Computer freezes up at the beginning of Windows XP installation

Question

I'm getting to the point where I'm at the blue Windows installation screen & it asks me to hit "R" for recovery console, "enter" to continue with the installation, or F3 to quit. As soon as I reach this screen my computer freeezes. I tried it with my XP home disk & also an XP pro disk from work to see if it was just my disk that didn't work and it did the same thing. I read that I should perhaps disable APIC in the BIOS menu but it was already disabled. I also disabled the USB manager, which didn't help. I read that perhaps I should flash the BIOS but I don't have a floppy drive so that's not an option. Lastly, I read that I should hit F5 when I get to the "press F6 to install raid controller drivers" part of the initial install & select "other" but there are no other choices to choose from when I do this. Does anyone have any other suggestions? The latest thing I tried is to revert the BIOS settings to factory default. It didn't help.

Dell Dimension 9150
Aftermarket Seagate Barracuda 1tb HD
Aftermarket GeForce 7000 series graphics card
Everything else on it is factory

Thanks!!!

PS - I originally posted this on the Microsoft forums & they suggested I post here.

Moosiah90 · Answer

Thanks Desktop but I failed to mention 1 thing. This is a brand-new, blank hard-drive. When this first started happening, someone told me it was the hard-drive so I bought a new one. So the install I am doing now is on the new, blank hard-drive & but it is doing the same thing as it was on my old hard-drive.

Desktop_Geek · Answer

ok you are trying to install windows xp from scratch. ok the problem with your issue is that you need to uninstall a couple of programs form your pc before reinatlling windows xp from scratch. and notice save all of your files before reinstalling windows xp. due that after you reinstall windows xp you wont be able to have your old programs and files again since you are installing it form scratch. this what you need to do.

1. remove all of the heaviest programs installed from your pc . Example if you have 5 files of 100mb you need to uninstall all programs that are 100mb or over

2. remove all of antivirus or antispyware software from the pc.

3. erase all installation folders intalled in c/programfiles/ programs that you've uinintalled but you need to erase their folder. since xp doesnt erase everything.

4. after you've have done that , that should fix the crash or freezing of windows, hwen tryingnto install windows xp fromm scratch.

i'm telling you because it happend to me after i did this. this isssue enede after i didi this steps of what i just told you.

dave51_2fe887 · Answer

Read my post HERE. Or you can Turn OFF Raid in bios. In Bios, Expand 'Drives' and highlight 'SATA Operation' and change to Raid Off or ATA/Raid Autodetect.

lara2fabien · Answer

hi desktop-geek, i also have a question, i want to reinstall windows xp, i have antivirus i wanna uninstall but it wont let me, cause it says its corrupted or something, do u know how i can resolve the isue and also i have 5 cd's from dell which includes windows xp, after i reinstall windows in what order do i reinstall the drivers, thanking u in advance

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Computer freezes up at the beginning of Windows XP installation

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