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xp pro install freezes at: Setup is Starting Windows

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dalearyous

Senior member
i need to reinstall windows on this dell machine. i have the original dell os cd. i popped it in and booted into windows setup (blue screen with white lettering etc...) it goes through the normal setup procedure and then freezes when it gets to Setup is Starting Windows. any idea?
 
I have a simular problem and will keep you informed if I find a fix. My problem started with delayed write failures which led to a re-install of XP on top of the existing install. Things went down from their. The install gets to the reboot just before the starting setup and goes into the reboot loop whick I see now is somewhat of a common problem. I had SP2 installed so I had to first remove that. I could not do it from the remove program menu because it could not find a file. I could not do a repair it would just stop responding. (maybe I did not wait long enough?) I think now its a HD issue or memory,or a virus. All of these were others problems along with early SP2 issues,hardware incompatability, etc...
Good Luck and if I get fixed I will post.
BUMP
 
The majority of setup issues can be attributed to one of the following:

  • Bad media
  • Bad IDE cable connecting CD/DVD-ROM
  • Bad CD/DVD-ROM drive
  • Bad stick(s) of memory
 
memtest passed the memory and the cd drive passed our stress test. the cd is the only thing i can think of even though i broke the seal on it for the first time. umm i need to reinstall windows because the computer got mowed down by viruses and spyware (its not my machine). the hard drive passed DFT and the mobo passed diagnostics. so i guess it has to be the cd even though thats real wierd.
 
I am getting through my problem but I have a second system that just also started to re-boot???? Did you just do any MS updates? I did it just before both these problems.....I did find several issues with mine one being 40 cond cable not a 80 pin..(I know better must have been a brain slip) Second the setting in bios were not correct when this system was setup (maybe a ms update fix fixed xp and caused my problems) Third I was not using the correct sata driver when the one computer was setup. I am almost back and will know tonight. All this troubleshooting takes time. The second machine is waiting.... 🙁 and in the back of my mind is still the possible virus question...
Hope you get an answer too soon.
 
If you're booting from the CD, its not a virus.

Typically, in my experience, when it hangs on "Setup is starting windows", it has been a bad IDE controller on the motherboard (both times). Thats just my experience.
 
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