Why not run stand alone memory diagnostics.

Here is a link for a good memory checker called Memtest86. It does a better job than most.
http://www.memtest86.com/

Dell Inspiron 8100 1000Mhz A15
512MB Ram Win XP Home SP1
Nvidia GeForce2 Go 32MB

"And then one day you find ten
years have got behind you. No
one told you when to run, you
missed the starting gun."

msgale, I just don't know much about alot of these things I didn't know you could or how to do it.

ke4wkp thank you when I get hooked back up to the internet I'll run the test.

Does this sound like the kind of thing memory will cause. Microsoft had me run a scan disk it passed they're sure its a hardware problem.

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Duboisx4 wrote:    I'm in the process of trying to install XP.    I get nothing but error messages.    I've tried to reinstall 98se and it's installed fine. Could this be a memory problem.

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gryjhnhpe   I've not got XP installed yet I've got 98se back on. I needed something so I could get online check the memory from that link in the previous reply. Well I did do that test and all passed ok. Something I tried was hooking up my cd burner and installing XP from there. I didn't get a single error about one of the drivers not installing. So I may have a problem with my DVD drive. But I did still get the same stop error when it got done installing XP's drivers and  was about to start installing windows. Aside from the stop code error numbers it said to go to the BIOS and make sure the cache and shadowing are disabled. I don't know how to get to it to check to see if they're disabled or not. Could anyone possibly give me simple instructions on how to get there and check the cache and shadowing. Thank you

Alan

On your Computer you press Del key at Startup , DELL logo screen & follow on screen instructions.

see DELL info;

http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/systems/dkub/syssetup.htm

Message Edited by gryjhnhpe on 02-01-2004 10:33 AM

Hello

I've hooked up my cd burner and tried installing XP off of that. I know longer get error codes while installing the drivers (the very first part of the installation) but as soon as it's done installing the drivers and says   "Now installing windows" this is what pops up as a big blue stop screen:

 

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

Plug & Play detected an error most likely caused by a driver.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps.

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed, if this is a new installation, ask you hardware or software manufacturer for any windows update you may need.

If problems continue disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need, use safe mode to remove or disable components.

Technical Information

***Stop:  0x000000ca   (0x00000001,  0x81B864D8,  0x81B867EB,  0x00000000)

 

I've received this information every time I've tried to do a clean install. I've gone and got a new installation disk. I've tried installing with the hard drive freshly formatted with nothing on it for drivers. So I'm believing it's not a software problem.  I did run a memory test from the link posted above, it passed. This morning I  tried to install with the ethernet card removed, the modem removed and the sound card removed I got the same message each time. Is the DVD drive considered a plug and play like everything else and does it seem possible that it's checking the DVD drive and seeing that it's not working properly when I'm using the CDR-RW to install the program. The was it's set up the DVD is the master and the CDR-RW is the slave. Or does it sound like a memory problem as Microsoft thinks even though it passed the test form the link above. The link above seemed pretty thorough it seemed to run a lot of testing. I'm going to go buy another DVD drive anyway. the only other thing I've done is reflash the BIOS to the A11 it showed to be the latest for my computer. 98se installed just fine and seems to be working fine. Is there any reason to think I've got a BIOS problem?

Message Edited by Duboisx4 on 02-01-2004 11:11 AM

Well I replace the DVD drive that was acting up. That didn't fix it now with the DVD drive it cruises through the driver installation with no errors (just like the CDR-RW does). Again until it say starting windows install then the same stop screen with the same message as earlier stated. Then I added two 256 mem cards and I got the same thing. I'm lost. I guess tomorrow I'll have to call Microsoft again.

Has anyone heard of simply not being able to install XP on a Dimension T500 or TXXX series. I'm just wondering if it's possible that I'm not going to get it.

Alan

Message Edited by Duboisx4 on 02-01-2004 11:38 PM

Well I was on the phone with Microsoft for 3 hours last night. We couldn't get XP to install. He had me try a couple differant attempts of installing including copying I386 file of the XP disk onto C drive opening winnt32 and installing from the copy on c drive eliminating the possibility of a rom problem. (I unplugged both dvd and cdr-rw)  Did no good, still get the stop screen with a "ca" code. It wont even do the upgrade install. After changing a couple things in the BIOS set up and nothing working he concluded that I might be the first he's seen that couldn't make the upgrade. He told me I might try researching on google but he was doing that also while I was doing the steps he told me. Anyhow if anyone has any suggestions I'd like to here them otherwise maybe I'll have to take XP back unfortunately. As I appear to be stuck.

Message Edited by Duboisx4 on 02-03-2004 10:09 AM

Any ideas