mikejd1 Posted February 12, 2002 Share Posted February 12, 2002 Ok, someone has to know the answer to this. I have someone?s machine, running a P3 600 with 384 RAM. This is a PC this person built. Now, Windows 98 installs fine on this machine. But when I try to run an XP install, both Home and Pro, the install crashes and I keep receiving a blue screen. Most of the time, it crashes with fastfat.sys causing a problem, and sometimes it doesn't give an error, just the blue screen and please reboot. This happens on an upgrade and a clean install. I have tried everything folks, can someone please help me get XP running on this machine??? If I am lacking information, please let me know and I will try to answer as best as possible. Thanks gang! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kieran Posted February 13, 2002 Share Posted February 13, 2002 It sounds to me that you are trying to install dodgy versions of XP from the net as I would doubt that you would go out and buy both home and pro to install on this machine. If this is the case then it sounds like bad downloads, but you shouldnt be doing this anyway! I and most people here will have no sympothy for you if you arnt paying for your software! If I am wrong about this, accept my appology! It sounds like the file is liked to the FAT filesystem to me. Have you tried formatting the hard disk as NTFS? I would try this and see if you still have problems! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejd1 Posted February 13, 2002 Author Share Posted February 13, 2002 1. MSDN Home and Pro. Legal copies. 2. I tried the NTFS piece. Still crash. 3. I accept your apology for your assumption. 4. Any other ideas? Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kieran Posted February 13, 2002 Share Posted February 13, 2002 That is a strange error. As it happened through both upgrade and clean install AND both filesystems I have to assume that it is a hardware conflict/problem. I know a lot of people that have had memory issues when installing XP.. You could try disconnecting all drives except the HD and the CD rom (put them on different IDE channels too). Also take all RAM out except one simm and take out all other unncesarry hardware (modems, tv cards..). Try the install again. If it fails, swap the ram simm for one of the others. If still a fail after that, give up and install '98! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejd1 Posted February 13, 2002 Author Share Posted February 13, 2002 i'm going to try that, THANK YOU! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejd1 Posted February 13, 2002 Author Share Posted February 13, 2002 ok, this is the error i got now... Windows Could not start because of the folling ARC firmware boot configuration problem : did not properly generate ARC name for HAL and system paths. ANY IDEAS??? mIke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cYpHeR- Posted February 13, 2002 Share Posted February 13, 2002 Well, get the firmware updates for whatever is causing the error, and download the dll's for that specific piece of hardware and install them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejd1 Posted February 13, 2002 Author Share Posted February 13, 2002 how do i know what firmware i need? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejd1 Posted February 13, 2002 Author Share Posted February 13, 2002 and how do i install the firmware when i cant get the OS to work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linglok Posted February 13, 2002 Share Posted February 13, 2002 i think unless some special circumstances, most firmware upgrades are done in pure dos, so u only need a dos boot disk and the firmware files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CustardFD Posted February 13, 2002 Share Posted February 13, 2002 well, on a minimal setup your display card, mobo, hard drive and a CD-RW may be updatabale with firmware. It is very rare for a hard drive to have new firmware releaced for it, CD-RWs don't normally need it. Therefore, try flashing your latest BIOS and display card firmware if there is a newer version avalible. Look on the manufacturers website for individual firmware updates and instructions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malechai Veteran Posted February 13, 2002 Veteran Share Posted February 13, 2002 I had this problem a while back, before XP was release, but 2000 would NOT install on my new machine. I kept getting a blue screen every time it tried to format my hard drive. What fixed this for me was putting the CDROM and HD on the same IDE channel...IDE1 in this case. No one knew then, but the SBLive card I had was interfering. I had the VIA/SBLive problem where it would corrupt data moving from one IDE channel to the other IDE channel. Maybe try this regardless of his setup? If he does have an SBLive, you could even try taking it out completely, but putting the CDROM and HD on the same IDE channel fixed this problem for me. I just moved them back to the proper ports after installing Windows (but BEFORE starting Windows :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mariusu Posted February 13, 2002 Share Posted February 13, 2002 Originally posted by Kieran It sounds to me that you are trying to install dodgy versions of XP from the net as I would doubt that you would go out and buy both home and pro to install on this machine. If this is the case then it sounds like bad downloads, but you shouldnt be doing this anyway! I and most people here will have no sympothy for you if you arnt paying for your software! If I am wrong about this, accept my appology! It sounds like the file is liked to the FAT filesystem to me. Have you tried formatting the hard disk as NTFS? I would try this and see if you still have problems! buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu microsoft supporter?:ermm: i don't think it's your problem if he'S using that version of win xp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam2001 Posted February 13, 2002 Share Posted February 13, 2002 Yeah like someone said try updating your BIOS, if a newer version is available. I had some problems in Win 2000 with some periphirals i had, i updated the BIOS and it just suddenly went perfect. I know it aint the same problem, but hey it might just work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejd1 Posted February 13, 2002 Author Share Posted February 13, 2002 ok, now, the PC starts up but it doesnt detect ANY DRIVES. The floppy, the HD, and the CD rom. The Floppy doesnt even light up but the computer turns on and the motherboard light comes on. Now everytime i boot the PC up, everything detected is NONE and I have AUTO selected in the BIOS and it goes into the error "NON DISK" any suggestions now? I can't even boot to a floppy. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CustardFD Posted February 13, 2002 Share Posted February 13, 2002 Is this after you flashed a new BIOS to your mobo? Are you sure you definately flashed the correct one, not a BIOS for another model? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejd1 Posted February 13, 2002 Author Share Posted February 13, 2002 i may have done it for a different one :( :( I was so ****ed last night I wasn't even paying attention. Now, let's assume it was a different one, where can we go from here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malechai Veteran Posted February 13, 2002 Veteran Share Posted February 13, 2002 As a side note, you said that the PC you're working on is not your own? Regardless of how frustrated you get, I'd suggest taking more care and precaution with flashing the BIOS, especially when its not your own PC. It shouldn't be applied in haste and without full attention. Assuming you did apply the incorrect BIOS to the board, and assuming you can just flash the correct one in there, you should be ok. It's also a possibility you destroyed the guy's motherboard though, just because you got mad. That'd be unfortunate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CustardFD Posted February 13, 2002 Share Posted February 13, 2002 Ok. I fyou flashed the wrong BIOS and can no longer access you're floppy, you're only chance is to hope the BIOS you flashed has the ability to update itself, like the GigaByte Q-Flash system, where it dial-up and downloads the latest BIOS from within the BIOS itself. The only potentiol problem there is getting it to download a BIOS that isn't just a later version of itself - it shouldn't let you do it for the reasons you have just found. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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