# Help!!! XP won't install on new PC build



## irish_lord99

(duplicate from thread in "desktop" forum)

Okay, so this is my first build from scratch since 2003... some new technology has come out that I'm not used to, but I'm hoping that compatibility issues aren't my problem here. Maybe you guys can help me out.

I've got a Gigabyte S-series mother board (GA-H55M-s2v)
Intel i3 550 processor
4GB DDR3 1600 RAM (g.skill brand)
WD caviar blue 1TB hard drive
Generic HP DVD drive

I've actually got 4 more Gigs of RAM and a killer video card for it to, but in the interests of just getting XP installed I've removed them (read it on a different forum) to get the most basic bare-bones system I can going.

The more I think about it, the more I wonder if my WinXP disk isn't just scratched.

Here's what happened:

First, assembled the whole computer turned it on. BIOS showed all the equipment, but for the HD instead of listing it as a 1TB WD 10EALX or whatever, it gave the name as brbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbr brbrbrbrbrbr and listed the capacity at just over 500GB. I switched SATA cables for the drive and that seemed to solve the problem, it registered correctly after that.

Then I tried installing windows XP. First time around it said that it couldn't partition the hard drive. I tried it again, with a successful partition and install, but then during setup (in the "colorful" part, past the blue and white screen) it went blue screen of death on me. Tried restarting and got a different error message about the registry being wrong.

I've tried tweaking BIOS, I've tried almost everything I can think of and after several dozen attempts to get it working, I still can't.

Are dual core processors and Win XP compatible? Has anyone run into this before? Any way to check and make sure my XP disk is okay?

Any ideas out there? Thanks,

~Jake.


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## voyagerfan99

If you have 4 more gigs of RAM why put XP on it? Why not go with Windows 7 64-bit?


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## PohTayToez

Sounds like a problem with either the mobo or hard drive, and I'd be leaning pretty strongly towards hard drive.


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## irish_lord99

'cause I'm too cheap to go out and buy Windows 7  

We'll see... now the thing won't even format for me.  I'll try and find another hard drive and see if I can get it to work with that...


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## irish_lord99

Okay, so I went out and bought a new HD and IT STILL WON'T WORK!!!  The only thing left that could be bad is the RAM (I hope!).  My God, I was trying to build a system on the cheap, but I'm totally getting screwed on the financial side of this.  I've tried both sticks of RAM, and I can't imagine that they're both bad?  I've read reviews off of Newegg where guys build essentially the same computer as I'm building with no problems so it can't be a compatibility issue... 

Jeez... any other ideas?


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## Doctor Varney

irish_lord99 said:


> Are dual core processors and Win XP compatible? Has anyone run into this before?
> 
> ~Jake.



Hi Jake.  As far as I know, yes dual core processors are Win XP compatible... if that's any help to you.  Sorry I can't be of more help.  I would refer to the dealer who sold you the board if possible.  Can you get in touch with them?

To check the condition of the Windows disk itself would involve seeing if another computer (possibly a friend or relative's) machine can see it and if they can boot off it.  It wouldn't do any harm and would be a good troubleshooting option.

I once had this problem with a brand new MSI motherboard, which I purchased online.  We could not install anything so we checked with the supplier and they agreed to take it back.  Shortly after, a new motherboard arrived in the post, with a note saying that the original had been faulty.  So I think it's worth checking with them as soon as possible.

Before you do, have you checked your boot disk priority in the BIOS and made sure that it knows the drive you are about to install on is of the SATA type?

Dr. V


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## sdfox 7

> If you have 4 more gigs of RAM why put XP on it? Why not go with Windows 7 64-bit?



Better yet, why not go XP 64 bit?


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## Doctor Varney

voyagerfan99 said:


> If you have 4 more gigs of RAM why put XP on it? Why not go with Windows 7 64-bit?





sdfox 7 said:


> Better yet, why not go XP 64 bit?



His computer seems not to be working properly because it won't install an OS and he needs to find out why.  Until he does, there's no reason to try a different OS.  That wasn't the question in the first place.

Dr. V


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## Okedokey

Did you install the sata drivers (F6 method) on windows install start up.

I would do the following:


Ensure you have the latest BIOS http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/BIOS/mb_bios_ga-h55m-s2v_f3.exe
Set bios to default fail safe mode.
Download these sata (ACHI) drivers and put them on a floppy disk (yes a floppy i know) http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Driver/motherboard_driver_intel_sata_irst_32.exe
Start Windows (boot from cd) and when it says at the bottom press F6
Point Windows install to the downloaded F6 drivers for your motherboard
INstall windows.

However, please note, if you have a modern graphics card with 1GB of GDDR(or worse if 2GB), and 4GB of RAM with a 32 bit OS you will struggle to see more than 3GB useful.  You really need a Windows 7 64 bit OS< and although you cant get any OS to work thus far, I do believe you will have much more success with a Windows 7 OS as it has all the modern drivers required within the install.

Either way, update your bios and see if that helps.


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## voyagerfan99

Doctor Varney said:


> His computer seems not to be working properly because it won't install an OS and he needs to find out why.  Until he does, there's no reason to try a different OS.  That wasn't the question in the first place.
> 
> Dr. V



You'd be surprised how hard it is to install XP on a newer machine.


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## S.T.A.R.S.

Try this:

-Unplug your computer from ALL wires completely...
-Take the CMOS 3V lithium battery on your motherboard out and then press the power button on your computer to release all the power that has left in the chips...
-Leave your computer like that for 10 minutes at least...
-After 10 minutes,return the CMOS battery back and plug all the wires back to the computer...
-Go in the BIOS...
-Load OPTIMAL defaults...
-Save the BIOS changes to CMOS and restart your computer by using the BIOS options for that.They are usually under the EXIT tab...
-Now go in the BIOS again...
-Find the option called "SATA controller mode" or similar and change the AHCI to COMPATIBILITY mode...
-Now go to the BOOT section and set your CD/DVD-ROM drive to be the first device to boot from,your 1 TB hard disk drive as the second device to boot from and all other devices put after...
-Save the BIOS changes to CMOS and restart your computer by using the BIOS options for that...
-Boot from your Microsoft Windows XP operating system CD-ROM disk...
-On the partitions section,delete ALL partitions and select the UNPARTITIONED SPACE and then select FORMAT THIS PARTITION USING THE NTFS FILE SYSTEM...

NOTE: Do not create the new partition manually.Just delete ALL partitions and select the UNPARTITIONED SPACE.Windows XP will create the partition automatically!

Try this and report if it helped.





Cheers!My sellphone sucks by the way... xD xD xD


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## Okedokey

S.T.A.R.S. said:


> Try this:
> 
> -Unplug your computer from ALL wires completely...
> -Take the CMOS 3V lithium battery on your motherboard out and then press the power button on your computer to release all the power that has left in the chips...
> -Leave your computer like that for 10 minutes at least...
> -After 10 minutes,return the CMOS battery back and plug all the wires back to the computer...
> -Go in the BIOS...
> -Load OPTIMAL defaults...
> -Save the BIOS changes to CMOS and restart your computer by using the BIOS options for that.They are usually under the EXIT tab...
> -Now go in the BIOS again...
> -Find the option called "SATA controller mode" or similar and change the AHCI to COMPATIBILITY mode...
> -Now go to the BOOT section and set your CD/DVD-ROM drive to be the first device to boot from,your 1 TB hard disk drive as the second device to boot from and all other devices put after...
> -Save the BIOS changes to CMOS and restart your computer by using the BIOS options for that...
> -Boot from your Microsoft Windows XP operating system CD-ROM disk...
> -On the partitions section,delete ALL partitions and select the




Really a waste of a post.  I said exactly the same thing, more concisely.



bigfellla said:


> Did you install the sata drivers (F6 method) on windows install start up.
> 
> I would do the following:
> 
> 
> Ensure you have the latest BIOS http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/BIOS/mb_bios_ga-h55m-s2v_f3.exe
> Set bios to default fail safe mode.
> Download these sata (ACHI) drivers and put them on a floppy disk (yes a floppy i know) http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Driver/motherboard_driver_intel_sata_irst_32.exe
> Start Windows (boot from cd) and when it says at the bottom press F6
> Point Windows install to the downloaded F6 drivers for your motherboard
> INstall windows.
> 
> However, please note, if you have a modern graphics card with 1GB of GDDR(or worse if 2GB), and 4GB of RAM with a 32 bit OS you will struggle to see more than 3GB useful.  You really need a Windows 7 64 bit OS< and although you cant get any OS to work thus far, I do believe you will have much more success with a Windows 7 OS as it has all the modern drivers required within the install.
> 
> Either way, update your bios and see if that helps.



The motherboad F6 drivers and latest bios is on the gigabyte website I included.  No need to much around with a CMOS clear as the BIOS update does the same thing.  No need to much around with comppatiabilty mode, as that BIOS settings don't have such a thing, however fail safe (default) settings do the same thing.  Really, man, read the previous posts.


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## S.T.A.R.S.

bigfellla said:


> Really a waste of a post. I said exactly the same thing, more concisely.
> 
> 
> 
> The motherboad F6 drivers and latest bios is on the gigabyte website I included. No need to much around with a CMOS clear as the BIOS update does the same thing. No need to much around with comppatiabilty mode, as that BIOS settings don't have such a thing, however fail safe (default) settings do the same thing. Really, man, read the previous posts.


 
I just tryed to help him.That's all...


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## pane-free

irish_lord99 said:


> 'cause I'm too cheap to go out and buy Windows 7
> 
> We'll see... now the thing won't even format for me.  I'll try and find another hard drive and see if I can get it to work with that...



Upgrade to Linux -- it's free.  If you desire gaming, spend your money on CrossOver, as a suggestion!

Best wishes!


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## Doctor Varney

voyagerfan99 said:


> You'd be surprised how hard it is to install XP on a newer machine.



Interesting.  Why?  I'm planning to, as all of my important software was purchased while I had XP, so I intend to keep it for the new machine.  What difficulties am I going to experience and why?

Dr. V


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## cabinfever1977

aslong as you have xp drivers for everything on/in the computer, you should be fine.


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## AlienMenace

try taking out the extra ram and leaving it with 2gigs in it. And if you are trying to load the xp x86, which is 32 bit version. It will only read 3.25gb of ram max. So, if you bought more than 3gb. You should get a x64 OS. 
And besides about installing xp on new computers, it is not that hard. I run windows xp x64 on a amd mb, 955 quad core with no problems.


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## Okedokey

AlienMenace said:


> try taking out the extra ram and leaving it with 2gigs in it. And if you are trying to load the xp x86, which is 32 bit version. It will only read 3.25gb of ram max. So, if you bought more than 3gb. You should get a x64 OS.



Not quite true.  Windows 32 bit will address a maximum of 4GB which is 2^32 = 4GB.  That however includes graphics, hard drive memory and system RAM which is why if you have 4GB + installed on a 32 bit version of Windows XP, the OS will only have available 4GB - everything else.


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## StrangleHold

Yeah, it will reserve some for your hardware memory adresses.


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## jd132

have made sure the drive in bios is set to compatibility?


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## jd132

also your memory may be bad...ive had a fewbad sticks do somthing similar to my pc. good luck.


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## S.T.A.R.S.

In your BIOS you should find the option called "SATA controller" if you have it of course and chage AHCI to COMPATIBILITY if you can.

If you cannot change to COMPATIBILITY mode then you are force to install XP on AHCI mode.In order to make XP work on AHCI,you must make the ISO image file of your XP disk,slipstream the AHCI drivers in XP ISO image file and burn it on the blank disk again and install XP OS from it.

Anyway try that first before buying new hardware components such as RAM memory.




Cheers!


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## Hsv_Man

Make sure you haven't got the original XP home/professional disk as they don't support pci-express x16 video cards and will cause a BSOD on install. After sp2 this is no longer an issue.


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## S.T.A.R.S.

Hsv_Man said:


> Make sure you haven't got the original XP home/professional disk as they don't support pci-express x16 video cards and will cause a BSOD on install. After sp2 this is no longer an issue.


 
LoL there are original XP disks with SP1,SP2 or SP3 built in so maybe he gets lucky and get the original XP disk with SP3


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## johnb35

Hsv_Man said:


> Make sure you haven't got the original XP home/professional disk as they don't support pci-express x16 video cards and will cause a BSOD on install. After sp2 this is no longer an issue.



Show me proof that that is actually true.  

The only issue I can see if he is using a pre SP1 XP install cd that doesn't have the sata controller built in or the sata controller in the bios is set to ahci instead of IDE/compatibility.  In that case you will get a blue screen.


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## lucasbytegenius

Just wanted to point out that XP's support will end in 2012 and you'll be much better off if you went with Windows 7.


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## johnb35

lucasbytegenius said:


> Just wanted to point out that XP's support will end in 2012 and you'll be much better off if you went with Windows 7.



I thought it was 2012 as well but checked yesterday and it is in fact April 8 2014 for XP SP3.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/products/lifecycle


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## nvs41

*Same problem*

I have just had this exact same problem. I returned the hardware to the supplier for them to sort out. They told me that this new Gigabyte motherboard will only load with XP Professional Service Pack 3 or later, I only have service pack 1. Believe it or not ??


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## lucasbytegenius

nvs41 said:


> I have just had this exact same problem. I returned the hardware to the supplier for them to sort out. They told me that this new Gigabyte motherboard will only load with XP Professional Service Pack 3 or later, I only have service pack 1. Believe it or not ??



Er do you need help or not?
If you need help, then please make a new thread in the appropriate section explaining your problem and we'll be happy to help


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## S.T.A.R.S.

johnb35 said:


> The only issue I can see if he is using a pre SP1 XP install cd that doesn't have the sata controller built in or the sata controller in the bios is set to ahci instead of IDE/compatibility. In that case you will get a blue screen.


 
Exactly.


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## lucasbytegenius

Also wanted to input that only Windows XP Professional supports more than one processor or core.
I don't know if it's mentioned what version of XP he had, but if it's Pro, well, he's good in the processor department


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## Okedokey

lucasbytegenius said:


> Also wanted to input that only Windows XP Professional supports more than one processor or core.
> I don't know if it's mentioned what version of XP he had, but if it's Pro, well, he's good in the processor department



That is simply incorrect.  All versions of XP SP2 or later support multicore CPUs.  XP Pro is the only one that supports multiple discrete processors, however this is not applicable here.


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## lucasbytegenius

bigfellla said:


> That is simply incorrect.  All versions of XP SP2 or later support multicore CPUs.  XP Pro is the only one that supports multiple discrete processors, however this is not applicable here.



Ah, well, I read the EULA for both OSs and I thought it took cores as discrete processors, sorry my mistake


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## S.T.A.R.S.

Hey by the way anyone here tryed Microsoft Windows XP Starter edition operating system?Any thoughts?


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## lucasbytegenius

S.T.A.R.S. said:


> Hey by the way anyone here tryed Microsoft Windows XP Starter edition operating system?Any thoughts?



Basic functionality. Personally I liked the gray bar on the boot screen


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