damn win2k !!!

[LC1104]

What is the OS's problem?! I did what Dr Mordrid told me to do. I put my 22gb IBM drive on the primary ide 33 controller. Then i formatted in FAT32 and tried to install WIN2K. Then when the files are being copied from the $winnt-$.`ls directory to winnt, it keep coming up with erros saying that a file is corrupt or not the right file from the CD or what not. it said this for 6 or 7 files. I tried repairing win2k with the repair option in installation but then other files mess up. I have tried installing directly from the cd and i have tried copying all the files in the i386 directory onto my harddrive. Then after many times, it seems like all the files are ok because i kept repairing until there were no more errors. But the when win2k boots up, it tells me that i have an error with the nt5.cat file. It says that product catalogs don't match a signature. It also says in the error log that the setup log file does not match. This is a nightmare!!! i want win2k damnit. Furthurmore, i'm guessing that even if i got past that part, win2k would have a bag of problems to go through before allowing me to use the OS. Damn MS!!! Oh, btw, if anyone ahs had this problem and knows a solution, please help. And does anyone know any good win2k message boards. I just posted here because this is my favorite message board. If only matrox would release new drivers for the rrg. it's been long enough.

jason

[wkulecz]

Every time I've installed w2k I've let the setup program format the drive and installed to NTFS. Fat32 should work but you lose many of the protection features.

What motherboard do you have? Sounds like a hardware/driver problem. Some Abit boards have IDE controllers that need special drivers as do many non-intel chipset motherboards. There is a place in the install where it pauses to let you load them, although this may not happen if the disk is already formatted.

You're not using an ATA66 cable on an ATA33 controller are you? Cable known good? Bad cables are rare but can cause data corruption, as can a defective CDROM drive -- this has driven me nuts in the past.

Some ATA66 drives need a vendor supplied utility run on them when used on an ATA33 controller.

Is this a totally new system or one that has run win9x in the past? The failure rate of new components is IMHO distressingly high, approaching 3-5%. I recently ran into a CDROM that worked to install win98 and then had an "infant mortality" failure that caused all software installed from it to crash. Luckily I caught the connection that things installed from floppies worked but things installed from CD didn't -- was ruled out by the owner since he installed win98 from the CD so it "must be good". Anything with less than 100 hrs of solid use is suspect. But of course anything can fail at any time, but other than overheat or overvoltage conditions, after the first 100 hrs I find stuff usually lasts well beyond the normal lifespan of the computer.

Make sure you have the latest BIOS for your motherboard and if it lets you choose between ACPI enable/disable toggle it. Some work better one way than the other. Make sure the BIOS is set to PnP OS YES, w2k wants to set everything up for itself and unlike w9x, PnP seems to be working for you not against you in w2k.

W2k does serious multithreading, this will quickly expose overclocking or memory speed bugs that might be unnoticed in the background noise of w9x crashes and lockups.

HTH,
--wally.

[paulw]

I had a simalar problem to this early this year. The install would fail after copying the files to the hard disk with a message that the hard disk was corrupt. This turned out to be a problem with my hardware interface. A U33 HD and an I820 controller chip. When I put a U66 HD on the primary all installed perfectly and I haven't had a problem since. (5 months) I'm not the bigest fan of Micro$oft products but I will give them good marks for Win2K. I still have to use Win 95 OSR2B for video work..

[gibverse]

I had a similar issue with my Asus A7V. Wound up being that Via chipsets and the G400s don't get along in AGP 4x mode. Since I've turned it down to 2x, I've had no problems.

John

[DosFreak]

Might be a bad CD or *cough* bad copy *cough*. Try a different copy.

[LC1104]

my system:

P3B-F 450 PIII
2 x 128 MB Viking CAS2
1 x 22 GB IBM 7200 RPM ATA 66 drive on the
ATA33 controller of P3B-F
G400 MAX with RRG
Plextor 40x max ultra
Plextor 8/20 CDR
Adaptec 2940U scsi card

I have tried three different copies of Win2k with all same results. I hate it!!! I just want win2k to work. if anyone has any help, please! help me...

jason

[gibverse]

LC1104,
What CD are you using to install from, the burner or the 40x? And what interfaces are these drives? SCSI or IDE?

John

[LC1104]

I have tried installing from both CDROMs and copying to hard drives and installing (also from both cdroms). These are scsi, Plextor does not have eide 40x max drive nor an 8/20 eide. only a 8/4/32 and 12/8/32 eide. thanks.

[Greebe]

Don't forget their new eide 12x10x32 with buffer underrun protection licensed from Samsung.

[LvR]

Personally - I would pull the SCISI and writer, stick Hd on master IDE and CD on Slave IDE as masters and try with a blank hard-disk(fdisk from win98).

P3BF one of the most stable, if not "the" stablest boards around - I have quite a few machines running W2K with no hassles.

Read somewhere on a forum (this one ?) about differences in QC/hassles on P3B boards made in China and Taiwan - cant remember where though - but if I remember correctly the Taiwan board were prefered.

------------------
Lawrence

[This message has been edited by LvR (edited 13 October 2000).]

[wkulecz]

A problem with the SCSI card is a single failure that could explain everything.

Assuming both the CDROM and CD-R are internal
you need to make sure the SCSI controller is terminated and only the drive at the physical end of the cable is terminated. All other drives must be unterminated.

A given manufacturer usually ships all drives terminated or unterminated as a default (most are shipped terminated, but I don't know what Plextor does). If you've not removed termination (or added it) to one of the drives that is probably what corrupts your data transfer.

The Adaptec controller has an "auto termination" feature. It sometimes fails. Use the Ctrl-A option during boot to force it on or off as necessary for your setup.

If you have an internal and external drive both must be terminated and the controller unterminated. Total cable length must be under 5' for 20 MHz SCSI, shorter for faster unless you are using differential SCSI. I see lots of SCSI problems with external 6' cables on SCSI2 controllers.

Hopefully one device is not wide SCSI (68 pin)and the other narrow (50 pin) as cabling and termination offers many more incorrect options in this case.

Can you verify the SCSI controller card and cable are good?

Good luck!
--wally.

[LC1104]

I had the plextor drives installed by the place i bought the system and i know that they know what they're doing. But I bought an Epson 636 Perfection scanner and connected it to the external connector of the Adaptec card. Do i need to terminate it? And if so, how? For some reason, Win98 seems to run fine and it installs everytime. I've tried installing many times because of various reformats. Thank you all for all your help too. It is much appreciated.

Jason

[LvR]

Have you checked the "compatibility" of all your hw using the Microsoft website before the W2K installation process?

Feel sure you have a HW problem. As suggested above, try pulling the scsi and the writer - install W2K and see if it will run ok. If it does,then add the scsi with drivers and see if that is successful,then do the same with the writer.

------------------
Lawrence

[wkulecz]

Yes the SCSI scanner will have to be terminated. Make sure the controller is unterminated. What are the device SCSI IDs of the CDROM, CD-R and scanner? ID conflicts are far too common. There should be a switch on the back to enable disable termination unless there is only a single SCSI connection on the scanner -- which should mean it has to be last and is therefore always terminated. Make sure the guy that set it up for you didn't manually enable the Adaptec termination, as I said autotermination is a good feature, but it sometimes fails so lots of places set the termination manually to be sure it is right -- but then its wrong when you added the scanner.

Win9x doesn't do the overlapped scatter gather transfers that fully utilize the SCSI bus, so sometimes wrongly terminated systems appear to work with win9x.

Unless the place you got the system specializes in SCSI I wouldn't bet on them knowing about termination issues.

Definitely try the install without the scanner connected. How long is the scanner cable? If its 6' that is probably the trouble if the Plextors are trying to do 20MB/sec SCSI transfers. Total internal cable (usually 2-3') plus external must be less than 5 feet!!! You can try turning all devices to 10MB/sec (so accaptable cable length becomes ~10')in the Adaptec's SCSI BIOS device setup, but I'm not 100% sure w2k will honor these settings.

Are all SCSI devices 50-pin "narrow" SCSI? If you are mixing wide (68-pin)and narrow devices, termination gets complicated!


Definitely check to be sure your motherboard is not one of those that need a "third party" EIDE driver for w2k. The Promise Fasttrack is certainly one of those. You're not installing to a drive on the Fasttrack are you?

--wally.

[LC1104]

First of all, man Wally, you know a lot! Thanks for your advice. Ok, the cable for the scanner is 6', so i am going to take the scanner off the scsi card and try installing. If it does install, i have no idea what i am going to do about termination and such, because i know extremely little about that. I have taken out the fasttrak and am installing from one 22gb harddrvie that is now connected to the motherboards ide primary. The CDROM is an Ultra scsi device and the writer i think is just scsi-2. They are connected on the same internal scsi cable. The scanner also has two connectors on the back. I didn't know which one to put the cable in. either way, i am gong to disconnect the scanner and try installing. I can't install without the scsi card because both cdrom's are on the card. and i don't think it would help to copy the setup files and then take out the card ebcause either way, the files came from the cdrom that is connected to the card and would ahve file transfer problems if it was the scsi conenction that is my problem. Here i go trying. I will post later today with results.

Jason