Ok, I've been having trouble using my HP officejet printer in winxp, so ive been jumping back and forth from xp to me a couple times so i could print stuff, now, i thought i had it figured out when i downloaded win2k drivers for my hp printer so i decided to install winxp again and for the very first time i encountered a fatal error during setup!!....
"The signature for Windows XP Professional Edition is invalid. The error code is fffffdf0. The system cannot find message text for message number 0xfffffdf0 in the message file for syssetup.dll"
I have no idea what any of this means!! Anyone else encountered this error or know what it means?

My pc setup is:
Pentium 4 1.3GHz
256MB RDRAM
GeForce2 MX400 w/TV out (any problems with that per chance?)
Soundblaster Live! Value

I'm not sure what to do, if anyone can help that would be wonderful.

thanks guys.

its odd that you have previously installed it and now it won't work.. there are install issues with certain geforce 2 cards so you might want to try a diff vid card. Are you trying from the same disc you originally installed from? Could it be a bad (incorrect) burn?

no man, same disc I've been using, and I don't have a different video card... anyways, i take it no one else has seen that error message or knows what it means so, hmm, i was thinking reinstalling win me and then win xp, maybe i messed with something, but to tell you the truth my video drivers screwed up a couple times before those install errors popped up... doesnt mean i know what to do, just something i noticed (my computer would start up and say my video drivers arent working correctly and i had to reinstall the nvidia detonator drivers).

anyone have a clue?

i don't suppose by any chance that you have a power color geforce 2? That brand is one i've heard pop up more than once causing XP install problems.

uh, no, alls i know is that its a GeForce2 MX 400 w/Tv Out, came with my computer

no idea. whats still got me is that you managed to install it previously without problems. how are you installing? upgrade over ME, clean? You've installed with the vid board before so i'd rule that out as a problem, even though there are issuse with some GF2 cards. That error to me is pointing to a sofware problem in the install files. Test it out on a mates PC to see if it works there.

yeah, upgrade over ME, i probably should try it out on my bro's laptop just to see, but nonetheless.... it makes no sense to me, i even reinstalled ME and then tried XP and I got the same problem... GRRRRRRR

Well I successfully installed WinXP on my brother's laptop, I did not receive the aforementioned error when setup claimed it was "Installing Windows". So its rather obvious that its not the CD, its my computer and its some software I tooled with somewhere along the line.......... dammit, anyone know of conflicts that could've arisen?

Do NOT use the current detonator drivers with XP... they de-stabalize your system. You should do a clean install on that partition with just XP. If it worked before on your card, it should work again. Just make sure that it is clean.

i have the same problem....1.7 p4 with a gforce 2 card, installed good first time, but dont remember if i have the old tnt in or not, just bought the geforce recently....

will have to ck the gforce thing...anyother idea though??

Try the MS knowledge base, I had the same problem this helped:

Please tell me if it helped in your case, too.

SYMPTOMS
When you try to upgrade to Windows XP Professional on a computer that runs Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Windows 98, or Windows 98 Second Edition, you may receive the following error messages during the setup process:

Error:
Cannot get main entry point for C:WINDOWSSYSTEMVIPERSTI.CPL. Error:127 [ERROR=127 (7Fh)]
Error:
The signature for Windows XP Professional Edition Setup is invalid. The error code is fffffdf0.
The system cannot find message text for message number 0xfffffdf0 in the message file for Syssetup.dll.
Fatal Error:
Setup failed to install the product catalogs. This is a fatal error. The setup log files should contain more information.

You cannot complete the upgrade installation.
CAUSE
This behavior can occur if Setup does not delete all of the files in the %WinDir%\System32\Catroot2 folder during removal of the earlier version of Windows. %WinDir% is the Windows installation folder.

RESOLUTION
To work around this behavior, manually delete any files that remain in the %WinDir%\System32\Catroot2 folder.

http://fan.starwars.com/78178/files/errorcode.jpg

The url is a link to the image of an error I keep getting on Windows XP after disconnecting from the internet.

I can't fix that thing! Not to mention I can't find any info about it anywhere... tech support at Gateway has no clue. Stupid bugs!

Long story:

I open up my Gateway computer box and take out my new laptop. Start it up. The Windows XP registering thing starts up. It opens a line with the modem to register... the screen blanks/flashes - a blue (DOS maybe) screen pops up for less than a second, in that brief time I can see that it says something about an error. Windows XP shuts down, restarts... registering process automatically continues no probs this time.

The computer seems to run okay. I create my internet connection in the wizard. Get on the net. Disconnect from the net. The screen blanks/flashes - a blue (DOS maybe) screen pops up for less than a second, in that brief time I can see that it says something about an error. Windows XP shuts down, restarts... that error message pops up I close it, the message pops up again but with slightly different versions of the Error signature numbers.

The weird thing is that sometimes I can disconnect from the net and no probs... other times it's error, error, error.

Now just found this arcticle:

http://technews.netscape.com/news/0-1006-200-7762497.html?tag=ch_mh

Doesn't quite fit what is happening to me though, for one I have a Intel Celeron processor, Gateway Laptop 1200 Solo, XP is/was installed by them.

Help?

I recieved the same error after reinstalling XP the one from the first post that is, I was wondering if post number 10 actually worked, well ill give it a shot and post agian if it worked.

I had a simular problem, After being infected with the W32/Canabas.e virus I tried to re-install XP after a number of files became corrupted after cleaning.

I got a fatal setup error no. 426 saying catalogs could not be removed and the XP setup would finish. I tried removing files under catroot2 as suggested above but this didn't solve the problem.

Any other ideas?

I am experiencing a very similar problem. I upgraded from ME to XP without problems, but could not get my home network to work so after much beating against the wall (and complaints from my family) I uninstalled XP.
I solved the problem (It turns out that XP does not like to use NetBEUI protocol, but my other machines must use it -- shame on microsoft!) and reinstalled XP, only to find I could not install my Norton antivirus. It had installed fine before.
I uninstalled XP again, and when I try to re-install it, I get the same error message as the others: fatal error, invalid signature, error code fffffdf0, etc.
I got this on several attempts. The first time it told me that it could not remove a catalogue file (IEEXCEP.cat I believe), but not since. I have searched for and removed that file; I have searched for and removed all *.cat files; I looked for the /system32/catroot2 directory without success. I am nearing the desparation of reinstalling Me and then immediately upgrading to XP. I will undoubtedly lose lots of work.

I have a Compaq Presario 7120US
P4-1.7GHz
256Meg RAM
Nvidea GeForce Video (I think)

I hope someone can learn from my mistakes.

I am experiencing a very similar problem. I upgraded from ME to XP without problems, but could not get my home network to work so after much beating against the wall (and complaints from my family) I uninstalled XP.
I solved the problem (It turns out that XP does not like to use NetBEUI protocol, but my other machines must use it -- shame on microsoft!) and reinstalled XP, only to find I could not install my Norton antivirus. It had installed fine before.
I uninstalled XP again, and when I try to re-install it, I get the same error message as the others: fatal error, invalid signature, error code fffffdf0, etc.
I got this on several attempts. The first time it told me that it could not remove a catalogue file (IEEXCEP.cat I believe), but not since. I have searched for and removed that file; I have searched for and removed all *.cat files; I looked for the /system32/catroot2 directory without success. I am nearing the desparation of reinstalling Me and then immediately upgrading to XP. I will undoubtedly lose lots of work.

I have a Compaq Presario 7120US
P4-1.7GHz
256Meg RAM
Nvidea GeForce Video (I think)

I hope someone can learn from my mistakes.