Win XP Install..blinking cursor after reboot

[Beastmanh]

Hello everyone, first I'd like to say this looks like a great site and I plan to use it and pass it along as much as possible. Secondly, I started to install Win XP HOME on a pc, and when i went to format the HD it would get all the way to 100% and then tell me it failed formatting... I even tried another HD and got the same result... Then I put the HD in an external case and used my working machine to format it, and it formatted just fine... So I put it back into the OS'less machine and proceeded to install XP, it gave me an option to format or use the partition as is, and I used it as is... after the cd copied all the files windows starts to reboot and tells me if i have a floppy to take it out... I have tried leaving the cd IN and not "pressing any key to boot from cd" and it hangs up with the "press any key to boot from cd...." prompt on the screen... so I tried taking it out when it was ready to reboot.. and I get through the motherboard screen and then i get a white blinking cursor in the top left of the screen.... Im building this machine as a donation for a battered womens shelter, and I'm supposed to already have it done :\ please help if you can..

Beastmanh

[Ancient Dragon]

My guess is that you did not run the hardware compatability test program available at Microsoft. Most older computers and/or hardware (before 2001) will fail the test.

[caperjack]

and if that aint it ,remove all pci add in cards first, like modems and sound card,nic card ect ect then try reinstall winxp

[Beastmanh]

Is it possible to get a link to the test you're talking about?? I tried removing the modem and NIC with still the same result. And also how would I go about running the test if I only get a flashing cursor?

[caperjack]

My guess is that you did not run the hardware compatability test program available at Microsoft. Most older computers and/or hardware (before 2001) will fail the test.

I have install winxp pro on pent 133 mhz computer from the year 1996/7 no problems .it may have failed the test but ran winxp.

I would try getting a win98 bootdisk floppy and using it to fdisk and format the drive ,then try winxp install ,leave the fat32 win98 format and install winxp on it see what happens .you may well have a hard drive problem

[Beastmanh]

i tried a win 98 boot disk and no matter what bios boot order i had , it wouldnt boot from it. i tried using different combinations of memory, didnt help. At one point in time i got a cmos checksum error, and i replaced the cmos battery. did nothing for me. Then i went upstairs and got a 4 gig HD that i know works, and i go the same "could not format" error after going through the formatting process all the way to 100% everytime. I also had a cd rom drive that wasnt being recognized, so i took that out... same result. btw , its a 1.1GHz, 256 MB RAM and the last Bios update was in 2001.. not sure if that helps, but im at my WITS END with this thing.... especially doing it for free... AHHH! O and btw, if i dont press a key when the "press any key to boot from cd" comes up it just freezes.

[bobbyraw]

check the jumper setting on the HDD, also try another IDE cable. alsoif you have the option when your bios load, to choose boot device, use that ad select the HDD

[jbennet]

check your BIOS.

Some BIOSES have an option for "antivirus" or "bootsecotr protection" or "mbr overwrite protect". This needs to be OFF for partitioning and writing the bootloader to be successful.

[darsh999]

Some BIOSES have an option for "antivirus" or "bootsecotr protection" or "mbr overwrite protect". This needs to be OFF for partitioning and writing the bootloader to be successful.

I agree u need to turn off "MBR Overwite protect"....!!!