What am I doing wrong?

[redivider]

I am having major problems getting WinXP Pro installed on a new machine that I just built.

First, I kept getting a bunch of errors during setup, telling me that certain files could not be copied. The wierd thing is, after the first unsuccessful install I tried again... and kept getting the same errors, but for completely different files. On some of them, if I pressed ENTER to "retry," it would keep going, but most of the time I had to skip that particular file to get setup to continue. So, it finally got to the end and restarted. When the installation process started, right away I got an error saying that "Setup failed to install the catalog files. This is a fatal error." There was another line I didn't write down, but it was just something to the effect of "Setup will now restart" or something like that.

So, I figured it had to do with all the files that I skipped over. I happened to have another copy of XP Pro laying around so I tried using that one and got through most of the initial setup without any errors, although I did have to skip one file, "srgb.icm." I kept going though cause I figured I had a better shot this time after only skipping one file. After all the files were copied, Setup restarted and then I got a different error. This time it said "lsass.exe - System Error -- An invalid parameter was passed to a service or function." Then, a System Error Log window popped up and said "The digital signature catalog D:\I386\MAPIMG.CAT could not be installed. The error code is 3e6. Invalid access to memory location."

I guess what I need to know is if this is just an issue with the actual CDs or if there is some other hardware issue that could be causing this? I don't know what else would cause files to not be copied from the Windows disc. Either they're there or they're not. I was starting to think that it was an issue with the CD drive since I keep getting the same type of errors, but on different files, as if the drive was just randomly misreading the disc or something.

I've never had Windows be unable to copy so many files from the install disc. It seems kind of strange. And it's a brand new disc with no visible scratches.

Obviously, I'm gonna go through all the usual hardware troubleshooting and see if I can figure anything out. I just wanted to see if anyone else had run into a problem like this before.

Here's what I currently have in this system

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
MSI K8T Neo mobo
2x512MB Mushkin Lv II Black PC3200 RAM
Western Digital 120GB IDE
Lite-On 52x CD-RW
Mitsumi 1.44MB floppy drive
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
Linksys Wireless PCI card
Antec True430 PSU
Thermaltake Silent Boost K8 HSF

 

[fredtam]

Try another IDE cable. Otherwise I would say bad sectors on the hard drive.

 

[redivider]

Is there any way to check the drive for bad sectors without having Windows installed yet?

 

[mechBgon]

Welcome to the Forums, redivider You can test your hard drive using Western Digital's "Data Lifeguard" utility, which you can download from here. Also, if the hard drive is solo on its own IDE cable, put it on the end connector of the IDE cable and jumper it for "Single Drive," not Master or Slave.

Besides trying a different IDE cable for both the hard drive and the optical drive, also make sure to bump your memory voltage up to at least 2.6 volts, and if it's at 2.6 alread, bump it to 2.7 to see what happens. Boards may try to run it at 2.5 volts by default, but these days it seems like 2.6-2.7 solves a lot of problem situations.

Good luck and let us know what happens

 

[redivider]

Well, the first thing I tried was switching out the IDE cable on the CD-RW drive. The one I had on there was one of those rolled cables that came with the mobo. It was kind of bent at some wierd angles to get it to fit right so I thought that might be the problem. I also removed one of the sticks of RAM and the wireless network card. And I reseated the other stick of RAM, the video card and doublechecked all the other connections. With the new IDE cable in (actually a pretty old one but it works for now) I was able to install XP without any errors at all.

Then I tired to install the drivers for the video card (9800Pro) and got some more errors there. The first one was about the setup program failing to load. After getting that to run, it started installing the drivers and a bunch of other stuff (DVD Decoder, etc..) and it all just seemed to be running kind of wierd. Some of the installers would hang for a few minutes and one of them crashed and gave an error saying "The installation process did not complete" or something. After another restart, the drivers for the card appear to be installed OK and there are a couple of other ATI programs installed... but I think I'm going to start from scratch in the morning. Somewhere along the line I think I installed XP twice or there are two windows folders or something, because now when I start up I get the OS selection screen with two options: "Windows XP Professional" and "Windows XP Professional."

I've reinstalled a bunch of times, tried a repair install once or twice and used two different XP discs, so I think it just makes sense to format the drive again and start over. I'll check it first with that program you suggested, but I think the IDE cable was the problem. I'll actually probably get some newer ones and switch them both out just to be safe.

Anyway, thanks for the help. I was getting pretty frustrated there for a while.

 

[squirrel dog]

Make sure your system is at its stock settings and not over clocked in any manner or fashion . You can o/c it after the os load if you want to .

 

[redivider]

I didn't change any settings as far as overclocking is concerned. I did change a few things in the BIOS though, so I'm going to try intalling with factory settings just to see if it's any more stable.

Would it make any sense to underclock or should I not have to do that? I could just lower the FSB to 190-195MHz (instead of 200MHz).

Also, according to the BIOS, the CPU is running at about 39-41 degrees without much of a load on it. Is that normal? What kind of increase should I expect on a full CPU load? I'd rather try reseating the HSF now, before I reinstall again, if it seems to be running a little hot already.

 

[fredtam]

Leave the FSB alone.
I think your temps are fine.
If you used the disc that comes with the 9800 it does have an odd load process. You think its done and then it starts doing something else. There is also a program on the disc that failed to load for me and others. I can't remember which one though.

 

[redivider]

I just tried it again and got the same thing. While it's loading "ATI Control Panel" I get the "...has encountered an error and needs to close.." thing and then it just keeps going through the rest of the setup. Then when it tries to install Multimedia Center 8.x, I get an error that says "Cannot read from specified device", so I had to skip that one as well. I'm trying to track down some probems that may be coming from the CD-RW drive so it would help to know if other people are having the same issues with the ATI disc.

 

[fredtam]

Sounds like the same thing I had with the original disc. I would just go ahead with setup. Then download the latest drivers and MMC. If you don't have dial up.

 

[PaveHawk]

Do you have another CDRW/CD ROM to pop in there and try?

 

[redivider]

Yeah, I have broadband so I could just do that. I just wanted to make sure everything was working OK and it wasn't a problem with the drive itself. Thanks...

I could get another drive if I really need to, btu I'd have to take it out of another machine and I was trying to avoid having to do that. If the problem persists I'm defintely going to put another drive in and see what happens.

 

[fredtam]

If youhave a good connection Iwould suggest downloading the latest drivers anyway.