I'm installing Windows 98 first then I have the upgrade for XP. When I get to the part where Windows 98 asks for the Product Key is where I'm having trouble. The first time I left my computer sitting there while I searched for the key and when I came back later my computer was turned off. Next I entered the key but I entered it incorrectly and it gave me the numbers to cal and what not but then I got a black screen saying Windows Protection Error. You need to restart your computer. Have I messed something up? It's a new hard drive so I doubt anything is wrong with it. Should I try to put the product key in again or is something possibly wrong?
OK, I went ahead and entered my Product Key correctly and the dreaded blue screen came up saying there was a fatal error, occurance or something and I had to restart my computer. What gives? It did this same exact thing the last time I got a new hard drive. Do I have my hard drive plugged in correctly? Here is what the back of my hard drive looks like and is hooked up from left to right looks like: There is a four prong hook up and there is a cable hooked up to it. Example: .... There is a 10 prong hook up with nothing attached: Example: ..... ..... There is a 40+ prong hook up with a cable attached. Example: ................................ ................................ Does something need to be hooked to the 10 prong hook up? The ten prong hook up is the one that can be set from master to slave and what not with a plastic cap but there is no plastic cap on right now but I have one. What am I doing wrong? Is it hooked up correctly?
If your computer is rebooting on its own and you are getting fatal erros on both your old and new hard drives, then I would say that either your power supply or your motherboard is bad. Maybe even the memory.
it's hard to plug in a HD correctly and install an operating system, which is what you already did with '98, right? I would just reformat that puppy and start over.
Power supplys are pretty cheap and easy to install. Motorboard/processor/mem combos can be had at a cheap price as well. If you aren't computer savvy, labor can be pricey though for installation. There are a ton of guys on the BBS that can give you a better price than I can though. Thats if what I said is true, about your MB/CPU/mem or Power pack being the problem.
That's the thing, when I reformatted and stuff with my last drive it just did the same thing when I began to install. I think codell might be right, my motherboard/power supply/memory (I think you're talking about RAM codell) maybe be screwed up. Is there any definitive way to tell?
First, HP is right in that its not likely that your HD is installed incorrectly. If it was, the BIOS would probably never detect it and you couldn't even get to the OS installation part (plus, the notches in the HD and cables pretty much preven an incorrect plug in). Well, the best way to tell, would be to have a whole bunch of spare parts laying around and start switching out components until the problem stops. There is probably an easier way, but this is how I have always done it (hopefully R2K will chime in; he knows alot more than me about this stuff). You can get good RAM for about $20 and a power supply for under $10. Its worth the $30 to switch those out and see if it fixes it. If they don't fix it, then it has to be either your MB or CPU. If you have any extra cards plugged in, you might want to try removing all the non-vital ones (ones that your computer can still run without) and see if that does anything.
candycane, so, you had a harddrive running '98 just fine and tried an upgrade, and it failed. Then you bought a new harddrive, took out the old and tried to install '98 (which worked) then the upgrade to XP failed again? That does not sound like a hardware problem to me, unless your machine's hardware doesn't meet XPs requirements...which are 64 MB RAM and 233 Mhz CPU. here are all the hardware requirements for XP: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/upgrading/sysreqs.asp If I were you, I'd go return my XP upgrade for a Full Version (for the extra $100) and try that, before I'd start buying hardware and swapping parts. You should be able to get refunds on XP purchases.
No, no, no. I never got to the upgrade. When the computer was installing 98 it just quits in the middle of installation. I never got to the installation of XP.
HP, He said he was getting the protection errors with his old HD trying to upgrade to XP and with the new HD when trying to install W98 before trying an XP upgrade. So he is having protection errors/faults with two different OSs and two different HDs. At least, thats the way I read it.
Lets start from scratch... If I understand what you are saying, it seems like you turned it off in the middle of an install. Boot to floppy, fdisk and reformat your new drive with Fat32. then start installing your os from scrathc and tell us what happens. BTW...on top of your drive will be a diagram detailing what the jumper position should be.(that is the 10 pin connector you were asking about earlier). Check toi insure that you are set for "master" and also...just to be safe...make sure it is the only device plugged in to that drive ribbon Is it? or is your CD on the same cable? get back to us after you try what I described....lets not jump the gun on RAM,power supply, etc....just yet.
Actually on my old one I had the problem with the same OS, Win 98 and not XP. I've got a new hard drive so there should be no problem but now that I have bought a new hard drive and am receiving the same problems I figure that my old hard drive was never bad, as somebody told me, and I just wasted my money on a new one. Sorry I wasn't clearer about it.
No I never turned it off during the middle of the install, it shut itself off. Then when I tried again I got the dreaded blue screen with a fatal error. When you are asking if my hard drive is connected to the ribbon, is that what the 40 prong hook up connects to? If so then yes, I have two CD ROMS hooked up to the same ribbon but it has worked fine before. How exactly would I do that reformt you're talking about? Is it just like a regular reformat or is there something unique. Tell me exactly how to do that reformat and I'll try it because I definitely don't want to waste anymore money. Where is my CPU and memory located within my computer? How can I tel if my computer takes S or D RAM? I know where where my mother board and battery are if I need to change those out. Pictures of these components would be really nice in this situation too. Thanks for all your help!
OK. I understand now. So you had your old HD with Win98 and it started giving you protection errors and reboots. Then you got a new HD, tried installing Win98 (so you could then intall XP) and the computer powered down on its own in the middle of an install??? If thats the case, I would still say you have something going on with your other hardware. Computer should never power itself down in the middle of an install unless there was a problem with the HD or CPU/MB/Ram. I would follow R2K's advice and start from scratch again with the Fdisk and partioning. If you get the protection faults again, then start looking at other hardware.
Yes, you weren't clear about that. You never said that the machine was flaking out on the old HD and OS, and that is why you made changes to begin with. So, you are already in the middle of hardware swapping looking for a fix? Ignore my suggestions and I'm sure R2K would say ignore his. We both always say "reformat and try again" because that is what you do to eliminate everything on the software end, and it cost nothing extra but time. I agree with your assessment that you can rule out the HD now. But seriously, if you are having a lack of confidence in whether you plugged a HD in correctly, you should hand this machine over to someone who won't have a lack of confidence. If you can't find a person that can get their hands on the machine for free or very cheap, then consider it unfixable. Asking questions on a BBS is not going to help, because guys who troubleshoot these things usually do not do it by asking you questions, to begin with. They do it by taking your machine to their house where they have several machines to swap your parts into to find the offending piece...so this back n forth is likely to cause you money in more blind faith that you are describing the problem correctly and we are answering it correctly. bottomline: you are already wasting money on unnecessary part swapping, so I would not recommend trying to continue fixing it via internet chats.
OK...first thing. You said that while you were away looking for the serial during the install...when you came back the screen was blank....that doesnt mean it had stopped....if the power saving settings were set, the monitor was just blanked....hitting the keys or moving the mouse should have brought it back up. how long do you think it took you to come back to the computer after you found the serial? If it was 15- 20 minutes, then the screen was in power-saving mode...not turned off This is what it sounds like to me. So, you have 2 CDs hooked to the same ribbon cable? more than likely, that means that it is the secondary cable...check the one the drive is hooked to...is the drive the only thing on it? as for formatting... boot to the floppy...when you get a "A:\" prompt....type in "format C:" and let it format the drive for you.
