Problem with WinXP install

ApexMirage

I've formatted my laptop and I'm trying to reinstall XP.
A few moments after the install starts, the machine just shuts down as if someone hard yanked the power cord and there was no battery present. The cable is intact and the battery is charged.

The machine came with Vista but one of the reasons I formated to begin with was to get rid of all the bloatware that comes with the recovery partition and to attempt to improve gaming performance through the OS switch.

What could possibly be causing this? Somekind of manufacturer's safeguard against XP? Bad HD? Halp D=

OremLK

Sounds more like a hardware failure to me. The likeliest culprits are usually your memory and your power supply.

ApexMirage

It was working just fine earlier today =/

It's an HP compaq presario cq50 106ca btw

OremLK

Could be a coincidence? I have no idea what (in software) could cause it to crash halfway through.

Maybe the install disc is messed up? That doesn't make much sense to me either though, because whenever I tried to install XP off a busted disc before it just had errors copying the files, it didn't hard reboot.

ApexMirage

It's not halfway through, its pretty much on the first screen before it even asks me for the key or anything else. and it's not rebooting, its shutting down entirely. Disc is also fine.

OremLK

Yeah, that's really strange. I would almost bet money it's a hardware problem, but maybe someone else knows something I don't.

illig

this is a long shot, but i know that an XP install will fail if you're installing it on a machine with a SATA hard drive or optical drive... (if your laptop came with Vista, I'd bet you have one or both)

XP doesn't have drivers for SATA devices, so it gets partway through the install, and then can't find the disks so it fails

to me, this usually manifests itself as an XP error or BSOD... but your laptop could be automatically rebooting on error (again, long shot)

so my story is basically a long winded way of asking: did you load the SATA drivers as needed? either via floppy ( ) or via slipstreaming them into the install CD?

<edit> basically, if it works fine with Vista (i.e. you can install Vista again w/out problems), then it's likely a software/driver issue, and not a hardware problem

brandotheninjamaster

How hot is your laptop running? It may need to be cleaned out because those things can generate tons of heat (especially during a reinstall).

ApexMirage

After some googling this thing just doesent seem to be made to support XP. Even if I manage to install XP the search for drivers wont be worth the hassle... I guess I'll go find a vista cd =(

OremLK

illig wrote: »

this is a long shot, but i know that an XP install will fail if you're installing it on a machine with a SATA hard drive or optical drive... (if your laptop came with Vista, I'd bet you have one or both)

XP doesn't have drivers for SATA devices, so it gets partway through the install, and then can't find the disks so it fails

to me, this usually manifests itself as an XP error or BSOD... but your laptop could be automatically rebooting on error (again, long shot)

so my story is basically a long winded way of asking: did you load the SATA drivers as needed? either via floppy ( ) or via slipstreaming them into the install CD?

<edit> basically, if it works fine with Vista (i.e. you can install Vista again w/out problems), then it's likely a software/driver issue, and not a hardware problem

What? I've installed XP many times on SATA drives. This can't be true.

MoSiAc

Newer versions of the XP Install do come with SATA drivers if you watch the bottom of the screen you usually have to turn them on.

UncleSporky

OremLK wrote: »

illig wrote: »

this is a long shot, but i know that an XP install will fail if you're installing it on a machine with a SATA hard drive or optical drive... (if your laptop came with Vista, I'd bet you have one or both)

XP doesn't have drivers for SATA devices, so it gets partway through the install, and then can't find the disks so it fails

to me, this usually manifests itself as an XP error or BSOD... but your laptop could be automatically rebooting on error (again, long shot)

so my story is basically a long winded way of asking: did you load the SATA drivers as needed? either via floppy ( ) or via slipstreaming them into the install CD?

<edit> basically, if it works fine with Vista (i.e. you can install Vista again w/out problems), then it's likely a software/driver issue, and not a hardware problem

What? I've installed XP many times on SATA drives. This can't be true.

Seconded, my new computer (made from PA's computer thread) is SATA and I installed XP just fine. Now, I could understand it if the problem is installing pure XP and not a newer SP1/SP2 disc.

EDIT: I didn't have to turn anything on either, it just worked.

My recommendation is to try to find anybody who has an XP install disc and see if any XP disc will get past that point without crashing. Local computer stores might humor you, since all you want to do is get past that initial part.

OremLK

Yeah, I guess that would be for older versions of XP? My disc is SP2 and I don't have to do anything special to get it to work with SATA drives. It just does.

ApexMirage

this disc is SP2 also

Ruckus

The original XP discs didn't have native SATA support (only via the additional drivers/F6 floppy option). Unfortunately, the sata support in XP SP1 and higher is limited, and I've noticed many newer laptops (especially from HP) seem to have chipsets that don't work with the XP native sata driver.

The only option I know of would be to find SATA drivers for that chipset, learn how to make a driver disk, and get a USB floppy drive to load the drives (via the F6 option during the windows install).

illig

ApexMirage wrote: »

After some googling this thing just doesent seem to be made to support XP. Even if I manage to install XP the search for drivers wont be worth the hassle... I guess I'll go find a vista cd =(

ehh.. it's actually pretty easy

1. Find Drivers:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=816&DwnldID=16023&strOSs=44&OSFullName=Windows*%20XP%20Professional&lang=eng

2. Slipstream said drivers into XP using nLite:
http://maxeasyguide.blogspot.com/2008/04/preparations-for-winxp-installation-cd.html

3. Install XP

illig

OremLK wrote: »

What? I've installed XP many times on SATA drives. This can't be true.

should've specified... XP doesn't come with AHCI/RAID sata drivers... unless you use some custom version from a vendor that has those specific drivers included, you'll get a BSOD during install

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface

you can get around it by setting the SATA drive to IDE compatibility mode in BIOS, but that limits performance AFAIK