Weird XP Pro Install problem

[blikksem]

Long description (and 1st post), so please bear with me please.
XP Pro registry errors caused boot failure. Tried all sorts of recovery mechanisms (Last boot, recovery points etc..) to no avail.

So formated WD 640GB SATA drive and boot off XP pro install CD.
All goes fine until just after driver.cab is copied - then install says it cannot read a file off the cd
Retried a few times .. same problem (different file each time and always soon after driver.cab)
So, pulled out my other 2 XP Pro CDs (1 sp2 and 1 pre sp1) and promptly got the same problem.
Swapped LG DVD drive with a spare Samsung backup - same problem.

So, built an XP3 slipstream of the first XP CD (no problem reading it) on my other machine.
Booted off the slipstreamed CD - got same problem (unable to read a different file and again after driver.cab was read).

Swapped DVD drive SATA cable to different SATA port -same problem.

Formatted WD 640 with 00's using Killdisk just in case
Tried again -- same problem

This to me, look like a MB problem, but I've never seen this kind of issue before.

Any advice welcome
Thanks

PS: just realized it could just maybe be a memory issue.
Will try some memtest tools but any advice is welcome in the meantime

 

[Harvey]

The only other possiblity that comes to mind would be to clear your CMOS, or, if the motherboard is old enough, to look for a BIOS update.

Good luck. 🙂

 

[blikksem]

MemtestX86 is showing errors .. thanks for the prompt reply.

 

[SimMike2]

MemtestX86 is showing errors .. thanks for the prompt reply.

These are almost always memory problems. If you have a CD-R slipstream XP install, it rarely can be the CD burn, but usually memory.