Can't install OS - Multiple reasons.

Toothless · Jun 19, 2015

So a friend of mine has this ancient laptop with WinXP on it. 512MB memory with this 90mn single-cored CPU.

I've been trying to reinstall XP or plop Vista or 7 on it so it'll run better and to just start over. Too many registry errors and missing DLL files to manually fix.

One error is 480mb mem usage and 512mb installed when trying for XP installs.

The other is "windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase" with Vista/7 attempts.

HDD is a ATA drive so that's fun.

Any suggestions?

newtekie1 · Jun 19, 2015

Toothless said:
Any suggestions?

Put more RAM in it. It doesn't matter what you put on it the laptop is going to run like absolute garbage.

XP idles using over 700MB, and Vista/7 both like over 1GB.

So, even without anything running, you are going to be thrashing the(likely super slow) hard drive paging.

Toothless · Jun 19, 2015

newtekie1 said:
Put more RAM in it. It doesn't matter what you put on it the laptop is going to run like absolute garbage.

XP idles using over 700MB, and Vista/7 both like over 1GB.

So, even without anything running, you are going to be thrashing the(likely super slow) hard drive paging.

Runs like trash already. Too bad I can't find any DDR memory on the fly because that would be awesome to have right now.

Mr.Scott · Jun 19, 2015

Ram isn't the problem. The HDD is shot. I have XP installs on 128mb of ram without issue.

Toothless · Jun 19, 2015

Mr.Scott said:
Ram isn't the problem. The HDD is shot. I have XP installs on 128mb of ram without issue.

HDD test programs recommendations?

khanman125 · Jun 19, 2015

HD Tune, and Seagate also has a drive testing tool as well.

Mr.Scott · Jun 19, 2015

Any of the HD manufacturers have testing software available for free on their sites.

R-T-B · Jun 19, 2015

Mr.Scott said:
Ram isn't the problem. The HDD is shot. I have XP installs on 128mb of ram without issue.

I guess speed is relative... Or you are using an extremely old build of xp.

Mr.Scott · Jun 19, 2015

R-T-B said:
I guess speed is relative... Or you are using an extremely old build of xp.

Most current SP3 build. Honestly, it doesn't matter which build.
Speed IS relative. On that old rig, nothing you install will be fast....at least by todays standards.

BTW, I have XP running on a 200MHz machine with 64mb of ram.

Toothless · Jun 19, 2015

R-T-B said:
I guess speed is relative... Or you are using an extremely old build of xp.

I can't even check what build it is in the control panel because of missing files. Ha!

Mr.Scott said:
Most current SP3 build. Honestly, it doesn't matter which build.
Speed IS relative. On that old rig, nothing you install will be fast....at least by todays standards.

1.9mb/s error checking with HD Tune.

newtekie1 · Jun 19, 2015

Toothless said:
1.9mb/s error checking with HD Tune.

That isn't surprising if the drive is being thrashed by paging.

But at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if the drive did have problems as well, as old as it is.

Toothless · Jun 20, 2015

1.7mb/s. We're scanning at light speed.

ThE_MaD_ShOt · Jun 20, 2015

How are you trying to install Xp? If you boot from the CD that should take the HDD out of the loop for a bit. 512 mb of mem is plenty to install xp and run it comfortably on that lap top. I ran 512 in a athlon xp rig with a 80gb ide drive for a couple years before upgrading my hardware with out issues

Toothless · Jun 20, 2015

USB to HDD.

ThE_MaD_ShOt · Jun 20, 2015

Toothless said:
USB to HDD.

Will that thing even boot from a usb stick and install win xp? you may need to make a cd.

Frick · Jun 20, 2015

Mr.Scott said:
BTW, I have XP running on a 200MHz machine with 64mb of ram.

Running is not always the same as working.

newtekie1 · Jun 20, 2015

Frick said:
Running is not always the same as working.

Exactly, there is running and then there is running fast enough to be usable.

R-T-B · Jun 20, 2015

newtekie1 said:
Exactly, there is running and then there is running fast enough to be usable.

Technically, Windows XP will run on as little as 8Mhz, the speed of an ISA bus. Someone actually tested this, google it might still be out there.

Toothless · Jun 20, 2015

I'm pleased to say we're still scanning.

Toothless · Jun 20, 2015

After 14 hours of scanning, the drive has 0 errors. Amazing.

Pentium M 1.73ghz with 502MB memory on the 915GM/GMS,910GML chipset according to CCleaner. Too many registry errors.

rundll32.exe is missing. Fun stuff.

Got the exe file in there so now quite a few things work again, and I shut off the page file because SSSLLLLOOOOWWWW.

We'll see if I can reinstall now.

newtekie1 · Jun 20, 2015

Toothless said:
I shut off the page file because SSSLLLLOOOOWWWW.

Yeah, don't do that.

Toothless · Jun 20, 2015

newtekie1 said:
Yeah, don't do that.

Runs faster. I'm trying to get off unneeded programs and get proper drivers on as I have a day left with it.

xorbe · Jun 20, 2015

Mr.Scott said:
Ram isn't the problem. The HDD is shot. I have XP installs on 128mb of ram without issue.

Or the ram is shot.

Mr.Scott · Jun 20, 2015

Frick said:
Running is not always the same as working.

newtekie1 said:
Exactly, there is running and then there is running fast enough to be usable.

Runs good enough to benchmark. That's all that mattered to me. You confuse functionality with practicality.
Nobody would use this system as a daily driver today. Smart phones are faster.

Toothless · Jun 20, 2015

Mr.Scott said:
Runs good enough to benchmark. That's all that mattered to me. You confuse functionality with practicality.
Nobody would use this system as a daily driver today. Smart phones are faster.

This is the daily driver..

System Name	Veral
Processor	5950x
Motherboard	MSI MEG x570 Ace
Cooling	Corsair H150i RGB Elite
Memory	4x16GB G.Skill TridentZ
Video Card(s)	Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage	Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s)	Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx + 2x AOC 2425W
Case	Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s)	Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply	Corsair HX850
Mouse	Corsair Nightsword
Keyboard	Corsair K55
VR HMD	HP Reverb G2
Software	Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores	PEBCAK

Processor	Intel Core i7 10850K@5.2GHz
Motherboard	AsRock Z470 Taichi
Cooling	Corsair H115i Pro w/ Noctua NF-A14 Fans
Memory	32GB DDR4-3600
Video Card(s)	RTX 2070 Super
Storage	500GB SX8200 Pro + 8TB with 1TB SSD Cache
Display(s)	Acer Nitro VG280K 4K 28"
Case	Fractal Design Define S
Audio Device(s)	Onboard is good enough for me
Power Supply	eVGA SuperNOVA 1000w G3
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

System Name	Veral
Processor	5950x
Motherboard	MSI MEG x570 Ace
Cooling	Corsair H150i RGB Elite
Memory	4x16GB G.Skill TridentZ
Video Card(s)	Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage	Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s)	Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx + 2x AOC 2425W
Case	Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s)	Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply	Corsair HX850
Mouse	Corsair Nightsword
Keyboard	Corsair K55
VR HMD	HP Reverb G2
Software	Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores	PEBCAK

System Name	Master
Processor	Pair of Xeon X5675's @ 4.3
Motherboard	SR-2 Classified
Memory	12 GB of Corsair Dominator GT's @ 2000 7-7-7-21
Video Card(s)	EVGA GTX680
Power Supply	EVGA Supernova 750

System Name	Veral
Processor	5950x
Motherboard	MSI MEG x570 Ace
Cooling	Corsair H150i RGB Elite
Memory	4x16GB G.Skill TridentZ
Video Card(s)	Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage	Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s)	Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx + 2x AOC 2425W
Case	Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s)	Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply	Corsair HX850
Mouse	Corsair Nightsword
Keyboard	Corsair K55
VR HMD	HP Reverb G2
Software	Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores	PEBCAK

System Name	The Kicker
Processor	Intel Xeon E3-1230v2 @ 3.4ghz
Motherboard	ASRock Z75
Cooling	Zalman
Memory	16GB AMD DDR3
Video Card(s)	Zotac RTX 2070 AMP Extreme
Storage	120GB Intel SSD(boot drive) 2x 500GB WD Caviar RAID 0
Display(s)	3x AOC IPS 21.5's in
Case	Antec 300
Audio Device(s)	Integrated
Power Supply	Thermaltake 650w
Mouse	R.A.T. 7
Keyboard	Razer
Software	Windows 10 pro 64-bit
Benchmark Scores	What are benchmarks?

System Name	Pioneer
Processor	Ryzen R9 7950X
Motherboard	GIGABYTE Aorus Elite X670 AX
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 + A whole lotta Sunon and Corsair Maglev blower fans...
Memory	64GB (4x 16GB) G.Skill Flare X5 @ DDR5-6000 CL30
Video Card(s)	XFX RX 7900 XTX Speedster Merc 310
Storage	2x Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs
Display(s)	55" LG 55" B9 OLED 4K Display
Case	Thermaltake Core X31
Audio Device(s)	TOSLINK->Schiit Modi MB->Asgard 2 DAC Amp->AKG Pro K712 Headphones or HDMI->B9 OLED
Power Supply	FSP Hydro Ti Pro 850W
Mouse	Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless
Keyboard	WASD Code v3 with Cherry Green keyswitches + PBT DS keycaps
Software	Gentoo Linux x64

System Name	Selene / Yoda
Processor	Fx 8350 @ 4.4 / Phenom II x6 1090t @ 3.6
Motherboard	Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 r4.0 / Gigabyte 890XA-UD3
Cooling	H100i / Xig Dark Knight
Memory	4x 8gb G.Skill Snipers / 4x 4gb G.Skill Ares
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte R9 290x / XfX DD & VisionTek HD6850's C'fired
Storage	256gb ssd, 2x 2tb Wd Blacks & 1x 1tb Wd black / 1x 1tb
Display(s)	Dell Ultra Sharp 2408 WFp / Hp w2207
Case	Raidmax Vampire / Chieftec Alum. Dragon Blue
Audio Device(s)	Onboard Hd Audio / Onboard Hd Audio
Power Supply	Corsair TX 850 watt / Corsair TX 750 watt
Mouse	Logitech G500s
Keyboard	Corsair Strafe
Software	Win 10 pro / Win Vista Home prem. 64 bit
Benchmark Scores	What are benchmarks anyway?

System Name	Black MC in Tokyo
Processor	Ryzen 5 5600
Motherboard	Asrock B450M-HDV
Cooling	Be Quiet! Pure Rock 2
Memory	2 x 16GB Kingston Fury 3400mhz
Video Card(s)	XFX 6950XT Speedster MERC 319
Storage	Kingston A400 240GB \| WD Black SN750 2TB \|WD Blue 1TB x 2 \| Toshiba P300 2TB \| Seagate Expansion 8TB
Display(s)	Samsung U32J590U 4K + BenQ GL2450HT 1080p
Case	Fractal Design Define R4
Audio Device(s)	Line6 UX1 + some headphones, Nektar SE61 keyboard
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x v3
Mouse	Logitech G602
Keyboard	Cherry MX Board 1.0 TKL Brown
VR HMD	Acer Mixed Reality Headset
Software	Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores	Rimworld 4K ready!

System Name	msdos
Processor	8086
Motherboard	mainboard
Cooling	passive
Memory	640KB + 384KB extended
Video Card(s)	EGA
Storage	5.25"
Display(s)	80x25
Case	plastic
Audio Device(s)	modchip
Power Supply	45 watts
Mouse	serial
Keyboard	yes
Software	disk commander
Benchmark Scores	still running

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