What causes Win2k and not XP SP2 to load on a system designed for XP? 1

[isayni2u]

I am doing some work on a friend's computer...of course, not knowing anything about computers, he has limited knowledge of the hardware involved. From what I gather, he has a P4 3.0, Socket 775 w/1G of dual channel RAM.


Apparently, he decided to back-up his data and install a fresh copy of XP with SP2. He previously had installed Win2k and then upgraded to XP with SP1. The upgrade disk was damaged when he moved recently; his college provided an educational XP pro liscenced disk. He tried to use the disk to install XP, however, it continually fails giving either:

STOP 0X000000FC or
STOP 0X00000050

I brought the disk home, checked it on my "test" system and found that the XP disk was capable of installing [i.e. was not damaged or contained file corruption]. In the meantime, he wanted to use the computer and in desperation tried to install Win2k...this was successful.


What I would like to know is what hardware problem could cause Win2k to load and not XP w/SP2 on a system designed for XP? Could the hardware: MB, CPU...have compatibility issues with SP2 vs. SP1? Might it have been defective?

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[cdogg]

I guarantee you that there is nothing wrong with the hardware compatibility regarding the motherboard, CPU, or RAM. That system is more than modern enough to work fine with XP SP2.

With that said, my bet would be with the hard drive configuration. The first thing that should be double-checked is that the primary partition on the drive has been deleted and re-created by XP's install. If you still have problems, personally, I would try a different hard drive or run a self-test to make sure the drive isn't bad.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
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[isayni2u]

Thanks, cdogg. However, I am now certain that the HD is fine...since I succeeded in loading Win2k after failing to install XP w/SP2 on a new HD that I lent him; the same symptoms applied to my friend's HD as well as my new Maxtor. Each install attempt included NTSF reformatting via the XP CD.

I even went so far as to use my Maxtor in a working test system with the XP installation CD in question. It was able to load XP just fine. Therefore, I know that the problem must lie elsewhere: Internal Chipsets, CPU, Video Card?


Somewhere else, just not within the XP disk or the HD.

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[franklin97355]

The first thing that should be double-checked is that the primary partition on the drive has been deleted and re-created by XP's install.

Did you follow cdogg's advice and delete the primary partition and let xp recreate it?

The answer is "42"

 

[isayni2u]

yes

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[cdogg]

isayni2u,
I think we're getting closer...

OK, so when you get the STOP 0X000000FC error, at what point are you? Is it still during the initial XP install, or is it during the first boot after the install completes?

At this point, it's sounding like a driver issue. See the following 2 articles from MS regarding that STOP error:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/886348/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/878474/en-us

Is your friend using an old video or sound card? I doubt that the driver in question here has anything to do with integrated components on the motherboard.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
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[isayni2u]

cdogg, the STOP 0X000000FC occurs after the 1st reboot in which the blue screen setup terminates, but before the fancy XP Windows installer completes its registry set-up [to be exact, this faliure code is expressed between the Workgroup or Computer Domain option window and Welcome to Microsoft Windows page]

Hmmm...He does a single AGP video card. Infact, it is the same one that I use: GeForce nVida 6600 Pro Chainteck [I purchased in bulk]. But if the problem is indeed driver based, it does seem at least a bit odd that video drivers would be compatabile in 2k and not in a later version of windows [ie XP w/SP2] How could a problem like this be resolved? To be frank, I don't have a clue how to prevent DEP issues without Windows already haveing been installed as is not the case here. I didn't see any DEP options in the BIOS v2.53 American Megatrends.

Any thoughts?

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[cdogg]

But if the problem is indeed driver based, it does seem at least a bit odd that video drivers would be compatabile in 2k and not in a later version of windows

Actually, the older the hardware the more it makes sense. For example, there is a lot of hardware that works under Win98 or ME, but not under 2000 or XP for the same reason you claim is "odd".

However, a GeForce 6600 is less than 3 years old and you know your card (which is the same model) works fine. So we can pretty much rule that out. Are there any other devices attached to the motherboard not needed for the XP install, such as a sound card or PCI device? I would double-check that next. It might be easier just to go ahead and list everything attached to the mobo including make/model.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
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[cdogg]

By the way, I'm not too familiar with the way DEP is configured. The term used in your BIOS might not be obvious. Look for NX or XD too.

Reading at the following links might help you understand it better:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2mempr.mspx

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912923

Apparently the software side of DEP is all that XP is really concerned with. So if you can boot into Safe Mode, don't forget to try method 2 at that first Microsoft KB link I posted a couple posts ago which has you edit the Boot.ini file (if you can get into Safe Mode).

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
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