Win XP Install Nightmare

[DuffMan]

Hi, I'm trying to instal XP pro over my old windows 98. However on both clean and upgrade installation attempts I am confronted with a blue screen that states rather long windedly that I have problems with new hardware or software. The error messeage itself is that windows has been shut down to prevent damage along with the message 'Bad_Config_Sys_Info'
I ran the compatibility checker on windows 98 and all the hardware that shows up on the 'might not work' list i have disabled but I am still confronted with the message.
It says also to diable things like BIOS shadowing and caching. I am hesitant to do this as I dont even know what that is. Does anyone know why XP is having such a hard time installing on my system? Its home built so no manufacturer to run to!

[mike breck]

What are your system specs?

Not many people recommend an upgrade install of XP. The best process is to start XP setup, delete existing partitions, create a new partition (or partitions), format the partition(s) using FAT32 or NTFS, and then continue with the XP installation.

Are you able to re-partition and format - or can you not even get as far as that?

BIOS shadowing and caching are legacy throwbacks; so it will do no harm to disable items such as:

Video Bios Shadow - Disable
Video Bios Cacheable - Disable
System Bios Cacheable - Disable
C8000 xxxxx Shadow - Disable if exist
Peer Concurrency PCI Streaming - Disable
Assign IRQ To VGA - Enable
VGA Palette Snoop - Disabled

Users normally have to do this to reduce conflicts and get the best performance with Video card anyway.

Also, make sure that any Anti-Virus settings in the BIOS are disabled when installing Windows.


If you still have problems even after doing all this, then try installing XP with minimal hardware i.e. CPU, motherboard, Ram, Video Card, Power Supply, CD-Rom, Hard Drive.

You can always add other components after XP is sucessfully installed and deal with any incompatiblity problems one-at-a-time.

Are any of your basic components in the incompatibity list?

[morriswindgate]

How much RAM do you have? If you have more than one stick, remove one of them, but make sure you have at least 128MB installed. The XP setup seems to be reall finicky about RAM quality.

[DuffMan]

Ok firstly thanks for your reply. looks like im going to need all the help i can get on this one.
I have included my specs as my quote on the first post. Other than those specs the only other hardware on the system is a Galaxy TV tuner PCI (disabled) and MS (memory stick) support on the mobo itself (also disabled).

As for all those Shadowing caching options i could find none of them on my BIOS setup.
As far as reformatting and repartitioning goes i can achieve this with my windows 98 setup floppy yes?
I recently reformatted and reinstalled win98 to use the upgrade feature to win xp pro.

The incompatibility report only listed two basic items in the report. These were the USB 2.0 controller (which i disabled) and the Memory Stick support (disabled). (these are both on the mobo itself)

Short of taking out the tuner card and smashing parts off my motherboard i cant think what else to do to resolve this error

My memory is all in one bank

[Confused]

That system should have no problem with XP unless it is a memory problem. XP as Morris pointed out is finicky about RAM.

Try to do a clean install with only your RAM, video card, HD, and CD drive installed. Remove any modems, NIC's, DVD's ect.

If you then get a good install you can add them back.

I personally would not try a upgrade but a clean install.
Chas

[morriswindgate]

The USB controller will not cause a problem and to add support you will install service pack 1 which adds USB2.0 support to XP. Until then you will have it showing in the device manager.
As to the Memory stick reader, unplug it until you finish the install. I have seen thigs like this cause problems.
Also don't go into your BIOS and start changing things based on the stop error blue screen, to date I have seen none of these do anything to correct the problem and you risk forgetting what you changed.

[DuffMan]

OK disk formatted and partitioned, how do i do a clean install without loading windows 98 first? I tried loading up the computer with CD-ROM support and typing D:/setup but the XP disc informs me that it cant be run in DOS.


There isnt actually a memory stick reader device.. not that I know of anyway. But every time i setup my computer i have to instal drivers for the device. I guess its just installing support for the MS device port on the mobo.

[morriswindgate]

You set the boot order in the BIOS to boot from the CD first, HD-O 2nd. Leave the XP CD in the Drive and restart the computer, enter setup and do the boot order change, save changes and it will start setup from the CD. There is a way to do this from DOS, but it takes a while to explain.

[mike breck]

Read this Walkthro

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winx...d/indexemu.htm

[DuffMan]

The XP CD wont boot the computer instead I get 'invalid system disk' is there a floppy I could make to do the job.

My BIOS is setup to search the CD-ROM I can only think that my CD is faulty if it wont Boot like its supposed to.

[morriswindgate]

Se Your PM

[DuffMan]

and we're back to square one. Thanks everyone I managed to get it to run the install after a fresh format and partition of my hard drive however on the second part of the setup i was again confronted with the bad_config_sys_info message which leads me to believe some of my basic equipment is refusing to work with XP.

After all that im giving up and returning to trusty old 98SE which I like better anyway. The way I see it the problems i'll run into trying to network computers with XP to mine with 98 will be far less than the problems im having trying to install XP.

You'll no doubt here from me soon when i try out my network.
Thanks for all your advice.
Duff