Problems installing WinXP home **UPDATE**

Edit: Problem solved - See this post. - Empath

I've got a computer that is right at 5 years old, my wife is using it now. It came w/ Windows 98SE and 1GHz AMD processor. Rather than trying to re-load and reconfigure a lot of software, I decided to do the WinXP upgrade. I start loading WindowsXP and it crashes barely into the upgrade procedure. I downloaded the latest BIOS for that motherboard and installed it, but with no change, still crashed part way into the install. It looks to me that it is crashing when it gets to the point of analyzing the current setup. One option when you begin the install is to analyze your computer, so if I try that it crashes in the first part of the analysis.

I searched microsoft.com but didn't find anything like my problem. Unfortunately they aren't much help, and they threaten to charge you money after the second phone call or email asking for help, so I'm saving that for when I get really desperate.

I'm wondering if there is something in the computer that isn't compatible. All I can think of is to remove the network card and network software, and maybe try to find the latest driver for the video card.

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

So did you check the hardware compatability list before attempting to upgrade?

JM-99

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

The list that I found is a pretty basic list, things like 300MHz processor, 128Mb memory, etc. Almost any computer these days will have all of those features.

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

Disable your Anti-Virus programs

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

bjn70 said:

The list that I found is a pretty basic list, things like 300MHz processor, 128Mb memory, etc. Almost any computer these days will have all of those features.

Click to expand...

Those are the minimum system requirements...I'm talking about the HCL. They're different things.

JM-99

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

Try remove all the card, just the motherboard and a hard drive.

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

glockboy said:

Try remove all the card, just the motherboard and a hard drive.

Click to expand...

You really NEED a video card and RAM also...

Have you defraged your hard drive lately? You may also check the page or swap file settings in 98 before your install. It is in the system properties under perfomance/advanced. This is a little advanced though. If you haven't defraged lately, your may not have enough "unfragmented" harddrive left for the install and it will try to take room from you page/swap file which will then "delete or remove", neither are good terms but I'll use em, files that your 98 OS may have been using for the upgrade causing a crash since the 98 OS may have really NEEDed those files and all the sudden they are gone. You shouldn't need to change any page/swap file settings, but if you haven't defraged the above CAN occur. It's a rare thing, but I have had similar issues. My current rig doesn't like me to go from 4gigs of RAM to one gig of RAM because of the way my swap file is set up. If I don't re-set my settings before I swap RAM I get a BSOD because the OS expects to see a certain amount of page/swap file in relation to the amount of RAM I have installed. This is NOT your issue, but a problem I create for myself that MAY be similar to your problem, but then again maybe not...

Jumpmaster is also correct, and this is probably where you are having an issue. The HCL is a list of ALL hardware that MS has tested for compatability with XP/2000. If your modem is not on that list it MIGHT not work with XP/2000 and may be causing the crash during installation.

How much RAM do you have? XP really needs 256 to 512 just for it. I know it says it doesn't but... The upgrade MAY need more that XP by itself since it may need to hold 98 AND the XP installation.

Also when you install an OS it will install your drivers AFTER the instalation is complete. All the 98 drivers you have will be gone, so replacing you current video driver before the XP upgrade is a waste. XP cannot use the 98 driver and will install it's own until you re-install the latest XP driver AFTER the XP upgrade.

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

I don't know what procedure you are using.

Can't you boot from the XP install CD? If that's what you are doing, maybe you should run a memory diagnostic and a hard drive diagnostic.

You can google for memtest86.

You can get a hard drive diag from any hard drive manufacturer's site. I use the SeaTools Desktop here:
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

I believe the XP Home upgrade has to be run from an existing OS. Like was said before, try to disable you Anti-virus program, analyze your computer.

How much memory do you have in your system, and what is the size of the harddrive. Since the machine is 5 years old, the HD is problaby pretty small.

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

My brother recently upgraded to Windows XP, from Windows 98. His computer is a mess now. Lost all his files, and the computer is almost useless. To say he's frustrated, is putting it mildly. His computer meets and exceeds the minumum requirements. He has a 1 ghz Pentium IV, with 128 megs of memory, and a 20 gig hard drive. I've offered to help him, but he has given up.

If he'd let me help, I would wipe the hard drive, increase his memory to 512 megs, and reinstall Windows 98, using his recovery disk. Then, I would defrag the hard drive, and then try the Windows XP upgrade.

oldgrandpajack

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

Just wait a few more months and really screw it up with Vista.

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

Pellidon said:

Just wait a few more months and really screw it up with Vista.

Click to expand...

Piece o shitte OS so far...

Daisies are purple... :huh2:

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

If you don't have a clean drive, I'd suggest buying one. Starting fresh makes the changeover easier.

I just updated my aging MSI (KT133A chipset mobo MS6330) 1 GHz Athlon a few weeks back.

DL'd all the updated drivers for mobo and related XP drivers, bought a new FX5500 AGP videocard and 450 watt PS to freshen things. Installed a fresh 80 gig drive and it was easy. Loaded the mobo drivers, video and XP took care of the little things like USB, ethernet card...Once it was all running and tweaked, tansferred/backed up the data from the 160 gig drive then wiped that drive clean.

Installed XP then transferred it all back. Prior, the best I could run was 768 meg of memory 1-512 and 2-128 modules. 98SE balked at 1.5 gig. After upgrade, I was able to plug in 2-512 sticks, it still doesn't like the thrid one but 1 gig of memeory is fine.

I learned that there are some old apps that can cause problems so I don't have anything running that isn't NT compatible. YMMV

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

I don't think my lifetime is long enough to check all 8,000 things on the HCL.

I'm pretty sure I've deleted all of Norton's silliness, but I can check to see if there is anything still being loaded at startup.

The machine has a 30G harddrive installed, with plenty of free space left on it.

You can install the XPhome upgrade on a blank harddrive. I discovered this when I was preparing to upgrade my own home computer. You can boot off of the CD and start loading the OS, then at some point it will ask you to insert your old Windows disk so it can verify that you are elegible for the upgrade, then it will keep loading.

In my case it crashes right at the beginning of analyzing my machine, so there is something in there it doesn't like. The machine doesn't contain anything unusual, just a video card and generic network card. I tried downloading the Windows upgrade advisor from the microsoft website and running it. It turns out to look exactly like the routine that runs from the Windows install disk and crashes at the same point.

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

Does anyone know if you can do a "clean" new install with a Windows XP upgrade disk?

I have a friend who has a Windows XP upgrade disk, and her computer is really screwed up, I just need to do a clean fresh install, erasing the entire HD and start over from scratch.

Now I have done probably over a 100 XP installs, so I am no stranger to the process, and if necessary, I can use FDisk to delete the partitions, and start over.

I vaugely remember that with previous upgrades, if you did a clean install with an upgrade MS product, the install process would ask you for the previous CD, and after the install process could verify that you had the correct older CD, the fresh install would continue.

She has all her CD's all legit, with serial # and ready to do activation, (I am not trying to do a "rouge" install!)

If anyone has any firsthand experience on this, it would be appreciated!

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

@bjn70

Is it crashing on a clean install now? You may have to bite the bullet and get a new drive. Sounds like that drive may have a problem. Have you run checkdisk on it? Do you have another drive you can try. From a computer geek perspective it sounds like a bad drive.

@BuddTX

You should be able to do a clean install, but you do need an older OS disk to do it. You may even have to boot into the old OS, run the install and choose clean install so it formats the whole disk during the install.

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

windows screw things up too much... but hey,it is way better then the mac's OS with all those compatiblility issue.

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

oldgrandpajack said:

My brother recently upgraded to Windows XP, from Windows 98. His computer is a mess now. Lost all his files, and the computer is almost useless.
oldgrandpajack

Click to expand...

I've never upgraded from Win9x because I've never run Win9x, but all the "experts" say an in-place upgrade is a bad ideal. That's where you install XP on top of the old OS to attempt to preserve some of the original settings and applications. The two operating systems are too incompatible and you end up with a mess.

It's always recommended to do a clean install. Either install XP in another partition, or delete the old OS first. As has been stated here, you can still use the upgrade install CD if you have an install CD for Win9x or some other Microsoft OS.


I don't think you need fdisk or any other program to re-format. The XP install CD should give you the option of doing it before the install. At least the full retail install CDs have this option.

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

bjn70 said:

In my case it crashes right at the beginning of analyzing my machine, so there is something in there it doesn't like. The machine doesn't contain anything unusual, just a video card and generic network card.

Click to expand...

Maybe there is some info displayed when it crashes that could help diagnose the problem.

Were there problems when you ran Win9x?

I would unplug the network card, just in case that's the problem.

To try to isolate the problem, I would run hardware diagnostic programs as I mentioned earlier. It's easy to do. These are small DOS programs that boot from CD or floppy.

There are a lot of possible hardware problems. RAM, power supply, hard drive, CD drive, just to name a few. Your task is to isolate the problem, or buy a new computer.

Re: Problems installing WinXP home upgrade

Does anyone know if you can do a "clean" new install with a Windows XP upgrade disk?

Click to expand...

Yes, at least with the XP Pro upgrade disk, and I suspect with the home upgrade also.

I just replaced my hard drive a few weeks ago and did a clean install. When it asked for my previous version I just fed it a valid windows install disk and was on my way.