Windows ME installation errors...desperate for help!!!

[jpslash]

A friend of mine messed up their dell dimension 2100 desktop pc, and Ive spent the past couple of days trying to fix it. When the pc was turned on the dell bios would boot up and as soon as the OS would start, the computer would imediately restart. There was nothing that I knew to do besides try to reformat.

I tryed a few things and then just ended up deleting all partitions and starting over with a new one. All other steps after worked fine accept scandisk had to fix a few errors. I get all the way to the Win ME installation wizard and shortly after the files begin to copy I get this error window that says:

Application Error

SUWIN caused a general protection Fault in module KRNL386.EXE at
0001:4DE7

I searched this forum and read that most SUWIN errors were usually caused from bad ram. The pc has 2 128MB chips, therefore I tryed them both individually to see if one of them may be bad or something. Both gave me a different error at the same place of the OS installment. One error said:

System Error

Divide by Zero or Overflow error

and the other error said:

Application Error
W9XSETUP caused segment Load Failure in module GDI.EXE at 0005:020F

Could both chips be bad? Ive messed and messed with this and I just dont seem to get anywhere with it. I dont know what the hell to do now. Any help would be much appreicated...

[glc]

Test the ram with memtest86+ (www.memtest.org). Yes, they could both be bad. You could also have bad sectors on your hard drive, test that with the hard drive manufacturer's free downloadable diagnostics.

[jpslash]

Thanks for the help! The pc has some kind of Dell drivers and diagnostics disc that I tryed out. It claimed the system memory was fine, but my hard drive had errors. It said: IDE device failed: A possible failure is predicted by the drives S.M.A.R.T. status.

I also tryed to use that Memtest86+. I went to the site and downloaded a bootable iso, and then burned it to a cd. I never could get the cd to boot. Perhaps I done something wrong, I really dont know.

What should I do now?

Thanks...

[jpslash]

Does anyone know how I can fix this hard drive? I hate to rush anyone, but my friend is really wanting their computer back asap. Thanks in advance...

[flanzig1]

To boot from the CD, you need to go into the BIOS and change the boot order to CD-ROM to first boot device.

[jpslash]

Yeah, I already did all of that. I dont think its the memory causing the problem, but Ill mess with the memtest just to make sure. The diagnostics that I ran said that my hard drive had errors. How can I fix these errors?

[EzyStvy]

IDE device failed: A possible failure is predicted by the drives S.M.A.R.T. status

Need to replace the drive as soon as possible.

[glc]

You can't fix hard drives that have errors like that, you can only replace them. If the Dell memory diags are okay, no need to run memtest86+. For your info, to burn a bootable iso, you don't just copy the iso to the CD, you use the image burning feature in your burning software and open the iso as an image, then burn it. You need Nero or Roxio (or other real burning software) to do this, you can't use the builtin WinXP burning facility.

[RevCLB]

Originally Posted by glc You can't fix hard drives that have errors like that, you can only replace them. If the Dell memory diags are okay, no need to run memtest86+. For your info, to burn a bootable iso, you don't just copy the iso to the CD, you use the image burning feature in your burning software and open the iso as an image, then burn it. You need Nero or Roxio (or other real burning software) to do this, you can't use the builtin WinXP burning facility.

Thanks glc, think this explains why none of my backup cd's worked.

[jpslash]

I used Alcohol 120% to burn the iso, it should have worked. Ive burned a bunch of isos and the like, but not for this purpose.

As for the hard drive, there is no fixing it eh? I was hoping you wouldnt tell me that. Oh well, I guess it was about time for a new hard drive anyway.

Thanks a bunch everyone, youve been very helpful...