Laptop hanging on XP/7 installation

[Thrill]

The laptop originally had Windows 7 on it, the issue was that it was hanging on the Windows logo at startup. It would hang when trying Safe Mode too and Last Known Good Config too. So, formatted the hard drive with Dariks Boot and Nuke (I thought the MBR might be corrupt) and then tried installing Windows 7 and it wouldn't let me past the bit where the Windows 7 logo appears, same with XP disc.. hangs on the splash screen there too.

Tested hard drive, RAM, they're both fine. No peripherals are plugged in either. It basically crashes when booting from any CD on the splash screen. It just hangs. Also reset BIOS. Any ideas what the problem might be? The hard drive is formatted, with no partitions on it, removed MBR and still can't boot from any CD or install any Operating System.

Summary: Blank hard drive, RAM & HDD are fine, won't let me install any Operating System (XP or 7) as it hangs on the splash screen after loading Windows files. Won't let me boot from Mini XP off Hirens Boot CD either. Reset BIOS to no avail.

 

[Don]

If it won't get to a PE environment (Mini XP) that would suggest that the HDD has issues I would have said.

Do you have a Linux USB pen or a USB pen with some form of bootable OS on it?

 

[Thrill]

I am still leaning towards the hard drive to be honest. However, the Mini XP loads from the CD and puts temp files into RAM I thought? I didn't think it used the hard drive. I'm gonna try a copy of Ubuntu later on to see if I can get into it that way. It's running a Fujitsu hard drive diagnostic tool now while I'm out. Memtest86 came back fine, theres no bad sectors on the hard drive either.

 

[H182]

Try the mini xp without the HD in,I think it will still reference it. A bios update may solve it, or it could just be fucked.

 

[welshname]

Go into bios and look at the HDD settings. If you have it set to the wrong setting then it will be playing up and after install it wont boot and allow you to do all the first boot stuff.

I've seen this happen multiple times with fresh installs.

 

[Thrill]

As its a laptop its all pretty locked down. You cant change any HDD settings, I was gonna change it to IDE but you can't do that.

 

[H182]

Pretty much every laptop I've used has the option, it's sometimes down as ATA or legacy.

 

[Thrill]

Pretty much every laptop I've used has the option, it's sometimes down as ATA or legacy.

Even a Philips FreeEvent? Its not mine, its a mates but hes asked me to take a look. I think the graphics card might be knackered, that's why it's crashing when I come out of BIOS/DOS looking screens into colour.

 

[welshname]

You should be able to change anything you want in the bios pal. Doesn't make a difference that it's a laptop.

 

[Thrill]

I've nailed it down to missing SATA drivers. Can't boot from USB/floppy so will try Vista. Hopefully that works as the laptop is made for it. Its a Philips Freeevents H12Y. Can't change mode in BIOS, as its an AMI bios and theres no option to do that

 

[iain187]

there's a decent program called nlite where, if you can get the correct driver, you can put it into your XP disc and re-burn so it will deploy the driver when you are installing windows.

check it out http://www.nliteos.com/

 

[Thrill]

It crashes on the 'Windows is loading setup bit'. Shall I try nLite with the drivers?

 

[welshname]

Is that the bit after the full install is completed and it's trying to boot for the first time? If it is then it's 99% what I said

 

[Thrill]

Is that the bit after the full install is completed and it's trying to boot for the first time? If it is then it's 99% what I said

Nope, way before that. It's about a minute after its booted from CD. It hangs on the same point with a XP, Vista and 7 disc, also Ubuntu 32bit. I'm trying Ubuntu 64 bit. Just hangs way before the installation and also on Live CDs. All hardware is fine, I've tested every component and everything is fine. What makes me think it isnt drivers is that when I try Ubuntu, it still hangs! Always hangs when a splash screen appears.

 

[Thrill]

With XP it crashes just after the ahcix86.sys driver has loaded, then hangs. With Vista & 7 it hangs on the Splash Screen. Ubuntu it crashes on a black screen with a dash in the top left, just after a small logo at the bottom of the screen.

 

[blburied]

achi86.sys is to do with the sata/ide config according to google.

I've had PC's/Laptops hang on build before and its been down to the SATA Operation settings, However, A quick google about that laptop shows that it can hang whilst installing Linux, something to do with the Card Reader, Can you disable that in the bios?

Your on the right lines with some form of storage issue.

Does this link answer anything?

http://lofi-gaming.org.uk/blog/2008/02/29/how-to-install-xp-on-a-philips-freevents-11nb5800-laptop/

 

[Thrill]

Nope, the BIOS is really minimal. I've just took the hard drive out and tried to boot from Ubuntu Live CD.. still hangs. Does that not rule out hard drive? Ive seen that article but I cant stick drivers on using nLite or vLite because they're .EXE and it needs .INF. Could it have short circuited? The person who owns the laptop said the wires we're hanging out the charger so they replaced it.

This laptop has a SATA hard drive which was quite rare for a laptop this old to have one. But still it should still work when I boot from a live CD without a hard drive in? I've reset BIOS, cleared MBR, everything. I'm beginning to think its the motherboard, somethings short circuited from the dodgy charger. What happened, is the laptop ran out of charge and went off, plugged charged in and it made a popping noise. It's used to hang when starting windows so I formatted the hard drive and it still hangs on CDs etc.

 

[H182]

Bin it lol.

 

[iain187]

Nope, the BIOS is really minimal. I've just took the hard drive out and tried to boot from Ubuntu Live CD.. still hangs. Does that not rule out hard drive? Ive seen that article but I cant stick drivers on using nLite or vLite because they're .EXE and it needs .INF. Could it have short circuited? The person who owns the laptop said the wires we're hanging out the charger so they replaced it.

This laptop has a SATA hard drive which was quite rare for a laptop this old to have one. But still it should still work when I boot from a live CD without a hard drive in? I've reset BIOS, cleared MBR, everything. I'm beginning to think its the motherboard, somethings short circuited from the dodgy charger. What happened, is the laptop ran out of charge and went off, plugged charged in and it made a popping noise. It's used to hang when starting windows so I formatted the hard drive and it still hangs on CDs etc.

I've never done this, so hopefully an Ubuntu person will tell us if it works -- but if it's possible to boot to a ubuntu usb with no HDD fitted at all and it still crashes that would rule in or out a HDD issue.

try and run the AHCI driver on another PC and see if it extracts the folders to somewhere (I think Dell drivers often make a C:\Dell folder for example) - you will probably find your INF there and then you can nLite it onto your XP disk and try again.

 

[Thrill]

Hi guys,

Cheers! But it's gone now, it had that many problems. Acpi, AHCI. Got Ubuntu installed and everytime you insert a network cable it hangs!

 

[Darius]

Hi guys,

Cheers! But it's gone now, it had that many problems. Acpi, AHCI. Got Ubuntu installed and everytime you insert a network cable it hangs!

So no fixy then?

 

[Thrill]

Nah, I reckon a dodgy charger has broken something. I've tested all hardware individually and it's fine. I've Flashed BIOS and changed mode to IDE.. Further but no luck installing Windows. Hangs on xp, vista and 7 install. Works with Ubuntu with no=acpi but hangs when a network cable is inserted.

Looks related to acpi or the hard drive driver. Really stumped!

 

[Darius]

Can you install windows from Ubuntu?

 

[Thrill]

Not tried. I never thought it was possible anyway!