XP Upgrade Problems

[Tainamom]

Hi again,

I received my XP OEM disc about 2-3 days ago - can't remember now, doesn't matter anyway.

I've been trying to do a clean install on my 4 y/o 40gb samsung master drive and I came up w/ a

fatal error installing
can't install (can't remember the file name)
cyclic redundancy error - clean disc or use another disc yada yada yada

So I went to the library for a lousy 30 mins. - like that's enough time to do a good research on this WinXP problem - to get some info. I did what it told me to do, which was to keep pressing OK several times then installed it and got nothing but the same error. I checked the cables for tightness and I even changed the cables and partitioned/formatted/reinstalled - nothing. I checked the jumpers and found extra jumpers on the Samsung, so I pulled it out and left it as a master drive, partitioned, formatted and reinstalled - same problem. Then I decided to clean out my new Seagate 120gb drive and make it a master drive, partitioned, formatted, and reinstalled - same problem. I unplugged my Samsung and left the Seagate alone - mind you, this drive is only about 2 weeks old - I ran the whole process again and still kept getting the same error after trying countlessly to install. Then I switched my cd-rom/dvd and my cd burner - just in case it's my cd-rom that's not working properly and I still had the problem. I rehooked my Samsung and made it back into a master drive and made my Seagate to a slave drive. I reinstalled my original WinME, the drivers, and my internet program and I have no problems - except I didn't install my Seagate. Obviously, it's not my harddrive, cd rom, cable.

Micron Millennia PC - 386 mb ram - pny 2100 256mb and orig 128mb, gigabyte 7dx v1, samsung 40gb hdd, seagate 120 gb hdd (brand new), ocz 450 psu (brand new), nvidia geforce 420 vid card and a few unimportant stuff.

Whew! Sorry to be so long winded. Anyway, I think it's the disc that needs replacing. Any other ideas as I'm ready to call to rma this #$@#@ disc.

Ann

[ktkendall]

You know, I would have to agree with you since you have already pretty much thought of everything else, the XP cdrom itself must be bad>> Where did you purchase it?? You do have to watch some of those although advertised as OEM they are not always valid copies....

[Confused]

XP can be picky about RAM, expecially during install.

Try the install with one stick and if that doesn't work try the other. If you get a clean install you will probably be able to put the remaining stick of RAM in without problems.
Chas

[Tainamom]

I even left the computer off overnight to clear out the RAM as was suggested on the board - still the same problem.

I purchased this from ZipZoomFly, so I'm not worried about buying from a bad vendor as they're pretty good from what I read on this board.

It did keep saying to use a different disc or to clean to the disc, so eventually I swapped the optical drives and I still had the problem.

I ran the seagate diagnostics and it failed whenever I put the xp and formatted as ntfs??, but passed when I put WinME back and formatted as fat32. It's probably because the diagnostics won't work on ntfs. The ram worked fine and so did the cables.

The Seagate is plugged in, but I'm going to leave the Seagate as a non-working drive until I could get the xp working.

I don't know if the computer will work w/ just one stick of memory, but now that I got it running, I'm going to get as much info from this board before I go through this crazy process again. I really don't have much time to RMA a product, so I don't want to hold this up and find that I've wasted money on a bad disc.

Thanks again for all your help.

Ann

[rjfvillarosa]

It does sound like a bad disk, at what point does the install fail? does it actually start the set up?

[Tainamom]

I'm able to partition and format, but after it reboots it's trying to setup for installation. Sometime at that point it fails to install a certain file and gives the data cyclic error and says to clean disc or change disc. BTW, I never get to the point where it installs XP, just to the point to set up for installation.

From what I read on this board and on the MS website they had several suggestions:

keep pressing ok to restart
check cables
change cables
switch drives
use a new drive
memory (the only thing I didn't do other than to leave the comp turned off for many hours to clear out mem)

None of these things worked for me.

Thanks.

Ann

[ktkendall]

Have you cleaned the disk???

[rjfvillarosa]

Do you know any one with an XP CD that you can do a quick install with just to see if your new CD is faulty? you don't need to install all the way just see if it gets past the point it is stopping at now. If you have access to another machine try putting your new CD in and see if it comes up with the GUI.

[Tainamom]

I know no one w/ an xp retail/oem disc. I could borrow a Dell/Gateway disc, but I don't want to mess w/ those.

[rjfvillarosa]

Originally Posted by Tainamom I know no one w/ an xp retail/oem disc. I could borrow a Dell/Gateway disc, but I don't want to mess w/ those.

Leave the Dell/Gateway disk well alone, if you can put your disk into another machine and see if it loads up the GUI, the GUI will give you the option to do other tasks, once it loads and displays the GUI just quit, this will only prove some of the disk is working not all of it, but if it doesn't load the GUI then you can RMA it with no problems.

[Tainamom]

What is GUI?

[rjfvillarosa]

Graphic User Interface........the little welcome window that pops up when ever you open a program or insert a CD or whatever, it,s the bit that you get involved with when you are loading something, its just quicker than typing "popup window" or "welcome screen" or "new window".

[Tainamom]

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;811150

With the exception of chkdsk /r or /f, I did all of these things and nothing.

I did see a window pop up w/ the welcome ad and lots of other xp hints info. It had screens worth of information and I've even gotten close to the end where it said "Thank you" but my comp always got the data cyclic error/redundancy error. I ran recovery many times w/o success on two different drives - one old and one new. I had absolutely no problems w/ ME when I installed it.

Should I install using FAT32 instead of NTFS(not sure if I have the proper acronym)?

[rjfvillarosa]

There are two ways I would go with this now:
It is highly unlikely that your system is so old as to not recognize the NTFS file system used by Windows NT/XP but going with the FAT32 is worth a try just to be sure.
Second, out of curiosity why not install ME and do an XP upgrade just to see if that will install from that disk?
I am begining to think this is all academic and you have a bad disk, if you have it will be the first one I have ever known of, I have heard of people having bad disk's but out of dozens and dozens of XP installs I have done I have never seen one.

[Tainamom]

OK. I tried to run the upgrade from ME w/o success. I left it on for more than 2 hours and when I pressed esc, I saw a window that said that it couldn't install gdiplus.dll or gpiplus.dll onto my hard drive. It said that there was something wrong with my device. I'll research it on ms website or try to reinstall it but I'll ask to skip the file and see what happens.

[rjfvillarosa]

According to Microsoft gdiplus.dll contains libraries for the GDI graphics interface and gpiplus.dll didn't return any results.
Did you run a compatibility test with the XP CD before you tried to install?

[Tainamom]

I just remembered, according to the compatibility test, my graphics card will have problems. Dang it! I'm going to download the new drivers, run the compatibility test again and try to reinstall XP. In the meantime, I'm going to research this gdi thing. I don't understand if it's the graphics card or the chip on the mobo. I could use another graphics card so that I can play Tribes Vengeneance.

[rjfvillarosa]

What graphics card is it? downloading the latest drivers will not help matters, the drivers will not be there on a fresh install so that won't help and the XP drivers will not run in ME so the correct drivers will not be there for an upgrade.

[Tainamom]

I'm back again. I got my new video card - a sapphire radeon 9600 atlantis. I didn't want to spend hundreds on a new card. I removed the old card and the drivers from the computer. I tried to do an upgrade instead of a clean install. I used two different cd drives and tried a few times on both drives and I still got the same problem. The disk drive will open and say that I have to clean the disc and when I press esc to cancel, it will say that it can't copy gdiplus.dll.

Any ideas? I'm ready to rma this puppy. I'm tired of trying w/o any success

2001 MicronPC Millenia computer
gigabyte 7dx ver 1
samsung 40gb hdd
seagate 120 gb hdd new
new modem
amd 1.0 athlon thunderbird
384 mg ram
sapphire radeon 9600 atlantis

Thanks.

Ann

[glc]

Have you checked with MicronPC or Gigabyte for a possible bios update? I've seen where older machines won't accept XP without one.

[Tainamom]

I did add the last bios update for that board.

I'm going to try it on my brother's computer. If it works, then I'll just get a new mobo, cpu, fan and ram.

Thanks.

Ann

[Tainamom]

GLC, I think you hit it on the nail. I just went back again to look for new bios drivers from Micron's website and I found none referring to Win XP. I then went into Gigabyte's website, but the board they had was a revision of the one I have and it says nothing about supporting WinXP. I know Gigabyte does sell mobos that do support XP, but these don't say so on the website.

I'm going to have to order a new mobo, but I might as well make another system and have my old comp as a backup. I done practically bought every other piece - psu (still have old one), 2nd hdd, vid card (still have old one), WinXP (still have WinME). All I need is a mobo, cpu, fan, ram and case. I threw out my old modem (shucks). I'll leave my ethernet card in my old comp. I won't need it. I'm going to stick w/ socket A since it's cheap now. Consumers don't have much of an interest in the 754's and the 939's - which are going to be the hottest socket in the future- are expensive. If I liked the cases, I'd go for a bare bones system.

It's too bad I'm learning the hard way. Newegg and Monarch have some pretty nice systems for less than what I'm paying for on a piece by piece basis.

I just couldn't figure this out. I was slowly coming to the conclusion that it must be the mobo after I replaced my video card w/o successfully installing WinXP.

I'm still going to try it on my new hdd in my brother's comp to make sure that it's not the disc. I don't want to find out that I lost my chance to replace a defective disc.

Thank again for your help.

Ann

[glc]

If your CD is XP *Pro* with a COA, you can legally "borrow" a Win2000 Pro CD and install it - but you then cannot legally use the XP CD on another computer. I'd try this before putting ME back on it. There will be no licensing or activation hassles doing this, 2000 doesn't use product activation. If that Micron came with ME, it should also be 2000-compatible.

[Tainamom]

Interesting news.

I'm at my brother's place. I still couldn't load my new xp onto the seagate hd. His mobo DOES accept xp. I had the same problems as b4. He then gave me an old unused retail ver. of xp and it installed w/o any problems. I'm going to take my hd home and try to boot it off my computer. If it boots and works, then that means my mobo will accept xp. Then I'm going to reinstall that xp onto that hdd that works. If it reinstalls, then I'm absolutely sure that my disc doesn't work and needs to be replaced.

Ann

[Tainamom]

Well the Seagate wouldn't boot in my computer, but I was able to install WinXP svc pk1 onto my computer. It worked wonderfully. I just called this morning to RMA my WinXP svc2 disc. I also reformatted my drive to put my old WinME because the WinXP svc1 is my brothers - although he did say I could keep it, he might just need it one day. Currently, my system w/ the ME is running badly, but I'll wait it out.

Thanks for all your input.

Ann

[rjfvillarosa]

If your CD is faulty it will be the first I have ever actually known of, let us know how you get on.

[Tainamom]

I'll let you know about the CD. I tried to install my XP Home svc2 disc onto a brand new hard drive using a Gateway computer that happens to have XP on the original drive w/o any success. All I did was unplug the Gateway drive and plugged mine in. I was able to load up an unused retail - not Gateway - version of WinXP Home svc 1 w/ no problems on both the new hard drive (when it was plugged to the Gateway) and on MY Micron computer.

I didn't want to buy Win2000 or Win2000 Pro. I'm back on WinME and what a pain in the... That XP was great while it lasted. The new hdd is back on my computer, but I haven't reformatted it. It could wait until I get the XP disc replacement. I'll have to reinstall everything - for like the 4th time.

Ann