1984 Posted May 10, 2008 Share Posted May 10, 2008 Alrighty. I am attempting to frankenstein together my old computer and get it to work. So far, I pulled it all apart and cleaned it all out and put it all back together. Looks like its ok as i can get into the Bios by pressing F1. So far so good. Now i have attempted to reinstall windows with the disk, both on the harddrive that came with the computer, and also with the an old harddrive that my little brother gave me. Both harddrives, after numerous attempts, and with complete formatting invovled, run good, go through the installation, and then at the end give me an error. This is the exact message i get, which after getting, i can go no further. System Setup Log-(C:\WINDOWS\setuperr.log) ERROR: Installation failed: E:\1386\asms. Error Message: The parameter is incorrect. Fatal Error: One of the components that WINDOWS needs to continue setup could not be installed. The parameter is incorrect. I googled this error, but all solutions are only achievable if you can get to regedit.....which i cant edit from the BIOS (unless there is a way and i just don't know about it). Can anyone help me here? I would love to get my old workhorse back on track. Then I would have an xp computer again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corona Posted May 10, 2008 Share Posted May 10, 2008 Changing RAM is about the most heavy duty 'inside the PC' thing I've ever done. I'm no help. Yet I felt this strange urge to reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoKenny Posted May 10, 2008 Share Posted May 10, 2008 If I understand you correctly this is what you want: Primary IDE adapter: HD 0 plugged Master <== C: drive Note: binary counting starts at 0 HD 1 plugged Slave <== E: drive Secondary IDE adapter: HD 2 plugged Master <== D: drive CD 0 plugged Slave <== F: drive Do NOT use Cable Select as it is unreliable. What does the BIOS indicate about the hard drives? Are they all set to Auto? Install the OS on the C: drive and keep the other drives for data. See: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/ide4.htm "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." - Albert Einstein IE7Pro user Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1984 Posted May 10, 2008 Author Share Posted May 10, 2008 I will have to look a bit more to answer the questions you asked about BIOS, but I only have on drive. The C portion is where the drive has always been installed in, and the E drive is a tiny partition that holds the reinstall for the operating system (but i also have the recovery disks as ibm was nice enough to give me both). the drive is only 40 gb total, (the one my bro gave me and i tried to install another copy of xp on-the one that came with the comp i got from him) is only 30 gb. I am wondering if maybe i should unplug the drive and put it into an external drive case i have, plug it into another computer and then completely wipe it clean and format it via the other computer. then maybe reinstall it back to the old computer and then try a full reinstall? Ill check on the bios stuff and post back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbie Posted May 11, 2008 Share Posted May 11, 2008 from doing a google the main causes of this error are suggested as being either a bad Windows disk or a bad CD / DVD drive a few threads I found: http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1006923435 http://ubcd4win.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8503 http://www.techsupportforum.com/microsoft-...tion-error.html quite a few at google groups too, mainly the same advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1984 Posted May 12, 2008 Author Share Posted May 12, 2008 Alrighty. I checked out those pages, and it basically says that either the disk or the drive is no good. Well i know that the disk is good, cause i have used the disk before without problem, and hasnt been used since. So then i thought i would pull out the hard drive (actually my old drive and my bros) and used paragon to format both hard drives. wiped clean and no problems. then i tried putting my bros old cd drive into my computer. i can get into bios (everything is set at default), but when i try to boot up it says : BOOTMGR is missing. press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart. And i cant do anything else. The only things i can do is press F1 at restart to get into Bios, and press F12 at restart to change boot sequence. Other then that nadda. This is with reformated drive, and legit disks. hmmmm. any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capman Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 I would try removing the BIOS battery for a couple of hours, then put it back and check the boot sequence is how you need it, then try to carry on from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1984 Posted May 12, 2008 Author Share Posted May 12, 2008 alrighty.....it finally after many attempts allowed me to start the reinstall again...but now it did the same error as the first time....only instead of an E drive letter, it says F. I'm losing my mind here............Just hate getting rid of a comp when i am sure there is a simple (for others not me) explanation and it could be put back together and used for a bit more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoKenny Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 Why not FDISK the hard drive and remove all partitions? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255867 I have an old Win98SE bootable floppy that has FDISK and FORMAT on it that I use to make hard drives clean to be able to install a fresh copy of the operating system. You can get the disk images of boot disks at: http://www.bootdisk.com "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." - Albert Einstein IE7Pro user Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithuk Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 Another good forum for Windows problems is Bleeping Computer. I've been on there over 12 months as well as the one already mensioned Annoyances.org. Keith Windows XP 2002 SP3 IE 7.0 Martin2k Rorshach112 is the best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corona Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 Then there's the age old adage of just giving in and buying a new pooter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1984 Posted May 12, 2008 Author Share Posted May 12, 2008 Then there's the age old adage of just giving in and buying a new pooter. Well i did that already (see my signature-desktop) but i still want to fiddle with this one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corona Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 If you can resurrect an old pooty more power to you. I never have been in that position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humpty Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 You could try another optical drive or run a cd lens cleaner through the one you are using now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1984 Posted May 13, 2008 Author Share Posted May 13, 2008 Hey humpty, i actually did try another cd drive, and got the same result....but it was an old drive too, so i cant be sure it isnt perhaps junk too..... The problem is, is that in the past when i needed to reinstall, it was easy....it would start up, i would hit the f12 button, it would give me the options, and then i would reinstall from the little partition that ibm included on the disk drive. The partition is still there, as when i put the drive into an external and formated it, the little ibm partition with the reinstal info was still there, and untouched (i could see it in the paragon suite that i used to format). So i am kind of at a loss now.....but ill check bleeping computer some more to see if i can find a solution. oh, and i tried locating and downloading the "asm" file that i found on the net, and burned to a disk and tried loading...no go either. bummer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoKenny Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 If you can resurrect an old pooty more power to you. I never have been in that position. I rescued an old Pentium 177MHZ 32MB RAM system from the recycle area in my apartment and got it to run Win98SE and installed an Ethernet card for high speed Internet and sold it to a lady who had never had a computer but wanted to learn. "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." - Albert Einstein IE7Pro user Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoKenny Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 Hey humpty, i actually did try another cd drive, and got the same result....but it was an old drive too, so i cant be sure it isnt perhaps junk too..... Original Star Trek Bones to Captain Kirk Its dead Jim http://www.lockergnome.com/it/2005/09/28/its-dead-jim Monty Python The dead parrot: "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." - Albert Einstein IE7Pro user Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davey Posted May 13, 2008 Share Posted May 13, 2008 Original Star Trek Monty Python The dead parrot: We all know that Parrot was just sleeping.All it needed was a little more sleep. davey One of my favorite skits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talldog9 Posted May 18, 2008 Share Posted May 18, 2008 Test the ram http://www.memtest.org/ EDIT: Found this The internet - Where men are men, women are men and children are FBI agents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1984 Posted May 24, 2008 Author Share Posted May 24, 2008 well i installed and installed about (no lies) 40 times, and it finally (for whatever reason) took. now i have my old xp computer back up and running! so its sitting side by side with the new desktop....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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