Setup from hell

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jimmyswimm

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Mar 8, 2002
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I've been working on a computer trying to put windows 2k on it after windows 98 decided to stop running on it. I format the disc, scandisk it and all that and as its installing it I get the message setup cannot find file. I figure ok fine I'll quit setup and try again. It installs fine past the point of the problem before and then it can't find another file. Every time I've quit and tried again on that computer I get a different file it can't find. I put my cdrom drive,that I know works fine, in his computer to see if it's not transferring files from the cd right. Same problem. I quit setup put one of my spare hard drives in thinking it might be his hard drive that's gone bad cuz of age or whatever. Same problem with my hard drive. I put his hard drive in my computer thinking its the disc. It installs just fine on my computer. I put on some of my other software just to run the operating system and see if it runs fine. It does, so just to test I uninstall all the drivers that has been put on from my computer and put his hard drive back in his computer with the 2000 on it. I get errors this and that left and right. I can't remember them exactly but something like file wasn't copied properly or something to the like. So then I tried XP same crap. I've installed his old windows 98 disc back on and it installs just fine. The only issues I have with that is as it boots up it goes off the win 98 splash screen after a lil bit and goes to a black screen with a blinking cursor and takes about minute and a half to boot the rest of they way and some of the games I tried to put back on don't install but I pretty much figure that's because of the conversion to NTFS and back to FAT. I may be wrong though. The only real difference between the components in his computer and mine is the motherboard. His is a MSI KTA3 Ultra mine is an Epox 8kha+. Both machines are AMD Xp cpu's, western digital hard drives, ati video cards, he has 512 meg of ram I have 256 both ddr. It works on mine not on his. Anyway I'm wondering what I need to do to try and get the copy of Windows Xp Home or Win 2k on. I know the discs are fine. I don't know if it is the motherboard, bios or something completely different. All I know is that Windows 2000 and Windows Xp will not install right on his computer setup but it will on mine. I've done everything I can think of to try and put it on his computer and see where my problem lies but I'm stumped. Any help would be appreciated.

<b><font color=blue>The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. :lol: :wink:
 
Go to you M/B mfg. (Epox) and check for BIOS update. Also, you are correct Win 98 doesn't like NTFS.

<font color=purple><b>An average human brain weights aprox. 3lbs., but a thought weights a load.</font color=purple></b>
 
i remember having a similar problem with a system, but cant remember what i did..... for starters, did you swap the cd rom cable? could be bad. especially if you tried your cd rom which you know works. also, did you try copying the i386 folder the the hard drive and running setup from there?

....the birds seemed to be calling him, thought caw....
 
I've had this sort of problem in the past. Turned out to be too aggressive memory timings. Try backing off on the CAS level (e.g. change from CAS2 to CAS2.5 or even CAS3) and/or FSB speed to see if it possibly solves the problem.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>
 
How do I put the I386 folder on the hard drive? Make the hard drive a slave and toss the folder in from a primary? or is there a way to do a boot up with Win2k/WinXp from what I know is they are bootable on their own so I haven't had to rely on a boot disk for that and a 98 boot disk won't work with a HDD formatted to NTFS.

<b><font color=blue>The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. :lol: :wink:
 
Ok, so I put the I386 folder in c: and then I do the whole boot up setup and in the beginning while it's copying files it doesn't find a bunch again.......I swapped out the Ide cable and cdrom drive with mine and nothing, I have the memory clocked at 2.5 cas..........I stuck the hard drive in my computer with my ide cable and cdrom drive worked beautifully......but it will not do it with my friends setup......what in the hell....

<b><font color=blue>The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. :lol: :wink:
 
I've put both ram sticks in my system and my ram in that system. My system has no problems with that ram in it and that system has the same issue with my good ram in it.......

<b><font color=blue>The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. :lol: :wink:
 
Actually I recomend unplugging every electrical device in your home before installing Win2k. If possible, get your neighbors to do the same. Also be sure not to run any battery operated or radio devices nearby as RF interference may render your hard disk useless.
</sarcism> sorry, I couldn't resist.

I agree with jlanka. I'd bet the problem lies with the memory, memory bus, or cache. Any of these things can cause dataloss which translates to file copy errors, among many other things. Care to guess why his win98 died in the first place? Probably the same issue.
 
i learned long ago never to work on a friend's computer again 😉 sounds like some kind of RAM issue to me. had the same problem a year ago. odd problem though.
 
I've also seen this on 2k and xp, missing files during the text based part of setup, even if the i386 folder is copied to the hdd, can you get hold of a copy of pccheck? runs from a floppy and will show up any errors in memory modeules (not sure if it works on ddr)


If they squeeze olives to get olive oil, how do they get baby oil?
 
Well sorry for not updating this I would have sooner if I wasn't working on the pig, or getting away from the frustration. Anyway after RMA'ing the board, the MSI tech had some kind of hunch that it was an IDE controller problem or something, and trying to install again I got the same issue. So I did test the ram with a dos based memory tester. I dont' remember which one though I'll have to go through my files to find the exact name if you care to know or can't find it just lemme know. Anyway, back to the point after running that I got oooooh bout 7000 memory errors during the 1st test I pulled out the bad stick and wouldn't ya know it works perfectly now. Oh yea if ANNNNY of you reading this are in the utah or california area or if you find these guys online DO NOT BUY ANNNNY MAJOR COMPONENTS FROM THEM THEY ARE TROUBLE. The company name is ebccomputers they are TERRIBLE with giving you a batch of components that all work. Oh yea and I'll be sure to put my hatred of this company in the ratings part of the boards. Anywho enuf rambling problem solved thanks for all the help

<b><font color=blue>The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. :lol: :wink:
 
Glad you got it sorted, memory can cause all sorts of probs, I posted a similar reply somewhere else, and mentioned there that I had a stick of ram that ran for years in a 98 box, but with that same ram it wouldnt allow 2k to install even.

If they squeeze olives to get olive oil, how do they get baby oil?
 
Yea it was a pain in my butt that stick slid under my radar It wasn't dead and I threw it in my system but only let it do the bios mem check to look at it,not a full anal probing of it grrrr. Too bad I couldn't find your post, then again searching through here to find anything is as bad or worse than searching the microsoft site. I know allllll about searching that site. Ah well glad to have that over, and now I know to grab the ol aliens and have it probe the damn memory. :lol:

<b><font color=blue>The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. :lol: :wink:
 
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