XP Will Not Load

[KenP]

Dell Dimension PC w/Win XP Pro - Started getting msg bout hard disk failure
on startup. Ran diagnostics and rec'd error code indicating drive was
failing.

Purchased and installed new WD Cav Blue drive. Drive has Zip Drive on same
cable. Tried all kinds of combos. Removed zip, reset jumpers and still XP
will not load. Initial blue screen comes up indicating set up is checking
configuration then screen goes black and that's it.

Thought it mite be cause new drive not partitioned so put drive in another
PC w/same XP O/S cd and it installed and loaded w/o problem. Then put in
original PC and no can read error comes up.

Have talked w/WDC T/S and they say it not drive and I agree. I've changed
cables tween HD and MB with no diff results.

Two or three hairs short of hairless. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

KenP

 

[sgopus]

This sounds more of a hardware question than xp general, try that group
instead.

 

[LVTravel]

Dell Dimension PC w/Win XP Pro - Started getting msg bout hard disk
failure
on startup. Ran diagnostics and rec'd error code indicating drive was
failing.

Purchased and installed new WD Cav Blue drive. Drive has Zip Drive on same
cable. Tried all kinds of combos. Removed zip, reset jumpers and still XP
will not load. Initial blue screen comes up indicating set up is checking
configuration then screen goes black and that's it.

Thought it mite be cause new drive not partitioned so put drive in another
PC w/same XP O/S cd and it installed and loaded w/o problem. Then put in
original PC and no can read error comes up.

Have talked w/WDC T/S and they say it not drive and I agree. I've changed
cables tween HD and MB with no diff results.

Two or three hairs short of hairless. Any help will be greatly
appreciated.

KenP

The old Zip drive must be set as the slave device on the EIDE (PATA) cable
and the WD drive must be set as Master with Slave present. The old Iomega
Zip drives had a tendency to cause issues if they were set to cable select
so ensure that the drives jumpers are set correctly. I know the new WD
drive has instructions on the top of the drive for the jumper positions. I
can't remember if the Zip drive does but IIRC the slave position is the
middle of the three positions on the jumper block between the power
connector and the data cable connector.

Let us know if this helps.

 

[Jose]

run a ram test

Have you reduced things down to just the minimum components to achieve
the most basic configuration possible?

One HDD, one motherboard, one cable (and power of course) and nothing
else (remove the ZIP drive or any other drive entirely from the
equation). Concentrate your efforts on getting that simple
configuration working first, then start adding your other stuff back
one thing at a time. Do not waste time just trying things.

What does the the "no can read error" really say or does it say "no
can read"?

If you decide you want to run a RAM test, maybe you would like to also
know how to do it:

Run a test of your RAM with memtest86+ (I know it is boring and will
cost you a CD).

Memtest86+ is a more up to date version of the old memtest program and
they are not the same.

The memtest86+ will not run under Windows, so you will need to
download the ISO file and create a bootable CD, boot on that and then
run the memtest86+ program.

If even a single error is reported that is a failure and should make
you suspicious of your RAM.

If you have multiple sticks of RAM you may need to run the test on
them one at a time and change them out to isolate the failure to a
particular single stick. Always keep at least the first bank of RAM
occupied so the test will find something to do and there is enough to
boot your system.

Sometimes, reseating the RAM in the slots will relieve the error but a
failure is still cause for suspicion.

The file and instructions are here:

http://www.memtest.org/

If someone says to run memtest86, you can say that you know memtest86+
supercedes memtest86 and here's why:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memtest86

 

[KenP]

Did that w/no errs.

run a ram test
.