difficulty installing software + unstable XP

[decimetric]

Hi all. I have a laptop that's giving me a real headache. On a fresh install of XP (with or without SP2), it regularly ran into errors when installing almost any new software (most likely corrupt installation files, data1.cab, etc), while at other times it won't find corruption in the same setup files.

Also, there was corruption in the registry from time to time (at startup windows had to restore some reg files). Softwares also occasionally stop working due to corrupted files. This problem's really driving me crazy! Oh, and there are blue screens now and then (IRQL conflict), but when I checked there were no IRQ conflict.

Here are the specs:

Link

I partitioned the 76GB into two. Set the paging to system set or specified but didn't get rid of the problem. Installed all the laptop drivers, factory or latest but didnt help. Tried reinstalling a couple of times, scandisk or defrag didnt help either. Anyone else had this problem? Any pointers appreciated as I'm really2 stuck! Thank you.

 

[pscowboy]

Try this DeBug program. Takes about 5 minutes to complete. After that, pop in your XP cd and do your install over from scratch.

If you still get corruption, there is the following to consider:

1. Bad disc. Sometimes the dye on these cd's goes bad.
2. Failing power supply. Laptops have them too.
3. Failing hard drive. Get SpinRite to test it at level4.
4. Possible (though not likely) failing CD drive.

Here's the DeBug, which completely wipes your two boot partitions clean. This also kills boot partition viruses which cannot be eliminated by formatting.

On a 98 boot floppy, add debug.exe. If you don't have one, go to a friend's house and download it, create it, and add the debug to it. Make sure the floppy has no bad spots first. Do a format; this will tell you.

Change the BIOS to boot the floppy first. As the floppy is working, DO NOT agree to CD-Rom support. When you get to the "A" prompt, type the following lines below, paying attention to the following notes - 1.What looks like zero's ARE the number zero; not the letter O! 2. Hit "Enter" at the end of each line. 3.Pay attention to the spaces.

f 200 L200 0
a 100
mov ax,301
mov bx,200
mov cx,1
mov dx,0080
int 13
int 3
(press Enter one extra time here)
g=100
q

This quits you back to "A". Take out the floppy.

Change your BIOS back to CD, hard drive, floppy boot order and run your install again, letting XP partition and format the drive (I strongly suggest you choose NTFS).

Good luck!

 

[decimetric]

Crap... the laptop doesn't have a floppy drive! Anyway, I'll try using CD and see how it goes. My best guess rite now is that it's simply bad HD. About partition virus, shouldn't deleting all partitions get rid of em? Thanks for the advice.

 

[pscowboy]

Can you get a USB floppy to work?

You can also make a bootable CD with your favorite CD creator (Adaptec's "Easy" thing; or Nero). Don't close the session so you can add the debug utility. When it boots up, it looks like an "A" drive.

Boot Partition viruses cannot be eliminated by deleting the partitions. They are very nasty beasts. The real bad ones can kill a hard drive.