Vanity- Computer Problem

March 11, 2007

[perfect stranger]

I am trying to reinstall WimXP on an older Dell machine that has accepted it many times before. And now it freezes about 3/4ths the way through installation. I tried taking out a memory chip since it has slots for two of them and even relacing one chip with the other with the same results.

No, I'm not going to buy a Mac. Yes, I am going to try a linux distribution. SLAX in particular because I'm burning the disc right now.

[perfect stranger]

But any other ideas in the meantime are appreciated. I have run a few Linux bootable discs that I like but I still don't have much of a clue as to how to install them on my harddrive. Any Freeper help?

[Swordmaker]

1: Clean the install disks to make sure it is not a read problem.

2: Reformat the HD and check it for bad sectors and map them out.

[JoeSixPack1]

1: Clean the install disks to make sure it is not a read problem.

Take the CD or DVD and wash it with soap and water. Let dry or hair dryer it dry. Your upper memory is obviously fine if xp gets as far as you say.

2. Try custom installing with some features turned off. (Install those features after it's up and running.)

[perfect stranger]

Try custom installing with some features turned off.

I've not found that screen to disable some features when I install. It would be great to find considering I would never use Messenger, Outlook, Office ect.

[SamAdams76]

Try a new hard drive. But have you ever considered just getting a Mac?

[perfect stranger]

Would getting a Mac help me solve this problem?

[Two-Shoes]

During the setup process, you should see a dialog box with radio buttons for options like Typical Install, Custom Install, etc. (If you don't already know "radio buttons" are white circles; when you click on a radio button a black dot fills in; only one black dot is allowed per group of radio buttons.) Choose the Custom Install radio button.

Next, you're looking for the Windows Components dialog box:

Note that when you select an item that has more sub-components available, the "Details" button's text will be black instead of grayed-out.

In the above screen shot, you'll see that there is a black check mark in the box to the left of Outlook Express. If you don't want to use Outlook Express, select it (so it's entry line is highlighted in blue) and then click the box to deselect it (to remove the check mark).

Hope this helps.

--Two-Shoes

[SamAdams76]

Yes, for then you would not have to worry about loading XP.

[Gone_Postal]

I have had the same promlem before....if formating the hard drive doesn't work...try another hard drive...

[csvset]

Check out this link.

I'm curious to see if it works.

Langa Letter: XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option

[Two-Shoes]

Would getting a Mac help me solve this problem?

If you go that route purchase a new(er) Mac that has Intel chips as its CPU(s): that way you could install either Apple's Boot Camp, or--better still--purchase a software title called Parallels, and install Windows XP on your Apple Computer. Older Macs like my 1.42 GHz G4 Mac-mini have PowerPC chips for CPU(s), so neither Apple's Boot Camp nor the 3rd party Parallels software run on them.

Also, you might want to wait a few months before getting a new Mac because OS X 10.5 a.k.a. "Leopard" will be released soon. The current Mac OS X is 10.4 "Tiger". If you buy a Mac now, it will only have Tiger on it; upgrading to Leopard a few months from now will cost you over $100.

Hope this helps.

--Two Shoes

[Two-Shoes]

I have had the same promlem before....if formating the hard drive doesn't work...try another hard drive...

But did you run Microsoft's Scan Disk, or some other utility, to map out the bad sectors after reformatting the HD?

Depending upon the method you used to reformat, the bad sector table may not have been updated during the formatting. It only takes a few bad sectors to pooch the process of reinstalling any OS.

I had a PowerBook G4 (a laptop) on which I was trying to reinstall Tiger...but the reinstall would go belly-up about halfway through, despite the fact that I did a quick reformat of the HD before hand. It was only after I ran the Mac OS Disk Utility-->Erase-->Zero out data that I could get Tiger to reinstall. Zeroing out the data in the Mac environment takes a long time, but it fully updates the bad sector table on the HD. Once all the bad sectors were mapped out, Tiger reinstalled without a hitch.

Just my $0.02.

--Two Shoes

[Two-Shoes]

But any other ideas in the meantime are appreciated. I have run a few Linux bootable discs that I like but I still don't have much of a clue as to how to install them on my harddrive. Any Freeper help?

You might try a Ubuntu Linux distro. The Ubuntu website has a lot of links you might find helpful, even for installing other Linux distros.

I have Ubuntu 6.06 installed on an 8-year old PC. It runs like a champ.

--Two-Shoes

[relee]

Boot a linux live CD, if you have one, to ensure the hardware (except the hard drive) is OK.

[sully777]

Get a Mac. They are upgrading their product line in May and are trying to clean out the old inventory. You can find a low end i-Mac G-5 for about $950. The bad boy will last a decade with few upgrades needed.

... and for $79 buy Mac's PC parallel (or go cheap and use the Mac Bootcamp on their website). Then find a new XP and download it to the Mac...Staples and some CompUSA's still sell Windows XP Home for about $199 (don't go to Best Buy they got rid of every XP for the crappy Mac-OS knockoff Vista).

God love Bill Gates...he's a friggin evil genius the likes of which we haven't seen since PT Barnum..

[Gone_Postal]

I did run scan dsk and fixdsk also. my drives were old they had problems. when I installed a new hd the problem went away.

I also have a mac mini and a mac book.
what I really want is a Mac Pro...I do music recording (home studio)which I use the PC for.The Mac Pro would be so much better. Only thing I would need new software as for what I use now doesn't work with apple

[perfect stranger]

Thanks but, I can say that I've installed 3 different XP OS on this machine and have never run across the dialog box that you show.

[perfect stranger]

Your solution to my problem is to go out and pay upwards of $500 to buy a new system with an OS that I'm not at all familiar with? Why don't you just send me your Mac for free the next time you upgrade?

[perfect stranger]

Thanks. I'll check it out.

[perfect stranger]

Please notice my first 8 words in paragraph #2.

[perfect stranger]

My other hard drives are all under 3 gigs. I guess I'll have to blow the dust from one of them and try.

[KoRn]

I wish I could run ubuntu. It doesn't like my new motherboard(Intel DG956WH), other Linux distros don't like it either so I'm sure it's a kernel thing. I read several posts of users complaining about it, so I'd expect them to get drivers for it in the next update. Until then, it's XP4ME.

[perfect stranger]

That's an idea that I never considered. Putting the HD as a slave on another machine and running the scandisk from there. Thanks

[perfect stranger]

Thanks for the link. I am working with a few Linux distros like SLAX, Elive and Xandros but I have no idea about transferring the files to a HD and making it bootable.

That's what I need to learn.

[perfect stranger]

Get a Mac.

No. I am not going to buy a Mac. Didn't I say as much in my post? Perhaps you didn't read past the first of two short paragraphs before you decided to post.

Thanks

[perfect stranger]

I will work with that. Thanks

[perfect stranger]

That's a great idea. Thanks again.

[sully777]

I can't help myself, all Mac people are part of a cult and we are required to witness and testify the product.

Forgive me. Let me make it up to you by suggesting that you buy a Mac Mini for $499 or an ipod....Damn it I did again :)

[perfect stranger]

If you want to put out the word you should just send me your Mac for free the next time you upgrade?

[sully777]

LOL

[SamAdams76]

Actually you would pay much more than $500 for a decent Mac system. I would consider sending you my Mac when I upgrade only I don't have a Mac. I still have PCs running XP. Never had to reload it either. But when I do upgrade, I'm thinking seriously about getting a Mac. I was in the Apple store buying iPod stuff when I saw this incredible Mac system. Looked like a tank and had a huge monitor. It was about $3,000.

[perfect stranger]

$3000 for one system? I can't afford that and wouldn't even buy it if I could afford it.

Hell, I have not yet spent even $1000 on my system(s).

I got my first machine from Dell in 2000 for about $800 and about the same time some guy at work bought a $2200 machine running at about 3 times the speed of mine and do you know how much his machine is worth today in relation to mine? There's not much of a difference.

Between the effect of Moore's Law, and the idea of buying into the new tech that has yet to be debugged the most economical choice is to buy 'second-hand' from the ones that think they need to buy a whole new system.

That's just my opinion.

[Two-Shoes]

Thanks but, I can say that I've installed 3 different XP OS on this machine and have never run across the dialog box that you show.

My bad. You caught me: I cheated by using a screen shot of the dialog box from Control Panel-->Add/Remove Programs-->Add/Remove Windows Components. I honestly thought there was more granularity in the setup routine. But because it's been more than a year since I've installed WinXP on any box, I must be misremebering a thing or two.

Again, my bad.

FReegards,
Two-Shoes

[Two-Shoes]

Please notice my first 8 words in paragraph #2.

Hence my use of the words, "If you go that route..." ;-)
In any event, good luck with your efforts.

FReegards,
Two-Shoes

[Two-Shoes]

I also have a mac mini and a mac book.
what I really want is a Mac Pro...I do music recording (home studio)which I use the PC for.The Mac Pro would be so much better. Only thing I would need new software as for what I use now doesn't work with apple

FWIW, you could try to run your recording software on your mac book (or your mini if it has Intel brains) before coughing up the cash to buy a Mac Pro...by installing a 15-day trial version of Parallels (download here) and installing whatever flavor of Windows you have handy. (As you probably already know, you can install/use WinXP for 30 days before you have to activate it, so you could use your existing WinXP install CD without having to buy another XP license.)

Granted, the mac book would run Parallels/WinXP/recording software nowhere near as fast as the Mac Pro would run it, but you'd have two weeks to play with your Windows software installed "inside" Parallels. That way you could see if you'd be served by purchasing a Mac Pro--or just stick with your current PC--for your home studio.

Just my $0.02.

FReegards,
Two-Shoes