Hi. I saw a previous post with this exact problem here but no fix... http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/2970.html In fact several posts and info exist for this error/problem but none have worked or apply to me. I have the same problem. In setting up clean install (been trying for days...) of WinXP. I get the error "Cannot copy the file oembios.bin". My MB is ALSO a K7T266A Pro2. For IDE devices I have: Pri. Master = 80GB Maxtor 7200rpm Sec. Master = DVD-ROM Sec. Slave = CD-RW 40/12/48 Rest of specs: Athlon XP1600+ 1024MB DDR 266 ATI Radeon 9800 Pro SB Live 5.1 DLINK 530TX NIC -I have run the install off both CD drives and both have same issue. -I tried turning off USB support. No change. -Someone suggested disable BIOS caching but that also made no change. -Also... no matter how I try to install XP it does the same... Either with the 6-floppy boot or with a MS-DOS boot and winnt.exe. Either with making a FAT partition beforehand or letting XP setup make its own. -Also tried NTFS. -I also tried remaking WinXP ISO. At first I had a old CD of the original release (build 2600 no service packs) and now I have WinXP with SP2 slipstreamed in. I also tried burning it as ISO 9660 and burning it as DOS... -Oh yea I also tried copying \I386 to my hard drive and run C:\i386\winnt.exe but also same problem. -O I also tried skipping the files and copying them manually with no success. If I start skipping it also can't copy these other files: wowfax.dll wowfaxui.dll comctl32.dll spra0816.dll migism_a.dll comctl32.dll and oembios.bin seem to be the 2 most important ones. I'm at a loss. Only thing I haven't tried is: 2. turn off the dma modes on the hard drives and cdroms - I was wondering how one would do that? Isn't the only way to set DMA or PIO mode through the Windows device manager? I have gone through my BIOS 12 times looking for that option but see no such setting. (AMIBIOS 1.5, BIOS ver 3.7 for K7T266 Pro2 a.k.a latest bios) So if there is a way to turn off DMA it would seem like a possible fix. Otherwise I'm looking for more suggestions. Thanks.

Just out of interest, are you using a Dell branded OEM disk? & is it an SP1 or SP2 version? If it is any major branded OEM disk you'll find that, once installed, you may have problems activating and/or updating due to the Windows validation tool. "I know that I'm mad - I've always been mad..."

I will start focusing the problem with the Disc first before looking for a hardware cause. A simplest and least expensive remedy is to use a Microfiber Digital Disc cleaning cloth to wipe the Data side of the DISC in a radial manner (NO Circular wiping) from center to the edge sector by sector and try the disc again. M

Sorry if I was vague on that. The original is a retail version of Windows XP Professional. This problem occurs: - With the original. - After making ISO from CD and burning onto blank media. - After making ISO. Slipstreaming SP2. and burning onto blank media. The physical state of the media is not at cause for sure because I have about 8 Windows XP CDs lying around at this point. Most are freshly out of the spindle.

Psych, all the symptoms you described pointing to your memory. Try removing one stick at a time or use a different. XP Install uses all the memory to write the installation files to the hard drive. Once a file to be copied hits a bad spot on the memory stick you get that message. I do many xp installations for friends and had this problem many times. Once XP is installed it works fine with the not so perfect memory. That happens only when the installation files being copied to the hard drive. Cheers the Peter