looping when installing xp

[hobey19]

alright, i was finally able to get this gateway laptop to boot from the cd and it got in and formatted just fine and then i got to the restart, and it started the process all over again with inspecting and then going to format, it does not want to move onto that next step. anyone have any idea why it could be doing this?

gateway solo 5300
10gb hard drive
128mb ram
brand new xp pro disk

thanks in advance
craig

[andyms18a]

when it reboots remove the cd till affter it loads from the hdd then put the cd back in

[hobey19]

ok. i will try that and post back. can't believe i didn't think of something so simple

thanks
craig

[hobey19]

nope, did not work, upon rebooting i get this error message and it hangs:

Intel(R) Boot Agent Version 4.0.19
Copyright (C) 1997-2001, Intel Corporation
PXE-E61: Media Test Failure, Test Cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM.
Operating System not found

i am about to give up on this laptop and tell the kid to take it somewhere else. it has caused nothing but headache, but if anyone has any ideas, it would be much appreciated

thanks
craig

[Blakhart]

Is the bios set to be able to boot from the hdd? Set to boot from "other devices"? Turn off pxe in bios so it ignores network booting, unless you want pxe, this will reduce boot time.

[hobey19]

hate to tell you this, but since it will explain the problem a bit better, i am going to. there is a bios password and i do not know it, so i cannot change the settings. he bought it from a second hand computer shop that will not stand behind their products, and for some reason they did not do anything about the passwords. now, i am not asking for the bios password, nor do i want to have the moderators close this, but i understand perfectly that this must be closed based upon bypassing security features. i thank everyone for the help they have given, and if for some reason this is not closed and anyone has any ideas on how to do it legally it would be much appreciated. by the way, the current boot order is:

floppy
hard drive
dvd-rom

the dvd-rom and floppy are hot-swappable, and the hard drive is removable, which i found quite unique and cool. once again, thanks for the help

craig

[andyms18a]

just coyped this from the gateway site for your notebook

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I access the Boot menu options on my portable computer?

A:
In order to access the boot options on this portable computer, press the ESC key while the Gateway screen is displayed during the startup process. This opens a Boot menu with the option to start the computer to any of the available drives or to enter the BIOS Setup Utility. Use the UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW keys to select a menu option, and then press the ENTER key to start to the selected device. The graphic is an example of a Boot menu. There may be additional options available depending on the portable computer.

as for the password google is a good place to start

[andyms18a]

if that dont work remove the hdd and find the make and get the hdd diag software from its web site and test the drive

[hobey19]

just thought of something, how hard is a network boot, because it has that option.

another question, after it is through formatting and restarts do i want to hit escape and then boot from hard drive?

thanks, esc worked perfectly for the cd-boot.

craig

[andyms18a]

have you partitiond the drive ? you may nead to partition the drive first using the xp disk deleat the current partition then make a new one and format to ntfs when it finishes copying files reboot and hit esc to boot from the hdd

[hobey19]

ok, that is what i thought, just wanted to make sure. i have deleted the old partition and made and fromatted the new one, it is restarting now, so we will see if i can get it to boot from the hard drive

thanks
craig

[hobey19]

andyms, you sir are a genius and i am very grateful for your advice. worked like a charm. now, will i have to do that every time it restarts, or am i okay now that it is in the gui porition of the install.

thank you very much for the help

craig

[andyms18a]

if the bios is set first boot to cd then you have to do it every time it starts till you can remove the cd from the drive

[hobey19]

ok. guess i will just sit here with it, got nothing better to do on a sunday night. once again, i thank you

craig

[Blakhart]

gj

[andyms18a]

glad to help
i am going to bed as its 1am in the uk and i start work at 8 i will check back tomorow night to make shore your ok

[hobey19]

yeah, i am good from here, and have fun at work tomorrow.

craig