Windows 2000 won't install!!

[Ovi]

Hi everyone
I’ve got a major problem- Win2000 won’t install on my computer! Well, a few days back, I had started a thread on the installation procedure for Win2K. Based on that, I decided to go with NTFS. Anyway, so I booted from the Win2K CD and chose the option of formatting the drive with NTFS, but as soon as the formatting finished, I got a blue screen with the following message: <b>“Hardware Malfunction, The system has been halted”</b>. So I rebooted the system and then decided to format with FAT32. This time, the formatting process got completed but when it went to the file copying stage, after some files had been copied, I again got the same message. Whatever I did, from changing various options in the BIOS (ver 6zx862c) to pressing F5 at the beginning of the install (and choosing ‘standard computer’), I always got the same error at some point of the file copying stage, sometimes right at the end when the configuration files were being made. But sometimes at random, the copying stage went okay, but then I erased everything and started again to see why the problem was occurring randomly!
As a last option, I flashed the BIOS to a previous version (6zx862b) and with that, after selecting standard computer at the beginning, the text mode of the setup could finish normally, but then when it got into the GUI, and started detecting the hardware, it would stop at the very last stage, when the control panel etc. was being set up, with the same error! And no fiddling with the BIOS could help. So as a result, I haven’t been able to install Win2K and had to move back to Win Me.
Now the thing is that my hardware is (or seems to be) fine. Win Me (and previously 98) never gave me any problems, even if I stress out the system with games like UT, Quake 3 etc. I know that Win2K is very picky about hardware, but this is too much!! There are no IRQ conflicts on the system, and its performance is upto the mark too!! And to add to that, my system’s configuration is of the very standard and common type! I’m really depressed
Now if you can’t help me, guys, then no one can! So pleeeeeease, HELP!!!!
Thanks
Ovi

System config: P-III 450, Acorp i440zx M/B, 128 MB PC100 SDRAM, Samsung 4.3 GB HDD (ATA 33), Creative Ensoniq Audio PCI 64 soundcard, <b>Matrox Millennium G200 (8 MB)</b>, Creative infra 48x CDROM drive etc.

P.S. Sorry about such a long post!

[The PIT]

Take everything out your machine bar the graphics card.
Clear the cmos and then reboot the machine from a bootdisk with cd drivers and format.com on it. Format your C drive with the /u command.
Reboot your machine from the win2k cd and then try installing. Make sure your CD is clean. Yup I've seen an install fail becuase of dicky cd.
If it still fails try a different memory stick.
If it still fails try a different grahics card.
If it fails after that you're left with either a dicky motherboard or cpu. You could try raising your cpu voltage and i/o voltage if your motherboard allows it.

[Chasbo]

The last time I had a problem like that was installing Windows NT. I was getting a bunch of errors while the files were copying. I ended up swapping the RAM and then it was OK.

Chuck

[Ovi]

Thanks The Pit and Chuck!
Well, unfortunately, I don't have access to any other hardware component that I can replace and check! I suspect the RAM too, but the thing is that since it never causes any problem with Win 9x leads me to think that perhaps the RAM is ok, but my particular RAM configuration is incompatible with Win2k.......I have two 64 MB sticks filling up the two slots available. One stick is CAS 2 and the other CAS 3, so I put the CAS 3 stick in slot 1 so that the BIOS sets CAS 3 as the default (the config won't be stable at CAS 2 anyway)! But to check if there is a fault in the memory, I'll check with Simmtester!
Thanks for the input
Cheers
Ovi

[The PIT]

Windows 2k is a lot more picky with ram than windows 95 so any faults will show up quickly. You should be able to run with one 64meg dram in the board. It's unlikely although possible you may have two defective sticks. Try it with one and see if things install or not.

[ayoub_ibrahim]

IMO memtest86 is better than Simmtester!

[The PIT]

To be honest theres no better test than the physical test. Ram is so cheap nowadays it doesn't cost much to do the test.

[Ovi]

Ayoub: Thanks for the link. I just downloaded memtest 86, lets see......btw, simmtester did not find any errors (even the burn-in test), hope this program doesn't either!!
The Pit: My problem is that I have absolutely no money to spend on this computer right now (ran out of allowances!!) otherwise I would have definitely tried replacing the RAM.
But can it be because of the BIOS? I searched the MS knowledge base and it said that most installation failures were due to an incompatible BIOS. I know that my mobo's BIOS is not ACPI compliant, and in fact selecting standard PC does delay the occurence of the error, not to forget the fact that flashing the BIOS to a previous version at least allowed the installation to reach the GUI stage!! But my prime suspect is the RAM too! Another thing, if all the memory slots are filled (2 in my case), can that specifically cause problems?
Thanks
Ovi

[The PIT]

Just try one stick at a time. Like I said its unlikey to be two faulty sticks. They might not like being together though.

[Ovi]

Errrrrr..... I did a dumb thing. When I couldn't install Win2k, instead of partitioning the HDD and then installing Win Me in one partition, so that I could continue experimenting in the other, I installed Win Me over the whole unpartioned HDD. So what I'm doing now is trying to gather as much info as possible and then try it all out when I again get the time to start everything from scratch!!
The Pit:You suggestion will be the first thing I'll try when I again get around to installing Win2k! Thanks and please keep your inputs flowing in!
Cheers
Ovi

[Ovi]

Update: I tested the RAM with memtest86 and that too gave no errors--all tests passed!
Atleast if some program gave some errors in the RAM, I would have some confirmation!
Cheers
Ovi

[The PIT]

Still worth testing one stick at a time though. I've had testing equipment telling me things are fine when experiance was telling me the opposite and more often or not the testing equipment was wrong.

[Ovi]

The Pit: You are absolutely right on this one! I too have read of instances when the RAM was always diagnosed to be fine, but it was still causing problems! But as I said, I'm giving myself a little time to cool off and cover all possible reasons, as trying to install Win2k again (and troubleshoot) will take a lot of time!
Thanks
Ovi

[Ovi]

Update: I finally managed to replace my 128 MB RAM with a new single stick that I bought, but surprisingly, that didn’t cure the problem. So as a last resort I decided to take out the soundcard (Creative Ensoniq Audio PCI 64) and tried installing Windows 2000 without it, and it worked!!!! So it was my soundcard that was causing the problem. After Win2k had been installed, I put the soundcard back in and it was automatically detected and installed. But now though I can run Win2k, I still get that error screen sometimes, esp. when some sound is playing. Sometimes the system just locks up with a repeating sound but mostly I get this: Hardware Malfunction. The system has been halted. So now how do I resolve this problem? The soundcard is on IRQ 9 and is not sharing it with anything. In fact there are no hardware conflicts on my system. I moved the card to another slot but neither did that change its IRQ nor did it solve the problem. As for the card itself, it was working absolutely fine in Win9x, so I don’t think it is defective. So the end result is that I have to take out the card if I want to install Win2k and then put it back in afterwards, and then still get the error screen sometimes. Please help me find a solution to this problem! After seeing what Win2k is like, I don’t feel like ever going back to Win9x! HELP!!!!!!
Thanks
Ovi

[Jon P. Inghram]

Take that soundcard and drive over it with your car several times please! That is perhaps one of the worst soundcards ever made when it comes to incompatibilities with virtually every other piece of hardware and software in existance. I used to have one, and it was a nightmare.