Windows won't install

[vegetivita]

# Overview of the problem
My computer won't read my windows XP home disc


# Full description of the problem and symptoms
This all started 2-3 weeks ago when my computer started freezing once a day, fast forward a week and it's upto 2-3 freezes per day and occasionally on start-up...now a week ago it was upto an incredible amount of freezes, sometimes during start-up, sometimes as soon as it hit the desktop, others I could sit on my desktop for hours and come home to a functional computer

Issue #2(and the main problem to overcome(if I can't boot up to windows, it can't freeze on me!))
Having had enough one day, I took a friend's advice and reformatted my computer (it would still freeze on start-up however, just not as often) and begin installing windows XP home, it loads it's setup files and prompts me to press enter to install a new windows...it then says there's no disc in the drive, I take it out to see if there are scratches, but the disc is as clean as can be so I try it again and still nothing...this is where I've been stuck for a couple days now


# Did it work normally at one time, or has the problem always existed?
Up until 2-3 weeks ago, the computer was running perfectly fine



# Is the problem consistent and repeatable, or entirely random, or semi-random?
The freezing problem would happen completely randomly...sometimes just once, sometimes 20+ times in a big frustrating clump

The windows XP home disc not being read problem hasn't happened in my previous windows reinstallations


# I already tried these steps:
Haven't been able to try anything other than cleaning the disc


# My software:
Not entirely sure, unfortunately




# My hardware
I'm about as computer-illiterate of a person as you'll find


# Other information that might be relevant
None at this time

 

[Old Hippie]

it then says there's no disc in the drive,

You sure it's not telling you that there's no hard drive to boot from?

It kinda sounds like your hard drive was going bad and now it's failed.

 

[robisbell]

or you were infected and it's corrupted the optical drive firmware and possibly the BIOS itself.

 

[Gustavus]

From what you say, I doubt very much that it is your Windows CD that is at fault. I assume you have access to another computer -- from which you no doubt posted your question. Why don't you go on line and make a copy of anyone of the several boot CD's out there. Go into your BIOS and change the order for boot drives so that your computer boots first from the CD and then try booting from the boot CD you made. If that works, then you can rule out the CD reader as the problem. By the same token, try reading your Windows CD in the known good computer -- don't install Windows, just explore the CD. If that works then you will know that neither your CD nor your CD reader is at fault.

Since you say you are computer illiterate, I assume you haven't mucked about in the BIOS like most of us do, but if you have, press DEL on the start of a boot and record the settings you have made in the BIOS so you can restore them easily later. Then move the jumper on the motherboard to clear the CMOS. This will return you to the default settings for your motherboard. Now try installing Windows again. Almost all of the boot CD's I know of have FDISK and FORMAT on them so you might wish to format your hardrive again so that you are starting with a clean slate. With the BIOS set to default and the CD and CD drive proven to be OK I can't imagine a fresh Windows install could go wrong. I know this is a lot of effort, but it is what I would do if I were in the situation you are.

As one of the other members said, you could be having a harddrive problem, but from your description, I don't think so.

Good luck.

 

[piasabird]

Optical Drive Lens is dirty. Hey it happens. Things get old and ware out.

Power fluctuating from Power Supply? These two below could be indicative of a bad power supply.

Hard Drive Failure.

Bad RAM.

 

[Laputa]

Likely a bad drive. Could be either the reader going bad or the hard drive, but should more like a hard drive issue based on what was told here. You can still test the CD in another drive is you have a spare one to play with. If you are having the same problem, you can try removing the RAM and test with different RAM if you have extra one to play around with as well. These setups will help you narrow down the issue to the cause. Could also be a bad optical drive though. Just need to try changing one thing at the time until you found the cause.

 

[vegetivita]

Bit of an update: I bought a new hard drive but windows still won't install

Error message: INF file txtsetup.sif is corrupt or missing, status 32768.

 

[jackschmittusa]

Bad ram can cause problems like this. Download Memtest and run it.

 

[ch33kym0use]

Start with software troubleshooting first, after that's done. Check and replace hardware. Process of elimination. It's all about the skill.

 

[HdwGuy]

You need a systemmatic approch to the problem. Order I would rank the likelyhood of fixing your problem is for me as follows

Bad memory I have seen this too many times if Windows will not install from the optical drive check your memory with memtest86 Make sure the bios power and timeings are correct for your memory.

Bad optical drive Had this bite me before too

Bad media Do you have gouges, deep scratches, fingerprints on the CD Is it a pressed Cd and not a burned copy? Burned cd's WILL cease working some time in the future. They are not a viable backup solution!


Things to try

If you can try the windows cd on another pc. If it installs that elimantes the Media. Not everyone has a junk system laying around that they can test on.

Good luck