Can't Install Windows Because Computer Wont Boot From XP Disc?

DumNDuMMer

I'm trying to install windows but I cant at least I dont know how this one time with this computer in which Im trying to do it. Its for a Gateway GT5694.
It didn't have a hard drive, so I just erased an extra one I had installed in another machine, it's a WD750gb but I can't format it. There's still about 8gigs that I haven't been able to erase (I checked already and there's nothing left to erase). Eitherway when booting up the gateway machine, wouldn't it boot from the disc automatically and try to install windows or do I have to do something else? I'm not sure that's why I ask. It tends to go into this boot screen everytime I turn it on, initially, it has the options for F2 Bios and F10 for some other option, I'm not exactly sure of the order but thats as far as what I can see. Any suggestions as to how I can install Windows or boot from the disc and get the machine to work?

kryyst

You probably need to go into F2 Bios and then change the boot order so that the CD-Rom is the first device in the list. Alternatively F10, may be a boot order prompt in which case you can hit F10 while it's booting and select the boot device without changing the bios.

Also when it boots the windows CD it'll say "Press any key to boot from cd......" if you don't hit a key within 6 seconds it'll default to booting back off the harddrive.

DumNDuMMer

Ok, so I got it to boot from the disc, but then after it was copying files to the drive, I got the blue screen of death, something about hard drive corruption. Thinking it was the hard drive, I purchased a new one, gave it another try and got another bluescreen of death, mixed messages, first something about a page file (I'm not sure), then IQRL NOT FOUND (Again, I'm not exactly sure). It booted but I can't install due to this bluescreen of death. Would there be a way to find out/isolate the issue?

The first hard drive I tried was a WD 750gb, the new one is a WD 1TB.
The computer is a Gateway GT5694, 1.8ghz, 4gb ram,

DumNDuMMer

I've been trying to load Windows (XP) onto a computer (a Gateway GT5694), but then after it was copying files to the drive, I got the blue screen of death, something about hard drive corruption. Thinking it was the hard drive, I purchased a new one, gave it another try and got another bluescreen of death, mixed messages, first something about a page file (I'm not sure), then IQRL NOT FOUND (Again, I'm not exactly sure). It booted but I can't install due to this bluescreen of death. Would there be a way to find out/isolate the issue?

The first hard drive I tried was a WD 750gb, the new one is a WD 1TB.
The computer is a Gateway GT5694, 1.8ghz, 4gb ram and with the new drive it still gave me problems, still got a bluescreen

I don't know if it has to do anything with the fact that the computer originally had Windows Vista, I wanted to install XP first, got the bluescreen of death so I deleted the drive, tried installing Vista and got a similar bluescren of death.

Your-Amish-Daddy

Well, IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is basically saying that a piece of hardware is changing states and the state it is changing to is not OFF, or it is turning off without permission (This means a piece of hardware is defective). Cut the machine down to the bare minimum hardware, processor, lowest ammount of memory, the works.

If this is a laptop, call Gateway. You got a problem.

kryyst

When you put in a new harddrive it won't have a partition table on it. So you need to start installing windows setup the harddrive create the partition and tell it to format it. Usually it'll fail shortly after that. But then reboot again and restart the install process and it should continue from there. The problem with windows is that if it's a new harddrive and you are creating a new partition on it you need to reboot the machine for the partition to be recognized. However I've seen this many times that windows just tries to continue on and can't because it can't actually read the disk.

Now of course that's just one possibility. It's possible that you have some other hardware problems. I'd start with running memtest on that system. You can either get memtest on it's own and create a bootable cd with it (google memtest to find it). However a better solution would be to get the latest version of ubuntu live. It's a live version of linux which means you can boot up off the cd and it'll run the OS and everything without installing anything to your harddrive. It's a great way to trouble shoot harddware errors. But the other reason is that the Ubuntu cd has memtest as one of it's boot options so you can kill two birds with one stone.

Miltownstaydown

If you have another computer I would download memtest and check for any errors there. Or try taking off the CMOS battery on the motherboard to reset the BIOS. Just a couple of thoughts.

DumNDuMMer

Ok, so I do have another computer, I downloaded the memtest and it's running it's tests right now as I type this. First I tried removing the CMOS battery but still got an error, this time I was able to write it down, "MEMORY_MANAGEMENT". So now it's going through the memory tests and everything seems to be failing so far, great for me! Would new memory help? Or maybe it's something else?

DumNDuMMer

I've left it testing overnight for the memory, about 5 tests so far and it's failing miserably. Help!

Mt_Goat

If you are running more than 1 stick of ram I would try running one stick at a time in different slots to try and detirmine where the problem is. If the ram you have now keeps failing see if someone you know has a stick that works fine and borrow it. You need to know if it is a particular stick that is bad or a slot or some other component like the memory controller on the motherboard or even the CPU. This should be enough to keep you busy for a little while.

DumNDuMMer

Actually, I've tried a (1) gb stick of memory, brand new, and it seems to be working flawlessly. I've installed XP SP2 and it works fine so I guess I can try the (2) 2gb sticks individualy, there's just have a few things about the XP OS installed on it now. It did not install a network adapter or so it says because I can't connect it to the internet and since I only have (1) monitor I have to unplug the cables from 1 and plug them into the other while (1) remains plugged without monitor and I use *this* one to post a reply.

DumNDuMMer

It's working but very sluggish, just with (1) 1gb stick, could it be because its just 1gb and it needs more or could there be something else wrong?

Mt_Goat

Unless you are used to super fast or have a lot running on your system, 1GB should run reasonably well on XP. With that said, think the next move would to move the good stick to different slots and run memtest on each for at least 4 runs each slot. Then test each of the old sticks one at a time. With the current price of memory I would just replace the old with new!