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August 2nd, 2005 21:00
perplexing installation problem
Hello-
While upgrading/downgrading (I'll explain) an inspiron 8100 notebook the other day, I ran into a problem I can't figure out.
I upgraded the hard disk (was running a 10g travelstar w/winxp sp2) to a 20g travelstar, while taking one of the two 256mb ram sticks OUT of the machine to install in another laptop.
Everything seemed AOK until OS installation(s) began:
XP home or Pro (legal disks) get to varying points during installation and freeze. It can blank out before creating partitions or at the start of copying files, but it always freezes solid requiring me to hold the power button down to shut down.
I tried copying files to the hard disk and running from dos "winnt.exe" from the /i386 folder: no go.
I then downloaded the latest Dell diag program and created the floppy disks. After choosing the full test (well over an hour to complete) the only error was a USB register failure - the memory addresses for USB 0 was not what the program expected. Everything else, disk, memory, everything - passed.
So I think quick, and get a debian linux CD knowing that I can pass a parameter to skip USB probing. Sure enough, it gets to the point of installation where partitions are to be created and freezes, just as with Windows.
I've set the POST to full, no errors. I've pulled the HDD out and installed it in one of those portable USB 2.0 enclosures, and sure enough I can read & write to the drive.
After searching the DELL KB for this USB diag error, all I can find is a mention that it's a "cosmetic" error? Something is killing any installation of an OS onto this notebook.
Oh, right now I've formatted the disk fat32 and sys c:'d dos system files over so the laptop does indeed boot to a C: prompt.
I'm stumped. I'm thinking the board is gone, but why no POST errors and is this USB register failure a factor here?
Thanks (sorry this is so long) in advance-
-wmarkhall
While upgrading/downgrading (I'll explain) an inspiron 8100 notebook the other day, I ran into a problem I can't figure out.
I upgraded the hard disk (was running a 10g travelstar w/winxp sp2) to a 20g travelstar, while taking one of the two 256mb ram sticks OUT of the machine to install in another laptop.
Everything seemed AOK until OS installation(s) began:
XP home or Pro (legal disks) get to varying points during installation and freeze. It can blank out before creating partitions or at the start of copying files, but it always freezes solid requiring me to hold the power button down to shut down.
I tried copying files to the hard disk and running from dos "winnt.exe" from the /i386 folder: no go.
I then downloaded the latest Dell diag program and created the floppy disks. After choosing the full test (well over an hour to complete) the only error was a USB register failure - the memory addresses for USB 0 was not what the program expected. Everything else, disk, memory, everything - passed.
So I think quick, and get a debian linux CD knowing that I can pass a parameter to skip USB probing. Sure enough, it gets to the point of installation where partitions are to be created and freezes, just as with Windows.
I've set the POST to full, no errors. I've pulled the HDD out and installed it in one of those portable USB 2.0 enclosures, and sure enough I can read & write to the drive.
After searching the DELL KB for this USB diag error, all I can find is a mention that it's a "cosmetic" error? Something is killing any installation of an OS onto this notebook.
Oh, right now I've formatted the disk fat32 and sys c:'d dos system files over so the laptop does indeed boot to a C: prompt.
I'm stumped. I'm thinking the board is gone, but why no POST errors and is this USB register failure a factor here?
Thanks (sorry this is so long) in advance-
-wmarkhall
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Ed C
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3.2K Posts
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August 3rd, 2005 09:00
Where did you get that 20GB from? It can't be new!! What notebook did it come out of?
Have you tried the manufacturers utility to write the drive back to factory specs and then use some other program, like partition magic, to partition it and format it before the Windows install?
I suspect there are bad sectors on the drive that the windows install can't get around.
wmarkhall
4 Posts
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August 3rd, 2005 11:00
The 20g came from a Dell C610. The previous owner had deleted the drive's content -- leaving the drive formatted but also leaving the Dell recovery partition in place.
I pulled the drive from the Dell C610 to use in the I8100, and the extra memory module was pulled from the I8100 and installed into the C610 to raise it to 512. The C610 got the gift of a brand new 40g drive, and is up and running now.
I'm fairly certain (famous last words) that the 20g drive in question is OK: the first thing I did to check out the C610 was to run XP Pro setup on that notebook. I deleted all partitions during setup and formatted the drive NTFS. XP installed without a hitch.
Since then, I've FDISK'd and formatted the drive 2 or 3 times with a win98 boot disk trying to get any OS to install! I also copied all the XP files over from a desktop to the same drive installed in a 3.5" USB disk container -- no problems with the copy. And the disk passed the full diag test(s) with the Dell disk set.
I'm out of drives at this point to try another! I tried a live Linux CD as well, and it bombed at different spots during install: once when it was going to copy a file, and again when it tried to load the video module. The latter error didn't alarm me; the nVidia card in that notebook has confused a couple of Linux distributions.
Thanks again -- I'll see if I can locate another drive or run a disk check on it somehow.
Ed C
2 Intern
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3.2K Posts
0
August 3rd, 2005 13:00
thegreenbandit
15 Posts
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August 3rd, 2005 23:00
Memory can be very finicky.
wmarkhall
4 Posts
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August 5th, 2005 19:00
I'll swap out the ram as well, but I think I did swap out the stick once. Perhaps I'll try all combinations to get 512mb (the original amount in the I8100).
Thanks again!