Cannot Get XP Installation CD to Run on New Box

I just assembled an ECS 945GCT-M rev 1 motherboard with a E2180 processor.

This board has one IDE channel. The CD drive is detected as master, the
hard drive is detected as "third IDE slave". It also supports a floppy
drive.

I want to install XP pro on the hard drive from CD and have the bios set to
boot from the CD drive. I get the message to hit any key to boot from CD,
the CD spins for awhile and then the system reboots and the same process
starts anew.

I have changed out the CD drive with the same result.

I put the xp CD in a vista machine and tried to boot from it but it acts the
same as with the ECS machine....it asks me to press any key to boot from CD,
churns for awhile, then reboots.

Going back to the ECS board, using a Win 98 boot floppy, I can log onto the
xp CD and read it's directory. But when I try to run setup.exe, it tells me
that it cannot be run from a dos environment.

The hard drive is was formatted FAT 32 and marked "active" on a Vista
machine.

Maybe I am overlooking something, maybe the the XP CD is bad (there is no
visible damage to my eyes).

How can I get the new box running? Can a run something other than "setup"
on the XP CD and perhaps bypass this problem?

Thank you.

Mike

"JB" wrote in message
...
I just assembled an ECS 945GCT-M rev 1 motherboard with a E2180 processor.

This board has one IDE channel. The CD drive is detected as master, the
hard drive is detected as "third IDE slave". It also supports a floppy
drive.

I want to install XP pro on the hard drive from CD and have the bios set
to
boot from the CD drive. I get the message to hit any key to boot from
CD,
the CD spins for awhile and then the system reboots and the same process
starts anew.

I have changed out the CD drive with the same result.

I put the xp CD in a vista machine and tried to boot from it but it acts
the
same as with the ECS machine....it asks me to press any key to boot from
CD,
churns for awhile, then reboots.

Going back to the ECS board, using a Win 98 boot floppy, I can log onto
the
xp CD and read it's directory. But when I try to run setup.exe, it tells
me
that it cannot be run from a dos environment.

The hard drive is was formatted FAT 32 and marked "active" on a Vista
machine.

Maybe I am overlooking something, maybe the the XP CD is bad (there is no
visible damage to my eyes).

How can I get the new box running? Can a run something other than "setup"
on the XP CD and perhaps bypass this problem?

Thank you.

Mike



Correct...you cannot run setup from dos...
the correct dos command to install XP would be: winnt

However to load XP that way you'd want to copy the setup files to your HD
then it's also important to load smartdrv first or your install will take
forever (if it completes at all)

A better alternative would be download a set of boot floppies for XP
from Microsoft

"philo" wrote in message
...

"JB" wrote in message
...
I just assembled an ECS 945GCT-M rev 1 motherboard with a E2180
processor.

This board has one IDE channel. The CD drive is detected as master, the
hard drive is detected as "third IDE slave". It also supports a floppy
drive.

I want to install XP pro on the hard drive from CD and have the bios set
to
boot from the CD drive. I get the message to hit any key to boot from
CD,
the CD spins for awhile and then the system reboots and the same process
starts anew.

I have changed out the CD drive with the same result.

I put the xp CD in a vista machine and tried to boot from it but it acts
the
same as with the ECS machine....it asks me to press any key to boot from
CD,
churns for awhile, then reboots.

Going back to the ECS board, using a Win 98 boot floppy, I can log onto
the
xp CD and read it's directory. But when I try to run setup.exe, it tells
me
that it cannot be run from a dos environment.

The hard drive is was formatted FAT 32 and marked "active" on a Vista
machine.

Maybe I am overlooking something, maybe the the XP CD is bad (there is no
visible damage to my eyes).

How can I get the new box running? Can a run something other than
"setup"
on the XP CD and perhaps bypass this problem?

Thank you.

Mike



Correct...you cannot run setup from dos...
the correct dos command to install XP would be: winnt

I logged onto the CD after booting from the floppy, changed the directory to
I386 and tried to run winnt but it generates an error.


However to load XP that way you'd want to copy the setup files to your HD
then it's also important to load smartdrv first or your install will take
forever (if it completes at all)

A better alternative would be download a set of boot floppies for XP
from Microsoft

I'd sure like to avoid that. Microsoft's instructions say to insert the CD,
reboot and hit the space bar when it invites me to boot from the CD. But,
as I said, that causes the machine to reboot.

In pondering why it crashes at that point, it occurs to me that I am running
PC6400 memory but the motherboard only supports PC5300. The timing and
speed should not be a problem but the faster memory requires 2V at it's
rated speed. The mobo can only supply 1.84v

Thanks for your input.

JB wrote:
I just assembled an ECS 945GCT-M rev 1 motherboard with a E2180 processor.

This board has one IDE channel. The CD drive is detected as master,
the hard drive is detected as "third IDE slave". It also supports a
floppy drive.

I want to install XP pro on the hard drive from CD and have the bios set
to boot from the CD drive. I get the message to hit any key to boot
from CD, the CD spins for awhile and then the system reboots and the
same process starts anew.

I have changed out the CD drive with the same result.


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994



The other way would be to copy every file and folder on the CD to C:\xp.
If this works without errors you can add a 2KB boot track then create
a bootable ISO with MagicISO or similar.

philo wrote:

Correct...you cannot run setup from dos...
the correct dos command to install XP would be: winnt

http://www.bootdisk.com/txtfiles/xpboot1.txt
Depends on the version of XP.

--
http://www.bootdisk.com/

JB wrote:

I just assembled an ECS 945GCT-M rev 1 motherboard with a E2180 processor.

Grin... Sounds like the "tech" support questions I get..

ie I got a RT456 but cant get it to work with me cyfix 23E. How do I fix
this?




--
http://www.bootdisk.com/

"JB" wrote in message
...

"philo" wrote in message
...

"JB" wrote in message
...
I just assembled an ECS 945GCT-M rev 1 motherboard with a E2180
processor.

This board has one IDE channel. The CD drive is detected as master,
the
hard drive is detected as "third IDE slave". It also supports a floppy
drive.

I want to install XP pro on the hard drive from CD and have the bios
set
to
boot from the CD drive. I get the message to hit any key to boot from
CD,
the CD spins for awhile and then the system reboots and the same
process
starts anew.

I have changed out the CD drive with the same result.

I put the xp CD in a vista machine and tried to boot from it but it
acts
the
same as with the ECS machine....it asks me to press any key to boot
from
CD,
churns for awhile, then reboots.

Going back to the ECS board, using a Win 98 boot floppy, I can log onto
the
xp CD and read it's directory. But when I try to run setup.exe, it
tells
me
that it cannot be run from a dos environment.

The hard drive is was formatted FAT 32 and marked "active" on a Vista
machine.

Maybe I am overlooking something, maybe the the XP CD is bad (there is
no
visible damage to my eyes).

How can I get the new box running? Can a run something other than
"setup"
on the XP CD and perhaps bypass this problem?

Thank you.

Mike



Correct...you cannot run setup from dos...
the correct dos command to install XP would be: winnt

I logged onto the CD after booting from the floppy, changed the directory
to
I386 and tried to run winnt but it generates an error.


However to load XP that way you'd want to copy the setup files to your
HD
then it's also important to load smartdrv first or your install will
take
forever (if it completes at all)

A better alternative would be download a set of boot floppies for XP
from Microsoft

I'd sure like to avoid that. Microsoft's instructions say to insert the
CD,
reboot and hit the space bar when it invites me to boot from the CD. But,
as I said, that causes the machine to reboot.

In pondering why it crashes at that point, it occurs to me that I am
running
PC6400 memory but the motherboard only supports PC5300. The timing and
speed should not be a problem but the faster memory requires 2V at it's
rated speed. The mobo can only supply 1.84v

Thanks for your input.



Aha! I'd guess the problem then is with the incorrect RAM voltage...
I'd be sure to get compatable RAM first!

BTW: The boot disk method works fine. There are 4 disks required but it's
asy to do.
All you have to do is macke sure that "boot from floppy" is the first option
in the bios.

Finally...if you do the setup from dos (by running winnt) you *do* have to
load smartdrv first.
but even if you didn't, it should not have crashed...so again...it's prob.
due to the RAM

"JB" wrote in message
...
I just assembled an ECS 945GCT-M rev 1 motherboard with a E2180 processor.

This board has one IDE channel. The CD drive is detected as master, the
hard drive is detected as "third IDE slave". It also supports a floppy
drive.

Whilst I don't think it will make any difference I suggest changing it
around so the hard drive is the primary master.

I want to install XP pro on the hard drive from CD and have the bios set
to boot from the CD drive. I get the message to hit any key to boot from
CD, the CD spins for awhile and then the system reboots and the same
process starts anew.

When the pc reboots as part of the installation process (assuming it gets
that far) it probably expects to reboot from the disk rather that the cd.
While you are trying to set it up why not change the boot order to HD then
CD, you can always change it again in the BIOS after its up.

I have changed out the CD drive with the same result.

I put the xp CD in a vista machine and tried to boot from it but it acts
the same as with the ECS machine....it asks me to press any key to boot
from CD, churns for awhile, then reboots.

Going back to the ECS board, using a Win 98 boot floppy, I can log onto
the xp CD and read it's directory. But when I try to run setup.exe, it
tells me that it cannot be run from a dos environment.

The hard drive is was formatted FAT 32 and marked "active" on a Vista
machine.

How large is the disk (or at least the active partition)? I could be wrong
here but I think XP may have problems if its a large drive (over 4GB I
think) formatted fat32, I suggest allowing the setup (assuming it gets that
far) to reformat it.

Maybe I am overlooking something, maybe the the XP CD is bad (there is no
visible damage to my eyes).

How can I get the new box running? Can a run something other than "setup"
on the XP CD and perhaps bypass this problem?

Hope you get it sorted.
--
Brian Cryer
www.cryer.co.uk/brian

"JB" wrote:

In pondering why it crashes at that point, it occurs to me that I am
running PC6400 memory but the motherboard only supports PC5300. The
timing and speed should not be a problem but the faster memory requires 2V
at it's rated speed. The mobo can only supply 1.84v

Download memtest86 and make a boot disk from it. It will run from the cd or
floppy and test your RAM; should only take a few passes to tell you if
you're RAM is wonky from the lower voltage.

Jon

"Brian Cryer" wrote in message
...
"JB" wrote in message
...
I just assembled an ECS 945GCT-M rev 1 motherboard with a E2180 processor.

This board has one IDE channel. The CD drive is detected as master, the
hard drive is detected as "third IDE slave". It also supports a floppy
drive.

Whilst I don't think it will make any difference I suggest changing it
around so the hard drive is the primary master.

I want to install XP pro on the hard drive from CD and have the bios set
to boot from the CD drive. I get the message to hit any key to boot
from CD, the CD spins for awhile and then the system reboots and the same
process starts anew.

When the pc reboots as part of the installation process (assuming it gets
that far) it probably expects to reboot from the disk rather that the cd.
While you are trying to set it up why not change the boot order to HD then
CD, you can always change it again in the BIOS after its up.

I have changed out the CD drive with the same result.

I put the xp CD in a vista machine and tried to boot from it but it acts
the same as with the ECS machine....it asks me to press any key to boot
from CD, churns for awhile, then reboots.

Going back to the ECS board, using a Win 98 boot floppy, I can log onto
the xp CD and read it's directory. But when I try to run setup.exe, it
tells me that it cannot be run from a dos environment.

The hard drive is was formatted FAT 32 and marked "active" on a Vista
machine.

How large is the disk (or at least the active partition)? I could be wrong
here but I think XP may have problems if its a large drive (over 4GB I
think) formatted fat32, I suggest allowing the setup (assuming it gets
that far) to reformat it.

Maybe I am overlooking something, maybe the the XP CD is bad (there is no
visible damage to my eyes).

How can I get the new box running? Can a run something other than
"setup" on the XP CD and perhaps bypass this problem?

Hope you get it sorted.
--
Brian Cryer
www.cryer.co.uk/brian

Thanks to all of you who replied.

But so far nothing has worked and it looks like my XP CD is bad but I can't
prove it with Vista. Chkdsk does not work on RAW volumes and I can't find
another tool to check it. I tried to copy the i386 folder on two Vista
machines but the process failed on many files.

Prior to that, I did interchange the boot order of the CD and HDs as Brian
suggested although I did not shrink the primary partition.

I did load Win ME and it worked fine except I could not get it to recognize
the CD drive. I was unable to locate a driver for either of my CD drives
although firmware updates are available. I then tried to install XP using
the ME setup floppy to get access to the CD but ther original symptoms
remained..

Next I made XP floppy setup disks and thought I was in business. But the
setup program was unable to so many files I finally gave up.

But the verbiage indicates their could be a path confusion problem in the
installation code also or maybe the bios. The machine only has one IDE
channel and reports the CD and HD as third IDE master and slave,
respectively. But when I run the first xp setup floppy, the c: partition
information shows as "c: Partition (unknown) 131072 MB (131071 MB free) on
131070 MB Disk 0 at Id1 on bus 0 on ATAPI (MBR).

It also made me put in the ME CD to prove ownership because it could not
find a copy on the machine...and ME was installed! It thinks I am using
upgrade disks but all my OS disks are full versions. The XP pro disk is a
special version however...I've forgotten what they called it.

I wonder if interchanging the master/slave positions would fix this...I have
heard of such situations. The board supports several sata drives and I
also wonder if one of those would make any difference.

It's o'dark thirty and my head is spinning so I am going to give up for
awhile.