Hi, I'm not sure if I have posted this in the right place but here it goes.
While trying to install Windows XP, my computer hangs at the “Please wait, setup is inspecting your computer’s hardware configuration” screen. This happens while trying to install either Windows XP Home or Windows XP Pro (both of which are original CDs), as well as a slipstreamed sp3 copy of XP. So I installing XP on an older computer I have and then put that hard drive back into the computer with the trouble, turned the system on and it hangs at either the black screen or at the F8 boot options screen when I press the F8 key.
I checked the connections, tried stripping the computer hardware down to just a several year old CD / DVD drive, graphics card, 1 hard drive, and floppy. When that gave the same results, I tried every hardware arrangement I could think of; several different hard drives IDE and SATA (internal) ranging from 40GB’s to 500GB’s, slave / master / cable / select and the wire or port selection, 2 DVD drives (internal / external), together and in combinations for both the hard dives and the DVD drives, pulling out or unplugging all other connections (Ethernet, USB, TV-card, and floppy drive), and changed the placement and number of memory sticks. I also changed the monitors and all of this gave the same results.
I played with various settings of the main board jumpers and from within CMOS. I under clocked and over clocked the memory, CPU, and north bridge as well as changing the voltage, individually and together; manually and automatically. I set the optimized defaults and reset the Bios, both from within the CMOS and pulling the plug or with the jumper. I enabled everything and disabled everything that I could get away with. Even run the boot up Virus scan utility. Some of these would not let the system post properly, however the those that would allow me to post gave my the same system hanging problems with XP.
With the exception of adding a couple of hard drives, changing out a DVD drive, adding a couple of USB devices, different OS’s and some CMOS settings; the system is the same as when it used to run XP Pro fine about a little over a year ago. Though I do remember that XP was fussy about starting up with trying to over clock the CPU to anything with the memory running at stock settings and so I was left with having to use the automatic settings (which I used the lite or medium settings). As for the other OS’s, I am currently running Windows 7rc (which runs fine). I’ve ran MSDOS 6.22 (via bootable CD), Ubuntu Linux v10.04, and Mandrake Linux (I believe v6. something). All of these installed and ran fine. However Windows 95, Windows 95 OEM, Windows 98, and the Windows 98 sp2 installation CD’s just went to black screen and froze. On some site sometime ago, I heard that you will sometimes run into conflicts if the north bridge chipset is from an Opposing graphics vendor than the Graphics Card that you are using which is the case in my system, an ATI chipset with an nVidia Video Card. Though I have no idea that is source of my problem or not and the only other video card that my system I think will take is an old Voodoo3 or 4, 3d Card.
I’ve heard about some problems with trying to install any Windows versions after a Linux install, due to the differing way in which Linux and Windows handle the MBR and that mainly Windows doesn’t like Grub or Lilo that Linux uses to modify the MBR. So I uninstalled Linux, deleted it’s partitions, removed Grub and fixed the MBR using the system repair option of the Windows 7rc and Beta Disks. I’ve used DBAN, Partition Wizard, fdisk, and the Linux Live CD. I also tried to install XP on to 3 hard drives that never had Linux on them (2 SATA and 1 IDE), 2 of them never had an OS on them at all and still the same thing happens. The Windows 7 install disk works fine though, and running Memtest 86 and Orthos for 10 minutes or so came up with no errors. I’ve uninstalled Windows 7 and repartitioned that drive and reinstalled 7 with no problems. A last note is that since the last time I had Windows XP on this system, I have flashed the Bios to the latest Version directly from the manufacturers website and via a 3.5 floppy and I can’t find an older version anywhere.
Anyway, after messing with this for about a month off and on, I’m fresh out of Ideas and would appreciate any help or options that you might be able to offer. So here is my Computer’s Hardware setup:
Case----------------------------------Raidmax, Smilodon ATX, with stock power supply.
Motherboard--------------Biostar TForce, TF520-A2 v5.x, with nVidia nForce 520 nb.
On Board Lan-----------------Realtek RTL 8110SC, 10/100 Mb/s / 1 Gb/s.
On Board Sound-----------------------ALC888 HD 7.1 Channels
Bios--------------------Phoenix-Award N65SA-A2T, N65SAC21 BS v6.00PG,
12/21/2007-NF-MCP65_6A61L8O1C-00.
Processor--------------------------------AMD, Athlon 64 X2 4000 AM2, 65nm Brisbane.
Memory-----OCZ, 2pk 1gb PC2-6400 DDR2-800 Platinum Rev2, OCZ2P800R22GK.
Video Card-------MSI, PCIex16, nVidia NX8600GTS Diamand Plus RT, with HDMI.
TV Card-------------------------------------Leadtek, Winfast TV 2000 XP Plus, with FM.
The Next set of Components are Probably irrelevant, but I included them anyway.
Floppy---------------------------------------------1 Generic, Teac 3.5 FDD, Internal Drive.
CD/DVD Drive Internal----------------DVD-Rom, AOpen 16x or 20x? Slot Feed, IDE.
CD/DVD Drive External--------------DVD-R/RW, LG, GSAE40L Light Scribe, USB.
Hard Drive 1 IDE-------------------------------------40 Gb, Western Digital 7200rpm 3.5.
Hard Drive 2 IDE---------------------------------------------160 Gb, Seagate 7200rpm 3.5.
Hard Drive 1 SATA--------------------------------200 Gb, Western Digital 7200rpm 3.5.
Hard Drive 2 SATA----(Current Boot Drive)-- 250 Gb, Western Digital 7200rpm 3.5.
Hard Drive 3 SATA------------------------------------------500 Gb, Seagate 7200rpm 3.5.
Monitor 1-------------Olivia, LCD 32” TV 232v, HDMI 1080i, 1360x768 @60 native.
Monitor 2----------------------MAG innovision, LCD 15” VGA, 1024x720 @72 native.
Keyboard @ Mouse 1---------------------------Logitech, LX 710 cordless Combo, USB.
Keyboard 2-----(Don’t remember the company), Ergonomic Keyboard 8110 M, PS-2.
Mouse 2-------------------------------------Cirque, Glidepoint Easy Cat Touch Pad, PS-2.
I hope that this is enough information, and I hope that none of the main components are failing since I don’t have anything to swap them out with. Because the system runs great, except for the Windows XP hangs at install or boot problem.
While trying to install Windows XP, my computer hangs at the “Please wait, setup is inspecting your computer’s hardware configuration” screen. This happens while trying to install either Windows XP Home or Windows XP Pro (both of which are original CDs), as well as a slipstreamed sp3 copy of XP. So I installing XP on an older computer I have and then put that hard drive back into the computer with the trouble, turned the system on and it hangs at either the black screen or at the F8 boot options screen when I press the F8 key.
I checked the connections, tried stripping the computer hardware down to just a several year old CD / DVD drive, graphics card, 1 hard drive, and floppy. When that gave the same results, I tried every hardware arrangement I could think of; several different hard drives IDE and SATA (internal) ranging from 40GB’s to 500GB’s, slave / master / cable / select and the wire or port selection, 2 DVD drives (internal / external), together and in combinations for both the hard dives and the DVD drives, pulling out or unplugging all other connections (Ethernet, USB, TV-card, and floppy drive), and changed the placement and number of memory sticks. I also changed the monitors and all of this gave the same results.
I played with various settings of the main board jumpers and from within CMOS. I under clocked and over clocked the memory, CPU, and north bridge as well as changing the voltage, individually and together; manually and automatically. I set the optimized defaults and reset the Bios, both from within the CMOS and pulling the plug or with the jumper. I enabled everything and disabled everything that I could get away with. Even run the boot up Virus scan utility. Some of these would not let the system post properly, however the those that would allow me to post gave my the same system hanging problems with XP.
With the exception of adding a couple of hard drives, changing out a DVD drive, adding a couple of USB devices, different OS’s and some CMOS settings; the system is the same as when it used to run XP Pro fine about a little over a year ago. Though I do remember that XP was fussy about starting up with trying to over clock the CPU to anything with the memory running at stock settings and so I was left with having to use the automatic settings (which I used the lite or medium settings). As for the other OS’s, I am currently running Windows 7rc (which runs fine). I’ve ran MSDOS 6.22 (via bootable CD), Ubuntu Linux v10.04, and Mandrake Linux (I believe v6. something). All of these installed and ran fine. However Windows 95, Windows 95 OEM, Windows 98, and the Windows 98 sp2 installation CD’s just went to black screen and froze. On some site sometime ago, I heard that you will sometimes run into conflicts if the north bridge chipset is from an Opposing graphics vendor than the Graphics Card that you are using which is the case in my system, an ATI chipset with an nVidia Video Card. Though I have no idea that is source of my problem or not and the only other video card that my system I think will take is an old Voodoo3 or 4, 3d Card.
I’ve heard about some problems with trying to install any Windows versions after a Linux install, due to the differing way in which Linux and Windows handle the MBR and that mainly Windows doesn’t like Grub or Lilo that Linux uses to modify the MBR. So I uninstalled Linux, deleted it’s partitions, removed Grub and fixed the MBR using the system repair option of the Windows 7rc and Beta Disks. I’ve used DBAN, Partition Wizard, fdisk, and the Linux Live CD. I also tried to install XP on to 3 hard drives that never had Linux on them (2 SATA and 1 IDE), 2 of them never had an OS on them at all and still the same thing happens. The Windows 7 install disk works fine though, and running Memtest 86 and Orthos for 10 minutes or so came up with no errors. I’ve uninstalled Windows 7 and repartitioned that drive and reinstalled 7 with no problems. A last note is that since the last time I had Windows XP on this system, I have flashed the Bios to the latest Version directly from the manufacturers website and via a 3.5 floppy and I can’t find an older version anywhere.
Anyway, after messing with this for about a month off and on, I’m fresh out of Ideas and would appreciate any help or options that you might be able to offer. So here is my Computer’s Hardware setup:
Case----------------------------------Raidmax, Smilodon ATX, with stock power supply.
Motherboard--------------Biostar TForce, TF520-A2 v5.x, with nVidia nForce 520 nb.
On Board Lan-----------------Realtek RTL 8110SC, 10/100 Mb/s / 1 Gb/s.
On Board Sound-----------------------ALC888 HD 7.1 Channels
Bios--------------------Phoenix-Award N65SA-A2T, N65SAC21 BS v6.00PG,
12/21/2007-NF-MCP65_6A61L8O1C-00.
Processor--------------------------------AMD, Athlon 64 X2 4000 AM2, 65nm Brisbane.
Memory-----OCZ, 2pk 1gb PC2-6400 DDR2-800 Platinum Rev2, OCZ2P800R22GK.
Video Card-------MSI, PCIex16, nVidia NX8600GTS Diamand Plus RT, with HDMI.
TV Card-------------------------------------Leadtek, Winfast TV 2000 XP Plus, with FM.
The Next set of Components are Probably irrelevant, but I included them anyway.
Floppy---------------------------------------------1 Generic, Teac 3.5 FDD, Internal Drive.
CD/DVD Drive Internal----------------DVD-Rom, AOpen 16x or 20x? Slot Feed, IDE.
CD/DVD Drive External--------------DVD-R/RW, LG, GSAE40L Light Scribe, USB.
Hard Drive 1 IDE-------------------------------------40 Gb, Western Digital 7200rpm 3.5.
Hard Drive 2 IDE---------------------------------------------160 Gb, Seagate 7200rpm 3.5.
Hard Drive 1 SATA--------------------------------200 Gb, Western Digital 7200rpm 3.5.
Hard Drive 2 SATA----(Current Boot Drive)-- 250 Gb, Western Digital 7200rpm 3.5.
Hard Drive 3 SATA------------------------------------------500 Gb, Seagate 7200rpm 3.5.
Monitor 1-------------Olivia, LCD 32” TV 232v, HDMI 1080i, 1360x768 @60 native.
Monitor 2----------------------MAG innovision, LCD 15” VGA, 1024x720 @72 native.
Keyboard @ Mouse 1---------------------------Logitech, LX 710 cordless Combo, USB.
Keyboard 2-----(Don’t remember the company), Ergonomic Keyboard 8110 M, PS-2.
Mouse 2-------------------------------------Cirque, Glidepoint Easy Cat Touch Pad, PS-2.
I hope that this is enough information, and I hope that none of the main components are failing since I don’t have anything to swap them out with. Because the system runs great, except for the Windows XP hangs at install or boot problem.
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