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I have been trying to install windows xp on an old dell. It has a 2.8 P4, 1 gig of ddr pc400, 80 gig 7200 rpm drive. Its a dimension 1100.
My buddy got it from work and it was supposed to be a good comp.
It was wiped and I have been trying to get winxp installed on it. This is the third try. It has been installing for 6 hours so far.
I have tried changing the ram, processor, and HDD. The next step is to switch out the PSU.
I have an older parts dell dimension that I would like to swap the PSU with but I'm not sure it will work. It had an older P4 that took RD ram.
Are all the older dell PSU's compatible?
Anyone have any other ideas?

Check the BIOS to make sure that DMA is enabled on all drives (not sure if there's an option in those). If so, try swapping out the CD drive or disconnecting any other drives except the CD drive that's doing the loading & the hard drive.

You might run chkdsk om it.

Oh, yeah, that too. If there are a ton of bad sectors, the disc will keep trying to find good ones & if it gets errors, it will start over.

Thanks for the suggestions so far but I forgot to mention I went through the bios and set it to UDMA and used the dell HDD diagnostics from the boot menu. I don't know if the diagnostics will do the same thing as chkdsk.
It says 6 minutes remaining, after 14 or so hours. As soon as it finishes I will check the bios again and run chkdsk. I may try to change the PSU too but I don't want to fry the mobo. I'm still not about the PSU compatibilities.

Have you swapped out the CD-Rom drive? Could be read errors. Seen that many times.

The Dell diagnostics aren't aggressive. To fully test the hard drive you need to download the manufacturer's diagnostic and run the full "Advanced" test which can take 30 - 60 minutes.

You using the stock CPU? OEM systems are very fussy about processors.

Check the Northbridge heatsink. If it's not fully seated it could be overheating (although this usually causes RAM errors and leads to a failed install).

Dell has used a standard ATX PSU for the last 6 or 7 years. My assumption would be that if it's a Pentium 4 then it's probably a standard PSU.

Older Dells used standard PSUs but the wiring of the mobo power plug was different.

Easy enough to tell. Just compare the color codes of the wires going to the motherboard power plug. The colors are standardized EXCEPT that Dell often uses white wires in place of yellow wires.

Ok I've tried 3 known good HDDs. The PSU has different connectors, the P4s are different sockets. I swapped the dvd drives out. Even tried different EIDE cables. I'm thinking about checking the socket on the MOBO next, maybe corroded? It looks like it came from a nice clean office. So I doubt it will be corroded.
The northbridge HS is riveted on. At least it looks like it is anyway.
The only thing I can think it can be is the PSU.

I might be wrong, but I don't think it would be the power supply. Either it's getting proper voltage to run or you would have crashing of some kind.

A bad install disk could do this...

I don't know what I did but its working now. I got fed up and disassembled everything for inspection. Didn't see anything and put it all back together. And poof it finished installing windows in less than 15 minutes.

I wonder if a stick of ram got loose. Glad to hear you got it going.

two slow wrote:I don't know what I did but its working now. I got fed up and disassembled everything for inspection. Didn't see anything and put it all back together. And poof it finished installing windows in less than 15 minutes.

LOL using that pixie dust again?

may of just had the cpu seated wrong . i had that same problem once never figured out why it happen so never replyed to this post .

I've seen just a touch of corrosion on a ram stick cause all kinds of problems. Whenever I reseat the RAM I also spray the socket with contact cleaner.

Err wrote:I wonder if a stick of ram got loose. Glad to hear you got it going.

Well at one point I tried reseating the ram and power cords.

renovation wrote:may of just had the cpu seated wrong . i had that same problem once never figured out why it happen so never replyed to this post .

The cpu that was installed originally would have to have been installed wrong too.

Executioner wrote:LOL using that pixie dust again?

LOL I could use more of that dust