My wonderful XP Dell desktop started freezing up and being 11 years old I bought a new window 10 PC, absolute rubbish, oh how I miss my old XP. So I thought I’ll repair it and bought another (second hand) Hard Drive and tried installing XP, it gets as far as installing the programs from the CD onto the PC, then freezes up. I’ve tested the ‘new’ hard drive by hitting the F12 key on start up, got into the BIOS and the hard drive ‘passed’. Any ideas, what’s worth trying next. Please, I’m not computer literate so no gobbledygook.
PC freezes up
- Thread starter jimXP
- Start date
1. what was wrong with the old drive?
2. if you have the cd to install, what steps did you take?
3. did you perform a full format or a quick format? you should always do a full format in ntfs
4. How does pressing F12 test your new hard drive??
5. I need to know your exact steps, the exact wording of any error messages, the model and model number of your dell.
2. if you have the cd to install, what steps did you take?
3. did you perform a full format or a quick format? you should always do a full format in ntfs
4. How does pressing F12 test your new hard drive??
5. I need to know your exact steps, the exact wording of any error messages, the model and model number of your dell.
Many thanks for your help
Thank you for your quick reply Elizabeth.
The PC is a Dell Dimension 8400
For few weeks the computer had been freezing up and getting worse by the day. I tested the old hard drive by entering the PC’s systems BIOS, where, as you know, there is facility to run a test on the PC’s drives, it failed the test, plus the old hard drive started making a fast high pitched whirling noise, so I was hoping that was the problem and installed another hard drive.
Something else which might be a help, when trying to re installing the XP from the CD, after hitting the F 12 key and selecting the boot from CD option, a message informed me the boot manager can’t be found and given two options either press F1 or F2, after several attempts I managed to boot from CD rom and go through the set up steps.
The re install gets so far then freezes up at the point where it starts to write from the CD onto the PC. It gives a list of progress information on the left of the screen, of what’s been done and what’s left to do and it goes down to saying there are 39 mins, which should count down, there stays at 39 mins and the four lights at the bottom of the screen also stop
Over the years I have re installed windows XP two or three times before and always did a full format.
I hope that is of some benefit Elizabeth as I really miss my XP, I can do so much more with the XP programs than Windows 10 and some of my purchased software doesn’t work on windows 10….. Many Thanks for any help.
Thank you for your quick reply Elizabeth.
The PC is a Dell Dimension 8400
For few weeks the computer had been freezing up and getting worse by the day. I tested the old hard drive by entering the PC’s systems BIOS, where, as you know, there is facility to run a test on the PC’s drives, it failed the test, plus the old hard drive started making a fast high pitched whirling noise, so I was hoping that was the problem and installed another hard drive.
Something else which might be a help, when trying to re installing the XP from the CD, after hitting the F 12 key and selecting the boot from CD option, a message informed me the boot manager can’t be found and given two options either press F1 or F2, after several attempts I managed to boot from CD rom and go through the set up steps.
The re install gets so far then freezes up at the point where it starts to write from the CD onto the PC. It gives a list of progress information on the left of the screen, of what’s been done and what’s left to do and it goes down to saying there are 39 mins, which should count down, there stays at 39 mins and the four lights at the bottom of the screen also stop
Over the years I have re installed windows XP two or three times before and always did a full format.
I hope that is of some benefit Elizabeth as I really miss my XP, I can do so much more with the XP programs than Windows 10 and some of my purchased software doesn’t work on windows 10….. Many Thanks for any help.
instead of using F12, go into the bios and choose to change the boot sequence to cdrom.
is the drive an IDE drive or a SATA drive??
you will have to look at the drive number and look it up online if you cannot tell offhand
(sata have tiny cables and IDE have a flat ribbon cable)
ensure the drive is on cable select.
Okay, since you have reinstalled before then you have enough knowledge that I will try not to duplicate your steps.
apparently the bootmanager is missing error is for vista and win7.
read the below thread on bootmanager
http://smallvoid.com/article/no-boot-device-found.html
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let me know the results, and also have you checked your cmos battery, if it went dead while you were not using it you might want to replace it.
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/dimension-8400/drivers
above is dell site for drivers and where you can get a pdf copy of your owners manual.
is the drive an IDE drive or a SATA drive??
you will have to look at the drive number and look it up online if you cannot tell offhand
(sata have tiny cables and IDE have a flat ribbon cable)
ensure the drive is on cable select.
Okay, since you have reinstalled before then you have enough knowledge that I will try not to duplicate your steps.
apparently the bootmanager is missing error is for vista and win7.
read the below thread on bootmanager
http://smallvoid.com/article/no-boot-device-found.html
===================
let me know the results, and also have you checked your cmos battery, if it went dead while you were not using it you might want to replace it.
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/dimension-8400/drivers
above is dell site for drivers and where you can get a pdf copy of your owners manual.
Thank you Elizabeth, sorry I couldn’t reply a bit quicker, work wise, I’ve been rush off my feet and today is the first chance I’ve had to look at my PC.
It’s a SATA type of hard drive.
In the bios I am booting from cdrom and before the PC freezes I can get as far as ‘preparing installation’ but the installation gets no further, the next step should be ‘Finalizing installation’,
The PC does not freeze while in the ‘bios set-up’ I can enter all the sections, its only when I try to install the XP program from the disc the PC freezes.
You mentioned the cmos battery, the time and date are correct, if it was on its way out would that cause the PC to freeze
I already have the owners manual and I have a CD in install all the drivers.
Thanks for all your help, I do appreciate it.
It’s a SATA type of hard drive.
In the bios I am booting from cdrom and before the PC freezes I can get as far as ‘preparing installation’ but the installation gets no further, the next step should be ‘Finalizing installation’,
The PC does not freeze while in the ‘bios set-up’ I can enter all the sections, its only when I try to install the XP program from the disc the PC freezes.
You mentioned the cmos battery, the time and date are correct, if it was on its way out would that cause the PC to freeze
I already have the owners manual and I have a CD in install all the drivers.
Thanks for all your help, I do appreciate it.
Last edited:
is the install cd one that came with the pc??
is the drive one that came with the pc??
xp will not install on a sata drive without a sata controller, which you would click F6 during setup to install from a floppy disk , or you can have them slipstreamed onto your install cd with nlite.
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when the date fails then the cmos is going bad, I just believe that after all this time not using the pc, it would be better to replace, they are only a few bucks.
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http://techtracer.com/2007/03/12/xp-installation-the-34-minute-hiccup/
above is one solution but please let me know if you have installed with this particular cd before with no problems.
is the drive one that came with the pc??
xp will not install on a sata drive without a sata controller, which you would click F6 during setup to install from a floppy disk , or you can have them slipstreamed onto your install cd with nlite.
===========
when the date fails then the cmos is going bad, I just believe that after all this time not using the pc, it would be better to replace, they are only a few bucks.
===============
http://techtracer.com/2007/03/12/xp-installation-the-34-minute-hiccup/
above is one solution but please let me know if you have installed with this particular cd before with no problems.
That’s a quick reply Elizabeth, thanks,
The install CD is the same one that came with the PC and the drive is the same one which came with the PC.
I don’t understand ‘xp will not install on a sata drive without a sata controller’ , are you saying I don’t have a sata controller and need to buy one.
‘click F6 during setup to install from a floppy disk’…. I don’t have a floppy disk tray on my PC,
I’ll see about getting a new battery
Thank You.
The install CD is the same one that came with the PC and the drive is the same one which came with the PC.
I don’t understand ‘xp will not install on a sata drive without a sata controller’ , are you saying I don’t have a sata controller and need to buy one.
‘click F6 during setup to install from a floppy disk’…. I don’t have a floppy disk tray on my PC,
I’ll see about getting a new battery
Thank You.
If the cd is one that you have used to install xp before , then it is probably a hardware problem.
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No you would not have to buy a sata controller, it is a driver just like chipset , video etc...but has to be installed at the beginning of install (setup asks you to press F6 to install raid drivers), but if this is the cd that came with your pc, then it should have the sata controllers already on it.
so I would check your harddrive as that is probably the issue, or you can follow the instructions in the link from my last reply and get the setup log and see what .inf file is holding the install up.
I am on for the next hour or so will keep checking back .
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No you would not have to buy a sata controller, it is a driver just like chipset , video etc...but has to be installed at the beginning of install (setup asks you to press F6 to install raid drivers), but if this is the cd that came with your pc, then it should have the sata controllers already on it.
so I would check your harddrive as that is probably the issue, or you can follow the instructions in the link from my last reply and get the setup log and see what .inf file is holding the install up.
I am on for the next hour or so will keep checking back .
are you able to get the setup log??
checkdisk will check for bad sectors on a drive and a full format on install will do the same.
above from here
so it would be a good idea just to double check the drive with the manufacturers program. you can run this online or you can burn the program to a cd and run on the afflicted pc.
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I will do some more research and see if I can find any more solutions
I am searching from THIS search page, but you can check also,
checkdisk will check for bad sectors on a drive and a full format on install will do the same.
above from here
so it would be a good idea just to double check the drive with the manufacturers program. you can run this online or you can burn the program to a cd and run on the afflicted pc.
===========
I will do some more research and see if I can find any more solutions
I am searching from THIS search page, but you can check also,
reply NO. 2:
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/disk-drives/f/3534/t/19355467
have you read the thread above from the dell forum??
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/disk-drives/f/3534/t/19355467
have you read the thread above from the dell forum??