XPSP2 install freezing with "Please wait..."

[markiam]

I've built a new PC with following components:

ASUS P5W2D-E Premium mobo
P4 930 (dual core)
2gb 667 DDR2
2x250gb S-ATA drives

I've configure the HDDs as a raid 1 array and booted from my XPSP2 cd. I press F6 to load the raid drivers from floppy and the install then continues loading the rest of the drivers from the windows CD.

I then get the "Press enter to continue" message. I press enter and then get a blank blue screen with a "Please wait" message. I've waited for 30 minutes and nothing happens.

If I remove the raid array and try installing with just one drive it gets a little further. I get the next screen where I have to "Press F8 to agree to the license agreement and continure".

I then get another blank blue screen with a message at the bottom "Loading Setupp.ini". Nothing happens no matter how long I wait.

Any ideas? I've disconnected all unessecary components such as USB connectors etc in case they were intrefering. I've checked my bios version and its the latest (0501 although there is a 0601 beta release available).

 

[fredweston]

Bad CD maybe? Hmm. Do you have another regular IDE hard drive you could try? If so, don't even bother loading the SATA controller driver to see if that's what's causnig the problem.

 

[markiam]

Found the problem - turned out to be a bad memory stick.

It's a corsair 512mb that is _supposed_ to be pretested etc but at least it has a lifetime warranty so I should be able to get a replacement.

If I leave the stick in then it shows up at post but fails as soon as it is used, hence the odd behaviour that allowed the PC to boot from cd and start windows installation.