XP Install Problem - "The SETUP.EXE files is linked to missing export USER32.DLL"

[Scyber]

I am trying to install XP (from cd on a win98 box), but whenever I click on the setup.exe I get the following error:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Error Starting Program

The SETUP.EXE file is linked to missing export USER32.DLL:eA....
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It trails off past the error box at the end there. Anyone know what would cause this error? I search all over the net but could not find a reference to this.

-Scyber

 

[bsobel]

Try running winnt32 from the i386 directory, does that work for you?
Bill

 

[Scyber]

When I click on that file I get a winnt32a.dll error. It says the file is corrupt. Now this site:

http://www.explosivehardware.net/xp.htm

Reviewed winXP RC1 and said when they got this error, it was because they had an OEM version of the OS on their machine. Dince I have an OEM win98, does that mena I am gonna have to do a clean install on this box?

-Scyber

 

[bsobel]

Wow, I'm stumped on this one (been searching, didn't find any additional info either). You shouldn't HAVE to do a clean install, but this is very very werid. Also, the eA in USER32.DLL:eA isn't a valid export (well, the name is valid, but I'm pretty sure it's not used). Any chance your having disk read errors on the CD and the data is getting corrupted?
Bill

 

[manly]

This is known as DLL hell. I'm not an expert, but what the error message suggests is that the executable you're trying to run isn't finding the correct version of the library it needs.

USER32.DLL is a core OS library, so off hand, I would first try to do a full install of IE 5.5sp2 or something like that. Since IE5 or later is essentially an OS upgrade, it *might* update some of the libraries currently on your system.

If you're desperate, you can also reinstall W98 on to of your existing setup, and try again.

Although it's a pain in the ass, many techies would advise you to do a clean install instead of an upgrade.

 

[bsobel]

> This is known as DLL hell.

Don't think so, first, no version of IE updates user, so thats not going to help. Second, the error he's getting is in reference to a non existant export, I think there is data corruption going on here (just don't know why)
Bill

 

[Scyber]

Well i managed to go further by booting into dos and running from the command line. Once I got the missing EULA error solved, it seemed to be working fine. It took about an hour to copy all the files, then it told me to reboot. When I rebooted I prompted with an option:

1) Old operating system on C drive
2) Continue windows XP installation


I chose 2 and went back into the installation screen. However, before I get prompted to do anything I get the following error:

STOP: c0000221 Unknown Hard Error
\SystemRoot\System32\ntdll.dll


Anyone got some ideas?

 

[bsobel]

Any chance you cdrom is having trouble reading the disk for some reason? This all sounds like data corruption, and thats the only place I can think it is unless the cd is a dupe, which in that case maybe it's a bad burn?

Bill

 

[Scyber]

well I figured it may be a cdrom or harddrive error, so I went ahead an formatted the C partition (this is now the point of no return). I copied the files over and ran the install from dos again. It seemed to install fine, but it is going extremely slowly copying the files (progress bar is at 50% right now and I started last night at like 1 or 2 am). It is not a fast machine but I assume that it should be running faster than this. COuld this be b/c of not having Smartdrive installed?

I guess it will reboot while I am at work today. Hopefully, I won't get the ntdll.dll error again.


-Scyber

 

[manly]

Yes, you need SmartDrive to stream reads off the CD-ROM, otherwise you get horrid results.

It's better to cancel it right now, and start over w/ SmartDrive than ride it out.

 

[Scyber]

Well, I am at work right now so cancelling is not an option. Will installing w/o smartdrive causes the errors I am referring or will it just take forever? Also, I am not installing from the CD, rather I copied the CD to my harddrive (the 2nd partition) and installed from there. This is how I always do my windows installs, could this be part of the problem?

 

[Scyber]

Well, it appears as if copying to my hardrive is the root of my problem. I copied the files over in win98 and somehow they seem to have been corrupted. I copied over ntdll.dll from the install cd in DOS and I made it past that error, but then it crashed saying that it could not copy ksecdd.sys. So I copied over all the .sys files in dos. Then it crashed on bootvid.dll. So now I am going to copy over the files in dos again..........This is going to be one long night