Can't install 2K or Xp

[Skiip2MyLou]

I have got Xp and 2K discs here.. Original..

They used to install fine, Now all of a sudden the setup locked up at "Setup is starting windows..." So I bought a new motherboard thinking that was the problem, Still hanging there.. So I bought a new stick of Ram, Now it gets to the Hdd manager asking to format the drive.. When I hit enter and select the partition, It locks my Pc.. I checked the Hdd and all tested good. It's a WD 80gb Cavier..

I have tried EVERYTHING, Bought all those new parts, Changed pretty much everything in the bios, I got the latest one for Epox 8K7A board.. Still nothing, Please Help !

Possibly, disks are scratched or the CD drive is dirty, not reading some files and setup is incomplete.

Did you try these disks on another PC? How about the CD drive?

Is your Power supply OK?

I'm afraid the only way to go is to eliminate each piece of hardware one by one, but I'd check the disks/cd drive first.

[Skiip2MyLou]

Yes, I have tried these discs on another Pc... They work fine. Power Supply, I guess it's ok lol.. 300W .. No signs of going bad.

CD drive is fine, How many more pieces is there to eliminate ? I got new Ram, Hdd, And Motherboard.. I pulled the Sound Card while trying to install also. Even unplugged one of my CD- Roms.. Tried them both. Tried both of my Hard Drives WD 80Gb and Maxtor Quantum Fireball 10Gb.. Same result. It's really killing me.

[meese]

How you tried a different CPU?

[Skiip2MyLou]

Don't have a different Cpu to test

Windows98 Se installed smooth .. Not a problem at all..

[Scott Tiger]

I know you said you just got new memory but I would suggest testing it - Windows 2000 and XP are both pretty picky about what memory they will run. Head here for the download:

http://www.memtest86.com

HTH's

EDIT: Bad Linkage..

[Skiip2MyLou]

How long would you suggest me let this run ?

[Skiip2MyLou]

I tried another stick of "Crucial Ram" .. Same result ..

I don't think it's ram.. 2 New sticks gone bad ?

[Scott Tiger]

Depends on the system - I've never found an error that didn't occur with 5 minutes. If you have 2 sticks of Crucial I think the odds of both of them being bad is pretty low. Okay, next suggestion..

How do you have the WD jumpered? With some of the machines we have at work we have to jumper the WD's as CS (cable select) and put the drive on the end of the primary master IDE cable for things to work smoothly. Our machines never hang though - they just pause for 5 - 10 seconds.

[PSU2Fan]

Yeah, what Scott said. Have you gone into your BIOS to make sure your HDDs are properly recognized?