Help me

[vicki lynne]

I don't know for sure whether this should go here or under the windows place but it started with the hard drive so I'm putting it here. I have a Dell Dimension XPS on my desk that was supposed to be a simple upgrade to a larger hdd. I installed the new hdd, went into bios to make sure it was reading then put the win xp cd in and told it to boot from the cd-rom to install windows. It went through the program said everything went fine, rebooted, completed post, gave me the flying windows splash screen, went to a blue screen, gave me a mouse cursor, then locked up. Will not go any farther.
This Dell has a Pent III processor and A11 bios and 256 mb ram.
Is this me, the hdd, the mobo???? I'm I justified in wanting to drop kick the tower across the yard??? Or is there something I'm doing wrong? Help please.:confused:

[vicki lynne]

Oh yeah, almost forgot, when I got frustrated and decided to just reinstall the old hdd it did the same thing. I can't get anything to boot in it now.

[Paul Komski]

Can you start up in Safe Mode?

[kiosk]

1) Reseat every component plugged into the mainboard.

2) I suppose your new disk drive is PATA type and over 32GB. BIOSes in PIII era generally had issues accessing drives over 32GB in size, and some chipsets were limited to 128GB (both of which would have caused erratic behavior of your computer).

[vicki lynne]

Nope , can't start up in safe mode either. I had installed a new floppy drive just before installing the hdd. When I unhooked it then started over I got a little farther. Right past where it locked up before I got the screen that said starting windows and then the one where it finishes installing windows. It ran for a few minutes then I got a screen pop up that said.Fatal Error: An error has been encountered a component could not be installed that allows setup to continue.Incorrect Function. Press OK to view log file. So I pressed OK and got Error: SXS.DLL: Syntax Error in manifest or folicy file "E:\I386\asms\10\MSFT\WINDOWS\GDIPLUS\GDIPLUS.MAN" on line 4.
Error: Install failed:E\I386|asms. Error Message: Incorrect Function.
Fatal Error:One of the components Windows needs to continue set up could not be installed.
The hdd I tried to install was only a 20 gb drive.

[Sylvander]

1. "rebooted, completed post, gave me the flying windows splash screen, went to a blue screen, gave me a mouse cursor, then locked up. Will not go any farther"
Sounds like that classic OLD Windows [since 95] problem as follows:
There is an item of hardware connected that didn't exist when the Windows OS was designed/made, so no driver is included in the Windows CAB files for that item.
Hence, when Windows reboots to intialize the items of hardware for the 1st time it hits the initialization of this hardware item and freezes.

I don't know if it's still the same nowadays, but back then [with Win95] you were expected to switch off, switch back on, and continue by booting Windows.
Windows would read a certain file that told it which item of hardware was causing the difficulty, and would auto-skip the initialization of that item and continue attempting to initialize the remainder.
The item would then be displayed as having a problem in Device Manager, once into Windows.

You are expected to repeat [the switch off, and back on] for each problem item.
Or else you can disconnect all unnecessary/suspect/risky hardware, so Windows will have no potential for problems with them, then later connect them one at a time, booting Windows after connecting each.

[mjc]

Typical causes for that error are a corrupt install. It can be due to a bad hard drive, bad RAM or bad CD...

Try reformatting the hard drive with the /u.

Run MemTest (http://www.memtest.org/) (grab the bootable CD ISO) to test the RAM.

Check the CD in another machine.

[vicki lynne]

But remember, I'm trying to boot from the cd so I can't disconnect the cd-rom drive. But I did disconnect the floppy and got a little farther so I'll disconnect the dvd-rom, and unplug and replug everything connected to the mobo and try to boot again. See what happens. Back in a minute.

[vicki lynne]

HDD is known good as is ram both have been tested with Maxtor Install CD and memtest. And before we started the cd-rom drive was working and reading and everything , could it just have gone bad for some reason?

[vicki lynne]

That's it ! Frustration ceiling has been reached !! I went and did all my unhooking and rehooking, hit the power switch and got ... nothing. So I have to go all the way across town for another power supply so, anyway, I'll be back. :mad:

[vicki lynne]

I got power again. Disconnected everything but the cd-rom and hdd. Tested the memory with memtest and it said no errors. Tested the hdd with maxtor hdd diagnostic, said drive was good. Tested the cd itself in another tower and it worked fine. Going to try one more time from the beginning then I'm lost.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

For curiosity sake, what brand of hard drive and how do you have the jumpers set? Try it as Master and then try it as Cable Select if there is only one HDD in the PC. One of those ways should allow you to read from the drive if it tests fine.

I`ve seen when the jumpers are not on the correct pins where Windows will install (the drive can be written >to) but will not read (<from) the hard drive. Windows will go all the way installing but when it comes time to boot from the drive it puts up an error.

You may need to wipe and reinstall if this is the case but there is the possibility also that you won`t.

I assume the BIOS sees the drive correctly in setup and also on the splash screen prior to Window`s attempt to boot?

[vicki lynne]

It is a 20gb Western Digital HDD and the jumpers were set as a master. I tried it as cable select and got the same error message. I'm thinking either cd-rom or the cd itself. Maybe it has a scratch I'm not seeing??? Oh, and yes bios can see the drive as it is. And yes on the splash screen as Window's attempts to boot.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Another suggestion:
If the CD can be seen on another computer, make a copy (may need to be an ISO) of it and try the copy in the computer with the problems. Sometimes one CD-ROM reads well and another does not if the disk is scratched.

I had that happen with a Toshiba laptop.

[Sylvander]

Did you observe the rather specialized Western Digital jumper settings for Master with/without slave?

[Fruss Tray Ted]

I'm I justified in wanting to drop kick the tower across the yard???
I think your mobo is scared of you.. It`s not 4th down yet. ;)

Do you get the same error at repeat attempts to boot? Have you considered replacing the button cell? CR2032 IIRC and then setting BIOS as needed after replacement?

A barebones boot may be advisable also if there is some removable hardware that Windows isn`t pleased with as it boots up.

[Paul Komski]

"went to a blue screen"
"yes on the splash screen as Window's attempts to boot"

... both emanate from Windows so I doubt if anything needs to be done in the BIOS setup (other than maybe setting failsafe defaults) or in getting the hard drive recognised. That said, inappropriate support for hardware is still a possibility and was one of the reasons behind suggesting SafeMode earlier on.

Suggest starting over with a wiped drive (or at least one that has had all its partitions deleted) but, probably more importantly, use the most pristine and original installation CD that you can lay your hands on. CD's (particularly DIY copies) are never as reliable as original pressed retail CDs.