PCTech Forums

Installing a new maxtor drive in a friends computer, since the original crapped out. I'm re-installing from the XP Home CD that came with the computer. It boots from the CD drive, goes thru the file install, says starting windows, then the computer shuts off. Tried a myriad of bios configs to no avail. This has a Shuttle AV42 mainboard, 256m RAM.
I also removed any PCI devices thinking they may be faulting, no go.
Any ideas??[/b]

Try clearing the cmos. and if you have pulled all the cards except the video, switching out the video would be next--then check the ps. The mobo and the cpu look like prime canadates.

Another thought, if you're doing an install with a two harddrives hooked up it could be a whole different ballgame. Remove the second drive from the loop

I'd also try re-seating the ram... Make sure you are statically grounded, if you don't have a anti-static strap, you'll be fine if you touch metal on the case first, then do the re-seating... just try not to move around your feet too much, as you can build static electricity that way.

I usually pull the ram, blow out the connector with canned air, or just by simply blowing on it, then I usually run the connection side of the ram between my pointer finger and my thumb to get any dirt off of those connectors. Then simply put back in and see if you have anything different happen.

It definitely sounds like the comptuer is running fine durring the 16 bit dos portion of the install, but as soon as it goes to 32 bit windows part of the install it's having problems... I guess it could be the more advanced video card drivers being utilized durring that part of the install too.. Hopefully it'll be one of those two things.. ram reseat or video card, because anything else is $$$

is it possible you purchased a bad h.d.d?

Thanks for the advice, but on about the 15th try, it started to install XP.
I had reseated all the plug-ins, and I had run the diagnostic on the drive on another computer. So I simply reset the BIOS to nominal, but to boot from CD, and voila, it worked!
Now I'm doing more than 46 critical updates to XP. Can you imagine having a new car that needed that many repairs?