Well been working on my computer all day. I did a memory test and it was OK.
Did a Seagate HD test from a bootable disk and when I did a long test it
locked up at 4 minutes 1st time, 13 minutes 2nd time, 8 minutes 3rd time.
Also checked HD with a program and it said it was OK but since it locked up
with the Seagate test that's probably my problem. As far as Bios set up goes
I know all about that. This one though has the least options of any I've
ever seen.
1 - Network Boot Protocol (PXE or RPL)
2 - Boot Order (I know what this is)
3 - Show Set Up Prompt (Stupid option!)
4 - Set Up Menu Wait Time (Set at 2 seconds, had to reboot 6 times to figure
out how to get into set up, CTRL - S)
5 - Legacy OS Wakeup Support (Set on Disable) What is this?
Ordered a Post PCI card so I can check the motherboard but it looks like a
bad HD to me. Thanks for all your help.
Walt
-----Original Message-----
From: Walter Goldschmidt
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2011 8:38 AM Newsgroups:
microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support Subject: XP Install Problem?
I already posted this question in another XP group but got no replies so
excuse my cross posting. Below is my original question.
I have an old old computer I got from my niece that I'm trying to install a
new copy of XP Professional on. Originally it had ME on it. 512 MB of ram.
Pentium III 733 MHz/133 MHz processor. 19 GB hard drive. I used a program
called KillDisk to wipe the hard drive clean. It wrote zero's to the hard
drive and also removed all partitions. It asked BOOT SECTOR WRITE!! VIRUS:
Continue (Y/N)? I chose Y and everything seemed to go OK. When I then put
the XP Install disk in the CD drive I had to partition it and format it. I
tried formating both FAT32 and NTFS file systems. When XP was installing it
went fine until it had only 13 minutes left to go and I got the BSOD and it
said I should Disable the memories Caching or Shadowing. I assume I do this
in setup but this computers setup did not have that option. I tried
altogether about six times to install XP from 3 separate disks and the
following time when it got to 13 minutes left the computer froze up. I only
got the BSOD the first time the rest of the installs locked up at 13
minutes. I even tried installing an old copy of ME but when it started
installing it it asked me BOOT SECTOR WRITE!! VIRUS: Continue (Y/N)? and
when I tried pressing Y and N nothing happened as if the key board wasn't
working which I know it was because at bootup I was able to press F12 to
boot to the CD drive. Do you think it's just an old wore out computer with
some kind of hardware or setup problem? Maybe bad ram?
Walt
"pjp" wrote in message
Walter Goldschmidt said:
I already posted this question in another XP group but got no replies so
excuse my cross posting. Below is my original question.
I have an old old computer I got from my niece that I'm trying to install
a
new copy of XP Professional on. Originally it had ME on it. 512 MB of ram.
Pentium III 733 MHz/133 MHz processor. 19 GB hard drive. I used a program
called KillDisk to wipe the hard drive clean. It wrote zero's to the hard
drive and also removed all partitions. It asked BOOT SECTOR WRITE!! VIRUS:
Continue (Y/N)? I chose Y and everything seemed to go OK. When I then put
the XP Install disk in the CD drive I had to partition it and format it. I
tried formating both FAT32 and NTFS file systems. When XP was installing
it
went fine until it had only 13 minutes left to go and I got the BSOD and
it
said I should Disable the memories Caching or Shadowing. I assume I do
this
in setup but this computers setup did not have that option. I tried
altogether about six times to install XP from 3 separate disks and the
following time when it got to 13 minutes left the computer froze up. I
only
got the BSOD the first time the rest of the installs locked up at 13
minutes. I even tried installing an old copy of ME but when it started
installing it it asked me BOOT SECTOR WRITE!! VIRUS: Continue (Y/N)? and
when I tried pressing Y and N nothing happened as if the key board wasn't
working which I know it was because at bootup I was able to press F12 to
boot to the CD drive. Do you think it's just an old wore out computer with
some kind of hardware or setup problem? Maybe bad ram?
Walt
What seems likely is that your BIOS has bend setup in a specific fashion and
that's what's causing you problems.
The first issue is the "BOOT SECTOR ..." warning. That's almost certainly
your BIOS informing you "something" is about to overwrite the boot sector of
the hard disk and it's been set to inform you of such and ask your
permission before allowing that to happen (protect against a boot sector
virus doing it's thing without warning). If you know why it's happening
(e.g. formatting hard disk) than you know it's ok to allow it. In fact you
basically should and maybe even have to allow it.
The BSOD you saw gives an indication of some other settings in the BIOS that
have also been enabled. Somewhere in the BIOS setup is an option to
enable/disable "caching" and "shadowing". It's unlikely you'll notice much
if any difference in performance disabling both those options (which is what
the BSOD suggests).
Now, seems likely you are not familiar with the BIOS and how to set it up
etc. The BIOS is basically a small peice of software that the pc uses to
first start everything else. It's basically embedded in some chip on the
motherboard and starts certain things "happening", e.g. detects hard disks
and other drives, allows keyboard and usually mouse input, initializes
various on motherboard resources such as network, sound and video card etc.
etc. At the conclusion of this it starts the startup process for Windows (or
boot from cd etc.) which then more or less takes over control of most things
directly.
To get into your BIOS look for some indication of "Setup" or similar
displayed when pc is first started but before the Windows animation starts,
e.g. when the white text is first displayed on the screen. Depending on the
pc and how it's been setup, you may not see the text but instead some
company logo. If so do a google on the make/model and somewhere will tell
you the magic key to use (almost always Del but can be Esc or a function key
e.g. F1).
Once the BIOS setup has started you are kinda on your own for what you see.
Almost every model is different in how it presents itself and how to change
and Save the settings (hint, Page Down often is used to cycle thru choices).
Look around, take note of the current settings (even write them down
somewhere isn't bad idea) and only change one maybe two things at once
before retesting what happens during normal use.
In your case, I'd be looking to confirm the Protect Boot Sector option is
enabled which would confirm suspicion of warning message. I'd also be
looking at "shadowing/caching" options confirming they're enabled, taking
note (on paper good thing
of current settings before disabaling both. I'd
then exit out of the BIOS setup insuring new settings are saved and retry
installing Windows.
