Help needed with a stupid Barbie computer

[Gungnir]

Hows this for embarassing. Ok, I bought a Barbie computer for my four year old. Threw in a old hdd. Windows 95 wont install (BSOD). Windows 98- same deal. Errors on trying to install windows 2000 too. I used a couple of different hard drives but they are old (2.1 and 4.2 gb). Is it the hard drive thats messed up? I can buy a 15 gig hdd for 50 bucks, but is it gonna work? Any ideas?

 

[Kerle]

Do you know what motherboard is in the computer - or even what chipset it uses? Really, we just need to know something about it - what memory type and amount, motherboard, processor and video.

 

[Bug]

It could be the cd you're using. Are you trying to install with an original cd or a working archival backup cd? I mean, if you do a lot of installs and don't want to get the original cd messed up, so you use a cd copy. If you are using the backup, try using the original. If the components in the Barbie are generic, they may have trouble reading the cdr, but you should have better luck with the original silver.
Could also be dirt on the cd. Take a tissue, or anything that's non-abrasive, and wipe the bottom of the cd working your way outward from the center. DO NOT wipe in a circle! That will only dig the dirt in deeper.

 

[WarCon]

With all of your different OS's having problems, my guess would be the common factor. The CDROM drive. There are a few other possiblities, but none of them are too nice. A failing power supply, CPU overheating, faulty RAM. Try going into bios and setting it up for safe-mode defaults, if it has that choice. Otherwise go in an set all the settings to the lowest (most stable) settings and retry. If you try a different CDROM drive, different powersupply, reinstall the heatsink (with thermal compound) and different RAM (if your RAM is compatible with Barbie) then its the Barbie mobo and nothing but sending it back in that case is going to fix it.

Since you tried different hard drives, it is most likely not the culprit.

(Humor moment..................Maybe if you got a Ken computer to come over, it would cheer up Barbie......)

sorry couldn't help myself........

 

[Gungnir]

Thanks for the input. Maybe I should have offered a little more info. It us using an 810 chipset. When I install winblows I get as far as getting errors writing critical system files. It just craps out. Why would a bad cd drive function just fine until it had to copy system files? The hdds ive used are circa 1997, but this board is probably 1999. Ata 66 is backward compatible with 33 right? I called the place that sold them and they said there is a special patch for the pci bus. But how the hell u gonna install anything if the cd drive and the hdd (both on the same channel) have to have a patch before they can function?

 

[Slikkster]

Why don't you just try copying the contents of the Win98 CD to your hard drive. Then, run the setup from the drive itself. My CD has a "Win98" folder (which as all the *.cab files, and also a "Drivers" folder.

I'd make a folder/directory on your hard drive (via dos and a bootdisk if you don't have the system files on the drive) Then, use xcopy to copy the folders to this master folder. For instance, I made a folder on my clean hard drive called "Win98SE".

I then copied the Win98 and Drivers folders to the Win98SE folder. Next, I went to the Win98 sub-folder and ran Setup.exe. Give it a shot.

Don't waste time pondering over "why would this work vs. just installing from the CD itself?"...just try it.

If you don't have a copy of "xcopy" available, you can download the freeware xcopy alternative "xxcopy" from xxcopy.com.

You would use the xxcopy16.exe to use in Dos mode to copy the files. If you do a "xxcopy16 /?" you'll see there is a "clone" switch. This is the easiest to use to make sure you're getting all the files/folders to the destination you want. Let's use an example. Say your CD Rom is drive "D:" and you want to copy all files to the C:\Win98SE Folder. Here's how it would go:

xxcopy16 d:\ c:\win98SE /clone

It should ask you if you want to create the directory on your C: drive. Type in Y for yes. And off it goes...