first of all thanks to everyone that posted on my last thread - it was very helpful but i now have a new problem i hope u can help with.

ive just bought a new graphics card and hard drive (as my last one died on me) and am at the stage of formating and trying to install windows Xp Pro.

Computer specs
Mainboard - Chaintech 7VJL Deluxe
Hard drive - maxtor diamondmax 9 120 GB ATA133 120 GB
graphics card - sapphire radeon 9600 pro
AMd athlon 2.4 and 512MB DDR 25#66 RAM

ive just used the maxtor program for formatting hard drives and created 3 partitions on it and when it goes to install XP after copying the first batch of files it comes up with a blue screen.

"IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

if this is first time uve seen this error occur restart the computer

then follow these steps - check all new hardware or software is properly installed if this is a new installation asl ur harware manufacturer for any windows updates needed.

if problems continue diasable or remove any new hardware or software. disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.

technical info : STOP and a whole bunch of error codes."

this is quite frustrating as i can't get anywhere no matter what i try and as the computer was working fine before i put in the HD and graphics card it must be a problem with one of those but they are both compatible.

Any ideas?? please help.

Try to install with as little hardware as possible - and assuming that the PC's POST is OK.

Loads (http://www.google.com/search?q=IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&meta=) of results from a bit of Googling.

Boot from XP installation CD and check-out the Hardware Compatibliliy Wizard, if not done the first time.

Check/Reseat all component connections - notably the RAM.

Reset BIOS to default settings.

It looks like your new hardware is not supported by WinXP.

See this http://tinyurl.com/q5j
and this http://www.osr.com/ddk/ddtools/bccodes_6vxj.htm
Note this comment:
"If the message appears during an installation of Windows, make sure that the computer and all installed peripherals are listed on the Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility List (HCL)."

thanks again for all the help

fingers crossed at the moment its now going thru the XP setup much further than it went before.

think it was probably the hard drive causing issues as i set all the IDE channels to auto detect best settings now and it seems to work.

was booting before using the fail=safe defaults but changed that to optimized settings and it is working

"fail-safe" indeed

thanks again.

I had this same problem a while back trying to install a new sound card. It ended up being that it was a driver conflict. The driver that I had was not optimized for Windows XP. Once I downloaded the new XP updated drivers, it worked like a dream. With the research I went through, I would be willing to go out on a limb and say it might be your graphics card.

I know when I tried updating my graphics card also a while back, it was quite the feat. If you have your old graphics card that used to work, you might try using that one while installing XP. Once you get XP installed (if it helps using old Video card), then get the latest XP compatible drivers for your card, then install your new card. It seems to me that XP might be more compatible with your old card, until you get the latest updates for your newer card. I am no where near a computer expert, but this seems very similar to what I went through, so it may be worth a shot.

Also where you typed in "technical info : STOP and a whole bunch of error codes.", you might try typing all those #'s into google search and it should help narrow down the problem.


Edit: One of these days i'll learn to type faster!lol. It looks like you may already have the problem solved. Good luck, and I hope all goes well.

ok well the last install failed again!! aaagh!

i tried installing it with windows ME and then installing XP pro over it but that failed again and it just refuses to work

have also tried install Xp with a different graphics card - the one that worked before and again that failed so it seems to be definetely the hard drive that is the problem since that is the only new hardware on the system and i am only installing Xp with with graphics card, hard disk, floppy and DVD drive to try and get it working.

i am completely stuck so i think i'll just contact maxtor tomorrow and see what they say and hopefully the problem will get solved.

thanks again for all the help guys.