "Upgrading Pavilion
PC from Me to XP.
4. NOTHINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG has worked beginning with f
disk, loading 98 the a new Me then try upgrade to XP.
Tried all versions of XP including Media edition. It will
simply not complete an upgrade giving all kinds of crazy
and different and inconsistent error messages as to why
it cannot complete the task.
5. I was--amazingly--once able to get WIN 2000 on it and
it worked for over a year but when I tried to upgrade
from there it would not work then I wiped everything off
and started from scratch with Me on and nada.
6. COMPUSA has unit now and they are all frustrated.
Cannot load XP either any version. They have checked all
the hardware and it is functioning fine; they even blew
everything off the drive, formatted and started from
scratch just as I did.
7. HP has called me to say that sometimes it works
sometimes it doesn't and refunded my CD money for the
transition disk.
9. I hate to throw away a 900 Pentium 3 machine away that
is otherwise perfectly sound but I want XP.

CAN ANYBODY HELP?????????????

I bet this is the tougest one on the board in a long time.

Thanks in adavance,
John Henderson

Wild guess - maybe a hidden partion?
Have you tried installing with a different HD in the system and a
NON-OEM copy of XP?

Bob

 

[Malke]

1. I have built/assembled 3 computers from scratch that
work wonderfully.
2. The HP Pavilion model in question is an HP 8766c
w/1024 k memory and the latest 2.02 bios from HP.
3. Got the CD from HP direct titled "Upgrading Pavilion
PC from Me to XP.
4. NOTHINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG has worked beginning with f
disk, loading 98 the a new Me then try upgrade to XP.
Tried all versions of XP including Media edition. It will
simply not complete an upgrade giving all kinds of crazy
and different and inconsistent error messages as to why
it cannot complete the task.
5. I was--amazingly--once able to get WIN 2000 on it and
it worked for over a year but when I tried to upgrade
from there it would not work then I wiped everything off
and started from scratch with Me on and nada.
6. COMPUSA has unit now and they are all frustrated.
Cannot load XP either any version. They have checked all
the hardware and it is functioning fine; they even blew
everything off the drive, formatted and started from
scratch just as I did.
7. HP has called me to say that sometimes it works
sometimes it doesn't and refunded my CD money for the
transition disk.
9. I hate to throw away a 900 Pentium 3 machine away that
is otherwise perfectly sound but I want XP.

CAN ANYBODY HELP?????????????

I bet this is the tougest one on the board in a long time.

Thanks in adavance,
John Henderson

John, you already know the answer. You just don't like it. HP's are
proprietary, nasty little boxen and sometimes you can upgrade them and
sometimes you can't. You've already spent way too much time and money
on this. If you want XP, you're going to have to build or buy a new
computer. Keep the HP you've got with whatever it came with as a second
machine or give it away to a worthy charity. I don't mean this to sound
harsh, but there really isn't a magic answer for this.

Best of luck to you,

Malke

 

[john henderson]

yeh even tried that, Bob.

But thanks for thinking about it.

john

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

I've learned the hard way, over the years, that PCs designed for,
sold and run fine with Win9x/Me very often do not meet WinXP's much
more stringent hardware quality requirements. This is particularly
true of many models in Compaq's consumer-class Presario product line
or HP's consumer-class Pavilion product line. WinXP, like WinNT and
Win2K before it, is quite sensitive to borderline defective or
substandard hardware (particularly motherboards, RAM and hard drives)
that will still support Win9x.

What are some of the specific errors messages that appear during
the upgrade/installation attempts? Perhaps one or more of them might
shed some light on the possible problem?


Bruce Chambers
--
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