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Hello All,
My first post here. I did do a search before posting and didn't find anything directly relating to my problem.My computer:
Falcon Northwest Mark V An older model;
ASUS p4c800
2GB ram
Pentium 4
Three Western Digital Hard Drives
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Video Card
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Audio
M-Audio Delta1010LT Audio Interface
window XP Pro 2002 OEM version)The computer has been a completely flawlessly running work horse until recently when I had some virus problems. I went into safe mode to run several spyware applications. Several virus alerts showed up in my registry. I let the applications clean house then shortly after I did a reboot. Big mistake I'm thinking right now.
The PC rebooted, windows starts, I'm greeted with the log in screen however, my mouse and keybaord are inoperative. I changed out the mouse and keyboard for PS2 devices same thing...nothing.
I went into my bios and have since used a bootable dos disc and find that my mouse and keyboard do still work up to the point when XP starts up..then it's all over. This is also true in all advanced modes of start up including VGA and safemode (no mouse or keyboard action at anytime when XP running).
I spent several hours on the phone with Microsoft tech support and they were stumped. They had me boot from the OEM CD, the screen comes up with checking system settings, then goes to a blue screen with "Windows Setup" but nothing more, it just hangs there with no options to install repair or anything else.
As I mentioned, I have three hard drives. I swapped out my primary drive with one of my data storage drives and made it the primary. I was hoping that when the PC booted the disc would do it's scan then ask if I want to install but instead it does as before, checking system settings then to the blue screen and "Windows Setup". I cannot seem to get to a point where I can repair, reload or reinstall.
The OEM disc is a real/authorized copy and I do have actual license and legal right to this copy of the software. It is the original copy that was issued with the PC.
Any thoughts suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I'm really not sure what to do at this point.
Thanks,
Steph
Have you tried physically removing all drives EXCEPT for the one you are trying to load XP onto?
I'm getting a small feeling that your MOB may have gone bad because of your Keyboard and mouse inactivity...just a thought.
Some HELP in posting on Computing.net plus free progs and instructions Cheers
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Hi Steph try this
disconnect your 2 slave drives
if you have onboard video remove your Radeon 9800 (make sure you enable the onboard video in the bios)
and remove the soundblaster card and anything extra you may have
then try to install or reinstall your windows if it takes and installs good then shut down and plug your slave drives back in turn on windows let it find your 2 slave drives, everything going good okay shut down again and
install your video card turn on your computer it should find it install drivers, if nec reboot once installed good shut down and install your sound etc etc
as one of the cards could be hanging your machine up
this is a good way of trouble shooting and finding out what card windows is having problems with sometimes it will not have a problem installing any of them once windows is installed correctly
but may hang during the install of windows as the win cd does not have the drivers for them and it does not know what it is intill you have windows up and running and can use the driver cd that comes with the cards
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xpuser she said her keyboard and mouse work in dos and bios settings only when loading xp it stops working so must be a windows corruption try the repair mode after removeing all the extra cards and drives steph
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Thanks for the quick responses.
I have removed all but one drive. Tried it a couple ways. First removed the slave drive then tried to boot from CD...no repair option ever pops up. Also did the same buy leaving in one of the data drives and removing the other two (including the OS drive). Again with the disc and no option to install or repair.
I don't think I can remove the video card. The motherboard doesn't have any video connections on it so there wouldn't be any way to view what's going on. I did remove the audio cards and again, same thing. No mouse action at the windows log on but I DO have mouse/keyboard when in the BIOS and in DOS.
Again all, thanks very much for the very quick response.
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ok you rebooted your computer with cd in
you get the message hit any key to boot from cd
you see windows setup
on the bottom it says setup is loading files (let them load it takes a few minutes)
next screen should be welcome to setup
to setup xp hit enter
to repair press R using recovery console
you said above...
They had me boot from the OEM CD, the screen comes up with checking system settingschecking system settings does not comeup intill after the setup does so if your seeing checking system settings then your install cd must be auto loading
how does my steps here differ from yours? let me know your steps maybe i can help
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ps if you do see the
next screen should be welcome to setup
to setup xp hit enter
to repair press R using recovery consolehit enter the install process will see you have windows already and give you a second repair option this is the repair your wanting not the first one
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I have one drive connected...results are same regardless.
I CD in drive and force reboot from CD. The screen is black for a moment while it says chcking system hardware...after a couple seconds the screen turns blue and says "Windows Set Up" in the upper left corner but then just hangs there. I let it sit like that over night last night just to be sure it wasn't just taking a very long time.
Again, thanks very much for your time with this.
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For what it's worth, I've yet to see the repair or install options. It's either not getting there yet or bypassing it as an option all together.
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I'm sorry so the checking system hardware is actually your bios checking your hardware and not the windows cd doing the checking
this is sounding like a hardware problem
turn off your computer unplug it swap your memory (meaning take the one that is in slot one and put in slot 2, the one that is in slot two place in slot one make sure they click when you push them back in)second do you have a spare cd drive around? Try using a different cd drive to do this with if you do not have another cd drive...
with your current cd drive open take a straw and blow hard inside perhaps there is dust obstructing the laser preventing it from reading the cd correctlyi was just looking over your board it is older but pretty good with some good over clocking functions
i won't get into that now as you said all you did was overwrite the system with a backup and didnt change any bios settings does sound like a faulty cd drive in this case sometimes just swapping cd drives or cleaing with a can of compressed air or a straw can do the trick
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It sounds like either an incorrect bios setting or as XpUser stated, motherboard gone bad. That is assumming what you have stated about your mouse and keyboard functioning being correct.
I would boot into the bios and load setup defaults, save and exit then boot into safe mode and see if they work there. Second idea would be to try a usb keyboard and mouse and see if they work. It is possible the mouse or keyboard got plugged into the wrong PS2 jack and the mb isnt going to recover from that.
Silence is golden but duct tape is silver
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I have 2 DVD/CD drives. I've tried the same as before with the #2 optical drive. No difference. I also exchanged the memory sticks as you've suggested. Again, no change.
Also for what it's worth. The Micosoft technician felt that the drivers in XP were corrupted somehow and wouldn't load basic I/O information. Fairly certain that the hardware was likely ok as it all seems to be accessible and functional before XP is loaded.
In short, I've tried the OEM disk in two disc drives and attempted to install to 3 hard drives.
Again, thanks very much for you help thus far. I'm very appreciative.
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I have tried PS2 keyboards/mice as well as a USB wireless package. In either case all work while in BIOS or when I boot to a DOS diskette. Mouse and Keyboard stop working as soon as XP loads.I attempted to use both keyboard/mouse combos in SafeMode as well. Same thing...as soon as XP loads they stop working.One additional thing I've tried was to down load the 6 diskette installation software from microsoft. I boot with the first diskette and it goes through the same checking system hardware then to the blue screen and hangs.
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i do not understand why the windows cd can not load fully you said you even had it sitting over night
on tossups like this i nomrally ask the people if they want to save the files they have on the master drive if so okay use something like herons boot cd or if you have dos this will work fine too navigate to the windows folder and just delete it leaving all your other files there then try the install again
maybe the boot cd is getting locked on the previouse version of windows that is there
but again as i said when installing the first things you should see is..
windows setup
on the bottom it says setup is loading files (let them load it takes a few minutes)
next screen should be welcome to setupthe fact that you dont see "setup is loading files " leads me to believe this has nothing to do with your current version installed now but either the cd drive or a hardware issue but do try resetting the bios also as syslock states
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Steph
Don't mess with the Wireless at all right now. You need a working USB controller and drivers need to be in place.
PS/2 is the way to go. All must be connected before starting the computer.
Unplug the computer and physically remove all add in cards except the ATI Radeon. Also disconnect all external hardware EXCEPT for the PS/2 mouse/keyboard. Then boot into the BIOS screens and find a setting called "reset configuration data". Enable that setting for ONE boot cycle. After one cycle boot into the BIOS screens again and disable that setting.
If you can successfully get past the screens where you have been hanging and enter Windows then go to Device Manager and look for hardware that is not working properly.
Get Windows straightened out before installing the add in cards. Save the Audigy for last. You will need to boot to the BIOS again and disable the on board sound, which is now enabled. They both use the same resources and may be part of the reason for the hang.
If you feel uncomfortable removing hardware then at the very least you need to disable the on board sound and Enable the Reset configuration Data.
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ok...
pulled out the Delta and sounblaster cards as well as the TV tuner card (forgot bout that). The only card other than the hard drives and the ROM drives is the Video card. I also found on the BIOS an option to "reset default settings" so I selected that too. I found that it activated my on board RAID controller but no biggie...just took a little while longer for the boot process is all.
Same thing.
I see now that when I hit F8 during reboot rather than massaging the BIOS to boot from CD drive I get a slightly different response.
By tapping F8 during reboot I'm prompted with boot device options. When I select the drive in which the CD is located it spins up the disc then says "press any key to boot from CD"
After pressing the any key :-) a new line prints out and says "inpecting computer hardware".
Next I'm greeted with three options;
1. to continue the current upgrade press <enter>
(when I make this selection, I get a black screen and a line of text which says "Starting Windows Setup" and a progress bar below...it just hangs there and never seems to so anything)2. to cancel current upgrade and install new version press <F8>
(when I select this option the screen turns blue with a single line at the top left of the screen which says "Windows Setup" and nothing more...it also just hangs up here)3. to exit set up press <f3>
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I'm not familiar with any mouse functionality in the bios? Are you sure the mouse functions there like being able to click on settings and there is a mouse cursor??
Silence is golden but duct tape is silver
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If your bios did not error your keyboard or mouse, most likely your POST passed. I would though, with the PC off and the plug removed, remove your keyboard and mouse, remove the battery for the bios for about 20 seconds, re-connect the mouse and KB, put the battery back in and reboot.
I know you mentioned they work up to a certain point, but I've learned to suspect anything and everything!
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ok...I've pulled the battery out and waited a few minutes. As for mouse and keyboard, I have a bootable DOS disk with a mini application on it that does support mouse service. Think it's called Cute Mouse. This works until XP loads.
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Steph.
Do you have another OS cd to boot from? Have you tried booting without the Cute mouse floppy and is there any other drivers being loaded on that boot floppy?
Silence is golden but duct tape is silver
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Well, looks like it's all over. Something has gone wrong (worse) I'm afraid. Suddenly I'm getting a message stating BIOS not loaded. I had a long look at the Motherboard and have found a small chip near the back edge of the board near where my audio interface card was installed which appears to be burned up.
Thanks for the help and suggestions. Thank you for your time.
Steve
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