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What might cause Windows (or any other OS) to not fully install?

Supermercado

Supermercado

Diamond Member
I don't know if this is a software or hardware issue. I'm leaning towards hardware since it happens for both Windows and Linux.

I've got an older machine (Pentium III, 800MHz, GeForce 2, 384MB RAM I think, Asus motherboard, etc.) that I got about 5 1/2 years ago. It's my secondary machine now, but it's been out of commission for several months now and I don't know why.

Basically, the problem is that I can't seem to get an operating system to install correctly. I've tried WinXP, Win2k, and Ubuntu, all with the same result. The install process takes a long time, sometimes doesn't complete, and when it does complete, not everything gets installed. For example, I tried putting 2k on there this weekend. The install process was slow, but eventually completed, but when I try to use the machine, there's nothing there. There's like 5 things in the start menu and no programs at all in the Add/Remove Programs list. It's been a while since I've installed Windows, but isn't there at least stuff like Windows Media Player and stuff in that list? There's literally nothing there.

Since it happens with several OSes, my thoughts are that it has to be hardware-related, but I've never heard of a problem like this, so I don't know what it might be. Wanting to know if anyone has any thoughts or ideas at all as to where to start diagnosing. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
 
I'd run a test on a few components. Your hard drive, and memory would be the first two things I'd narrow it down to.
 
That's kind of where I was leaning. I thought I'd tried a different hard drive in there, so maybe some RAM decided to crap out. I don't have any spares, so I guess the only way to try that is either with memtest (I've never actually used that, but that should tell me if there's a problem with the memory, right?) or just pulling sticks out and trying different ones.
 
Many times, hardware peripherals just get in the way. The best rule of thumb when installing an OS is to strip the machine to the bare essentials and install the OS. Then add the peripherals one at a time as "new hardware."

This is especially true of SP2.
 
I'll try that, as well. I've never had any problems that I know of due to extra hardware being in the machine during the install, but I'll try anything at this point. I'll strip everything out and try again and then try to find a broken piece. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
Originally posted by: Nocturnal
I'd run a test on a few components. Your hard drive, and memory would be the first two things I'd narrow it down to.
Click to expand...

Yep that's what I would narrow it to. I would lean more to the HDD for an install failure.
 
Sounds like a plan. I think I have an old drive I can test with. Hope so, anyway. I don't have any other drives laying around.
 
I had a little bit of time last night to mess with it. Tried installing with no extra PCI cards in the machine. Same result. Tried changing the location of the hard drive and the CD-ROM on the IDE controllers. For whatever reason, they were both on the same controller, so I tried putting them on separate controllers. Same result. I found an old 20GB drive that I'm going to try with tonight and see if that makes any difference. I did notice, and this really makes me think something's wrong with the hard drive, it appeared to have trouble detecting the primary master. When it finally did get to installing, the formatting took a long time (a 40GB drive was taking like 20+ minutes to format, and it's been a while, but I'm pretty sure that's not right), so I think it has to be a hard drive problem at this point. Hoping to either rule that out or determine that it's the problem tonight.
 
Hi, Check out your CD reader. It can have a problem that causes it to fail anywhere on the Disk. You don't have a problem until the data you want happens to be after the failure to read. Since all discs fail in the same manner I'm betting on a bad CD reader. Luck, Jim
 
Are installing from CD? Does it complete the CD reading portion of the installation? If not, then it most likely is bad memory or incorrect motherboard bios settings.

Also check your CMOS battery, and see if the date/time stays correct, and if it doesn't after unplugging the power cord, then you need to replace it.
 
Downloaded Memtest86+ and run an overnight RAM test. If you have any errors, you have a RAM problem. The software is free and easy to use -- just burn the ISO to a CD, reboot your computer, and let it run for half a day or so. RAM problems were a huge plague to me early in my computing career. Also, before installing the OS, remove any non-required hardware. Stuff that requires special drivers is good to put in after you get the OS loaded.
 
Like a number of other posters have suggested, I'd recommend testing your RAM. The one time I had issues getting an OS installed in the past was when I happened to have a bad stick of memory installed.
 
Will do that tonight, then. I think I may have tried it with a different CD drive, too, but I can't remember anymore. Will add that to the list of things to try.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll bump this thread again when I have time to check them all.
 
So, I tried a different hard drive. Same thing. Different CD-ROM. Same thing. As of this morning when I left for work, memtest had been running for 11 hours with no errors detected, so I don't think it's the RAM now. I guess that kind of pins it down to the motherboard, especially since it's been having trouble identifying the devices on the ide controllers. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it takes a while, sometimes it's fast.

I guess at this point, the fix is a replacement motherboard. I don't know where I'm going to find a motherboard that will fit an 800MHz P3 5-6 years after it was first released. And not have it cost a boatload since it's an older part and there may not be many of them laying around anymore.

I guess one possible fix, if it's the ide controller(s) and not the board itself, could I get a PCI IDE controller card and make it the primary controller and take the ones on the motherboard itself totally out of the loop? Can you boot from a PCI-based controller? Seems like it'd be something that you can't do, but you never know.
 
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