XP Booting problems

[Jeep42]

Thanks for your help. Looks like the cd drive has die. I will be order a new one soon or where would it be cheaper? The notebook has CD-RW and DVD Rom in same drive. Again thanks for your input.

[RoyalSerpent]

Try a factory-pressed CD.  If the optical cannot read this type of media, then you may need to clean the laser (lens).  Note that burned media will have lower reflectivity.  That's why you should always burn at a low speed and use quality media to avoid PIF errors.  I only use Taiyo Yuden CD and DVD+R media.  Verbatim DVD+R is also okay.  You can create a WXP boot disc with DVD media.  No need to stick to CD, especially if you slipstream drivers to the disc.

Newegg.com is a good place to order hardware.

[Jeep42]

Thanks for your input. How do I create a wxp boot dvd? Is it possible to fix an xp boot fileusing the Restore CDs? I ordered a new cd/dvd drive. Thanks for Newegg.com. Thanks again.

[RoyalSerpent]

Use the free Nlite program to combine essential data to WXP CD.  Copy all data from the WXP CD to a folder on the hard drive.  Now launch Nlite to add service pack and drivers like video, chipset, LAN, modem, WiFi etc to WXP.  Nlite will integrate these items and burn the data to an *.ISO file on the hard drive.  Use the free Image Burn application to write the ISO file to a blank DVD.  You now have a bootable WXP DVD containing the essential drivers for your PC.  Reboot with this DVD by setting the optical drive as 1st boot and you will be able to load WXP.

[Jeep42]

I just received the new hard drive and cd-rw\dvd-rom today. I installed both and was able to boot from cd, but it kept hanging up when setup said "starting windows". Now it will not boot from cd-rw\dvd-rom again. The same thing is happening. I power on and the cd only spins a couple a seconds and then I see a blinking line at the top left of screen. Could it be the motherboard? Thanks,

[Jeep42]

Nothing happens when I press F9. During power on and after.

I just received the new hard drive and cd-rw\dvd-rom today. I installed both and was able to boot from cd, but it kept hanging up when setup said "starting windows". Now it will not boot from cd-rw\dvd-rom again. The same thing is happening. I power on and the cd only spins a couple a seconds and then I see a blinking line at the top left of screen. Could it be the motherboard? Thanks,

[RoyalSerpent]

Did you get past the part when XP would load the essential drivers?  Not sure if you need to track down a SATA driver for that particular motherboard.  At least upgrade the installation CD to SP3.  Nlite will allow you to add all essential drivers to the installation CD/DVD.

IBM used to be very good in the documentation department.  Course this would translate to a higher purchase price.  When IBM could no longer make a decent return on the PC business, it sold the notebook arm to Lenovo.  The same with the hard drive business...now Hitachi.

It's not a big deal to disclose the full spec of a PC...Bill of Material (BOM).  Course the hidden goal is to make upgrade/downgrade as hard as possible so that tech support is not burdened with these type of calls.

Most customers are still happy with HP because they don't plan to reverse engineer the PC.

[Jeep42]

It did you get past the part when XP would load the essential drivers. It hangs when starting windows, right after the load of drivers. I have a IDE hard drive. What could I do to fix. I really need my notebook up and running by this weekend. Thanks

[hypercomputers]

Hello All,

I am a computer repair company. I currently have a DV2000 (DV2100) in my shop for the same thing.  I have now seen this on 3 HP laptops. The other 2 were DV1000's. My customer told me that it was working fine yesterday, now today it is doing the blinking cursor. I reseated the hard drive and I got it to boot in to windows 1 time. I removed the drive and slaved it up to my desktop and tested it with Easy Recovery Professional. It passed. I am now using the BIOS' hard drive test utility. I am very confident it will pass. I think this problem is a manufacturing defect with the system board itself. I'm assuming the hard drive controlling chip which I think is part of the chipset.

I am now going to try to boot into windows to upgrade the BIOS. I worked on Dell laptops for 2 years and discovered some very interesting faults with Dell's as well. I hope this is not a big issue, but my gut feeling is telling me it is. If I figure it out, I'll post my results.

Oh, of course I made the HD the first boot device and there are no other devices attached. I might try removing the DVD rom. Maybe it's causing the hiccup.

Rgds,
Hyper Computers

[RoyalSerpent]

Check the BIOS to see if there's an option to change the SATA mode to ATA mode.  Major problem with these store bought PCs is the lack of hardware documentation.  Any attempt to deviate from the factory OS will result in major headache.