Can't install XP always blue screen, please HELP

[alfcapone]

I recently bought a 40 Gig drive, which requires this program EZ-BIOS to kick in before it boots from the hard drive...

Now I have had XP installed, on this pc, with this hard drive and EZ-BIOS installed.

But now, after a few formats, I am simply not able to reinstall windows XP. I have tried the upgrade or a fresh installation - nothing. I always get this blue screen telling me about an error and if I recently installed some new hard ware and/or hardware controller I should uninstall it. The only problem is that it wouldn't even install on my old hard drive anymore w/o EZ Bios.
When I try to install Windows 2000, it goes to the part where I have to choose the partition, which I do and then it tells me that windows has to write some information onto the disk and the partitions are not compatible - I should recreate a partition, which I do and again the same.

Is there ever going to be a way for me to install win XP on my large drive or am I going to have to get a new motherboard. Or is there a simple way past the blue screen. I have heard that others also complained about a blue error screen initially, but they all are running XP now, so they must have gotten arount it.

Anybodies help would be really greatly appreciated

alfcapone

[Capricorn]

This may be no help at all, however I saw the following on the Western Digital Site, I don't think you said what type of Drive you had. :-

am having problems installing Windows 2000 on my new Western Digital hard drive. I am getting "stop" errors and the install is telling me that the hard drive is corrupt.

Answer
Systems with a VIA-based chipset may experience this problem. The VIA chipset can cause DMA Conflicts in a Windows 2000 environment. This issue seems to be prevalent on motherboards using the VIA Chipset with the 686 South Bridge. You should disable UDMA in your system's BIOS. This should allow you to get the get the Operating System (OS) installed without further incident. UDMA can usually be re-enabled once the OS installation is complete.

Note: Typically a message is displayed on the screen after the memory count of the boot process telling you how to enter Setup (System's BIOS). Each system's BIOS is configured differently, but the primary keystrokes used to enter the System BIOS are F1, F2 or Delete. For specific information on how to enter your system's BIOS and make the necessary changes referenced above, please consult your motherboard or system manual, or the manufacturer directly.

In many cases, before re-enabling UDMA, it is a good idea to update your operating system with the latest VIA 4-in-1-driver update. This can be found at Via Tech or by contacting your motherboard manufacturer.

Hope it is of some help. Western Digital are to thank if it does help.

[alfcapone]

Thank you very much for your time in answering to my problems.

I haven't tried this method yet, but it does certainly not sound as it was far fetched and I will give it a shot tonight.

My hard drives are both Maxtor drives. I have a luckystar (cheap but works) motherboard with a VIA chipset and an Award Modular BIOS.

Now this program EZ-BIOS, that I had to install of the Maxtor floppy disk talks about a problem with Award Bioses pre 6/99, and mine is 4/99. Apparently these BIOSes fail to recognize anything larger than 33 Gig and w/o installing EZ-BIOS my 40 Gig drive would only show 33 Gig. It also talks about Windows NT and 2000 not being able to work when this EZ-BIOS is installed. But I had Windows XP already on here and I know that it was recognizing the 40 Gig, because I only had one partition of 40 Gig.

Now everybody talks of upgrading the BIOS... I have tried to do that already one year ago, but believe it or not, I can put my own pc together, but I haven't yet figured out how one upgrades the BIOS. Probably the fact that luckystar motherboards cost less than 1/2 of an Asus also adds to it being so difficult, because no-one tells u there how to do it.

Well, I will try and do as u say, hopefully it works...

Yes, I remember having seen on the Microsoft update page under device drivers an update for something "VIA" (when I format and reinstall it sometimes is there for download, but sometimes it is not). ..and the compatability thing also tells me that the Via bridge (or what it is called) is somewhat incompatible, but despite that I have been always able to install 2000 in the past...

Well, we'll see.

If anything else comes up... any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks a lot
alfcapone

[jute]

I would strongly recommend that you upgrade (re-flash) your BIOS before trying anything. I have seen a lot of hell caused by incompatible BIOSes.

To upgrade your BIOS, you need to go to <a target="_blank" href=http://www.lucky-star.com.tw>Lucky Star's Web site</a> and download the latest BIOS file (not the VIA drivers) along with the flash program (usually AWDFLASH.EXE for Award BIOSes) that will be used to overwrite your old BIOS with the contents of the new file.

Once you have downloaded all the appropriate files, create a clean boot floppy (via format a:/s command), copy the BIOS file and the flash program into it, then restart your computer and boot off that floppy. When you get to the A:\&gt; prompt, issue the following command (assuming the flash program is AWDFLASH.EXE):

awdflash biosfile /py /cc

and that should do it. Make sure you download the correct BIOS file for the exact model of your motherboard, including the version number, or your system may totally fail or behave erratically after the flash!

[alfcapone]

Thanks for the reply...

yea, I went to their main page, all I know about my motherboard is that it is a 6vabx2.

So I go to their homepage, click drivers, then I go the parent directory, from there I click BIOS and look for my board. but unfortunately I find two there. one is called 6vabx2c0 and the other 6vabx2d8. Sine the former is 1999 and the latter is 2000 I hope that the latter is just an update of the former.

Well, as far as I can remember I have tried that before, but it turned out that any of these two Bioses was even too large to even fit, or so. Well, I'll try it again.

Thanks again. If anything else comes to mind.... any help would be appreciated...
alfcapone

[jute]

Perhaps you should try looking this file (http://www.lucky-star.com.tw/technical/bios/via.htm>here</a>) (dated July 14, 1999). If it is a baby-AT, you will need to find out if your board is the DIP-switch or the Jumperless version (should be easy enough to find out) and download the appropriate files.

After you have downloaded the BIOS files, get the flash utility instructions (http://www.lucky-star.com.tw/pub/Bios/awdflash.exe>here</a>,) to update your BIOS.

If you still have your manual around, check it out to see what type of board you have (Jumperless/DIP). Or, even better, crank open the case, carefully look at every corner of the board and jot down any version/model/lot number you can find. Good luck.

[alfcapone]

thanks a lot. I did that, and something was actually happening. But how do I know for a fact if the new Bios is running now?
I have an utility called BIOS Wizard, and upon running that it still says 4/99 (April/1999) while the lga3-0-3.bin file should be June 2000.

My Board is ATX, by the way.

...this is the info this program gives me, and it was the same before I upgraded:

Program: Unicore BIOS Wizard Version 1.5
Program: Unicore Chip Detect v0.72 2000.03.10
BIOS Date: 04/20/99
BIOS Type: Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG
BIOS ID: 04/20/1999-692-596-W977-2A6LGL1AC-03
BIOS Eval: #LGA3-00
Chipset: VIA 82C691 rev 34
Superio: Winbond 977TF rev 0 found at port 3F0h

If u can think of anything, or know what actually happened... I'd appreciate your help...

thanks again,
alfcapone

[jute]

Hmmm...
You said you flashed the BIOS. Did you actually see the progress bar running during the flash process, or was there any error message? What was the BIOS date displayed at POST after the flash? Is it the same as the one reported by BIOS Wizard? A little more info on the flash process will help.

If the new BIOS is really identical to the original one, then there are only 2 possibilities I could think of:

1. They have not updated their BIOS for this board since your time of purchase (meaning your BIOS is already up-to-date). I just checked out their Web site and the product info page for your specific model is no longer there, so it's possible that they have stopped selling/updating this product.

2. Perhaps your BIOS was in a write-protected state when you tried to flash it? Check all your BIOS settings for something called "Flash Protection" or something like that, and if you find it, disable it and flash again. But I doubt it because if it were write protected, the flash utility would have reported so already.

Strange though. The file you downloaded, according to the Web site, is supposed to be dated June 14, 2000. But BIOS Wizard reported something entirely different.

If all else fails, I would try using the original BIOS but set the HDD type to user-defined and manually type in the drive specs to match those printed on the drive (don't forget to use LBA mode). I remember doing that before with WinNT and it worked once. Good luck and post back the results.

[alfcapone]

yea, the date is always the same.

Whenever I go through the flash process, the white process bar keeps going, but at the very end, one of the little "bricks" that make up the progress bar, is blue. Like I said.

Well lot's of info. What I had in mind was installing XP on some hard drive and then cloning it with Ghost onto the 40 Gig drive... that should work, shouldn't it? But I'll probably end up buyinh a new motherboard as it is... (after christmas, if at all...)