I bought these boxes [2 identical] with XP Pro license COA, but because it was off-lease, they format the HD for reasons of business security. The store gave me an XP disk and said to enter the license # when prompted. I never got the chance. The thing installs normally, get to the end of the install, then simply starts to install again, as if nothing had happened. If I remove the CD and boot from c:, it just goes into a reboot-stop-reboot-stop cycle, an endless reboot. If I try to install again, Bill [the computer] says that there is already an OS on c:. [Yeah - the one I just installed!] So, I formatted, started all over, and exactly the same thing happened. I see that HP had this problem with AMD-based systems, but mine is Intel. I've also seen suggestions that it can be a security matter, regarding XP piracy, or a hardware problem, regarding unsigned drivers. All I know is, my installation is there but Bill ignores it, and I am in a cycle of endless reboots. If anyone here has suggestions, I would be grateful. Thank you.

xp install does two boots. entering the license key is on the 2nd boot. Bios is set for cd then hd right? Where does it stop on reboot? Is this happening on both pcs? Example of Oxymoron: Person who is pro life and anti sex education. Education is key to prevention. Prevent conception you prevent abortion. Abstinence training clearly isn't working.

"Bios is set for cd then hd right?" Yes. "Where does it stop on reboot?" It says that it has saved configuration changes and will now reboot and continue setup, but when it starts back up, it starts at the beginning again. "Is this happening on both pcs?" Yes. But now, the CD is mucked. I got an error response: "cdrom.sys is corrupted." Now I don't have a disk. It looks like the repair dude will have to be called. I could get another copy of the disk, but it will be time consuming to go at it again.

Your description is not very good. Windows XP Setup reboots the computer at least twice, if not three times. At the end of each stage, you should see a message, "The computer will reboot in 15 seconds" or similar. You should see that at least twice. If you don't, something went wrong. To initially boot from the Windows CD, you have to press a specified key or any key when prompted (the message is generated by the computer's bios), but you DO NOT press a key when Setup reboots the computer after that - if you do, Setup will always start from the beginning again. Sometimes the first stage of Setup goes fine, but during the second stage of Setup, it will have a problem while you see "Detecting Hardware" or similar on the screen, the time remaining will not change for a while, then the computer will blackscreen and reboot BEFORE you see "The computer will reboot in 15 seconds" or similar message, then the second stage of Setup will start all over again - that will repeat, forever, in an endless loop. If that is what is happening, remove all cards in slots and devices you have plugged in that aren't essential to running Setup, then run Setup and it should complete fine. After Setup is finished, add the cards or devices one at a time, and they will propably install fine. ..... "But now, the CD is mucked. I got an error response: "cdrom.sys is corrupted."" If you mean "...missing or corrupted..", and you're getting the error while trying to load files from the CD, that doesn't necessarily mean the CD is no good, and usually there's something else wrong. If it's an original CD or a CD-R copy of one, it's probably still okay. However, if it's a CD-RW disk, it may not read properly in a drive it wasn't made in, and sometimes a CD-RW reads okay when you first use it, but it does NOT later. If it's a CD-RW you may need to make a CD-R, in a drive on a computer that can read the CD-RW fine, or make another copy of an original CD. The laser lens in the drive or the CD may be dirty. Try using a laser lens cleaning CD in the drive, and making sure the CD is clean and free of major scratches. If there is nothing wrong with the CD, it should boot in another computer fine. You should be able to load the initial files from the CD without any errors at all,no problem - that will not do anything to the other computer, unless you go several pages past the first page you see after they are loaded. You can quit Setup at that point. If there's nothing wrong with the CD, you have another problem on your own computer that is causing it to not read the files on the CD properly. This is MUCH more common that your CD being defective! Setup is very sensitive to even tiny errors reading the ram, and you WILL get errors reading files from the CD, and messages files are missing or corrupted, if any of the following are out of whack. If the ram you have installed is NOT the same ram that was in it before when it worked properly, it may not be 100%compatible with the mboard. Ram that works in another mboard , or any ram you buy or have lying around, may not work properly, or sometimes, not at all - even if it physically fits and is the right overall type (e.g. SDram, DDR, DDR2, etc.; PCxxxx, xxx mhz) for your mboard. In the worst cases of incompatibilty your mboard WILL NOT BOOT with it installed, and the mboard may not even beep - the ram has to be compatible with the mboard and it's chipset. See response 5 in this for some info about ram compatibilty, and some places where you can find out what will work in your mboard for sure: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... Correction to that: Mushkin www.mushkin.com Once you know which module ID strings work in your mboard, you can get them from anywhere you like that has ram with those ID strings. If you have brand name ram, it is usually easy to look up whether it's ID string is in a list of compatible modules found by using your mboard or brand name system model number. If the ram is generic, that may be difficult or impossible. .... A common thing that can happen with ram, even ram that worked fine previously, is the ram has, or has developed, a poor connection in it's slot(s). This usually happens a long time after the ram was installed, but it can happen with new ram, or after moving the computer case from one place to another, and I've had even new modules that needed to have their contacts cleaned. See response 2 in this - try cleaning the contacts on the ram modules, and making sure the modules are properly seated: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... For a laptop, you must remove both its main battery and AC adapter before you do that. If you do a ram test, do that AFTER having tried cleaning the contacts and making sure the ram is seated properly - otherwise any errors found may be FALSE. If the ram is incompatible with the chipset, it will likely FAIL a ram test - that is NOT a true indication of the ram being faulty - there is probably nothing wrong with it, and it will pass the test if installed in a mboard it is compatible with. If a ram test DOES find errors, if you have more than one module, try the test with one module at a time - sometimes they won't work properly when more than one is installed, but they will when by themself. If you want to try a memory diagnostic utility that takes a lot less time to run a full pass than memtest86 does, this one is pretty good - Microsoft's Windows Memory Diagnostic: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag... It can be toggled to do a standard or a more comprehensive set of tests - use the default 6 test one first - if it passes one pass of that, use the latter one. A few of the tests in the latter set are intentionally slower. ...... It is common to un-intentionally damage IDE data cables, especially while removing them - the 80 wire ones are more likely to be damaged. What usually happens is the cable is ripped at either edge and the wires there are either damaged or severed, often right at a connector or under it's cable clamp there, where it's hard to see - if a wire is severed but it's ends are touching, the connection is intermittant, rather than being reliable. Another common thing is for the data cable to be separated from the connector contacts a bit after you have removed a cable - there should be no gap between the data cable and the connector - if there is press the cable against the connector to eliminate the gap. 80 wire data cables are also easily damaged at either edge if the cable is sharply creased at a fold in the cable. Try another data cable if in doubt.

I agree with Tubes that the Setup process is very sensitive. Almost any hardware error can cause problems. Swap IDE/SATA cables. Even though the cables don't look damaged, they still can be, or have a loose connection that is intermittent (as was already mentioned). A few weeks ago, I had a problem where my PC would get to the Windows XP logo, and then nothing else would happen. The blue scrolling bar kept going and going. The drive was being displayed correctly in the BIOS. I swapped my IDE cable from the optical drive to the hard drive. Surprise, it booted again. Switched back to my old cable making sure it was connected securely and it still worked. It would be quite a coincidence for this to be the same problem on both PCs, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to check. As Tubes mentioned, remove all cards, USB devices, etc. that's not required for OS installation. If both PCs have USB cards, you might want to remove them for now. One time, a USB card on a PC I was working on played havoc on the XP install, removing the card allowed it to finish. How did you format the hard drive? Quick format? If so, try a full format instead. It will take alot longer, but I've had similar problems and doing a full format instead of a quick one fixed them. WinSimple Software

Thank you.

You're welcome. Did you solve the problem(s)?