Windows XP Pro won't install

[Vitalka]

Hey there.

I'm having problems with reinstalling my Windows Xp Pro. I have set my CD-ROM as fisrt boot device and it starts reading the CD. After it gives a message that it's checking my hardware and then the screen stays black.

My Linux install works fine. And I can boot from Linux bootable CDs, but windows will not go beyond that black screen.

I am really stuned by this, and have no clue what might be holding it from installing. I did dualboot installations of windows and linux many times and never had a problem.

Thank you for your time.

[BipolarBill]

Is Linux already installed? If so, it may be interfering.

[Vitalka]

I have killed my Linux boot loader, so Linux can't interfer in any way. This is not the first time when I install windows after Linux is being installed and I never had a problem.

Let's forget that I have Linux installed as if there is nothing on the system.

Any ideas then?

[BipolarBill]

Are you overclocking?

[Vitalka]

No overclocking. Stock speeds on everything.

[BipolarBill]

Original CD?

Any RAM changes?

At what point exactly does the screen go dark?

[Vitalka]

Yes it is original CD. I just checked if it works on the other PC and it booted up no problem.

Since last installation I added one more stick of RAM (512MB), so now I have a 1GG. I did that while my windows was installed, but I cleaned up that partition thourgh Linux. So it is empty.

Now here is what is happening with the black screen:

- I turn on the system
- It sees my CD and starts spinning it
- then on the black screen it says that it checks my hardware (for about 5 seconds)
- and then message goes away, CD spins for another 20 seconds and then it stops

In a perfect world I supposed to be greeted with a blue setup screen after this message, but never happens. :(

[BipolarBill]

Remove the new stick of RAM and try again.

[Vitalka]

I just unpluged my HD to check if CD will boot up and it did.

Then I pluged my HD back in and CD booted up for some reason. It can't be loose cable issue, since I was able to boot into linux.

Thank you for your time BipolarBill, much appreciated. :)

[BipolarBill]

If it's a Western Digital, set it for cable select.

[Jenyus425]

is it a SATA drive? if so, u gotta hav windows xp with SP2 or tweak the BIOS

[BipolarBill]

He got it fixed.

[Stupidav]

I realize that it is taken care of, but I was curious if you were getting the Blue Screen that says that it is loading the drivers? If not you probably were not booting from CD. If it is a newer computer you have to manually remove the hard drive to cause the Bios to look for an alternate boot device or physically go into the bios and change it.

If you were running Alcohol 120%, and you recently installed something, this can happen, and there is an easy fix available on the Acohol website Forums.

I only say because it happened to me, and I got all kinds of possible fixes (non worked).