problem

N

nu n

did you unplug the computer when it was formatting?







bb20 wrote:



"error loading operating system"

08-Jan-09



Trying to refurbish an old pc:- install Win xp and I get the following

message when I hit the enter key to 'boot from CD". During the POST, the bios

were able to detect the PRI Master and the SEC Slave and it was set to boot

from cd ron/hdd/floppy. I get the same message even when I change into

another cd rom drive or the data cable. Thinking that CPU at 550mHz,(the RAM

is 384 MB) may not be enough to install Win xp, I tried to install Win 2000

but there is no change in the situation.

Is there any reason why I cant install the OS? Thanks



Previous Posts In This Thread:



On Thursday, January 08, 2009 10:20 AM

bb20 wrote:



"error loading operating system"

Trying to refurbish an old pc:- install Win xp and I get the following

message when I hit the enter key to 'boot from CD". During the POST, the bios

were able to detect the PRI Master and the SEC Slave and it was set to boot

from cd ron/hdd/floppy. I get the same message even when I change into

another cd rom drive or the data cable. Thinking that CPU at 550mHz,(the RAM

is 384 MB) may not be enough to install Win xp, I tried to install Win 2000

but there is no change in the situation.

Is there any reason why I cant install the OS? Thanks



On Thursday, January 08, 2009 11:14 AM

Anna wrote:



Re: "error loading operating system"

"bb202" wrote in message

news:41FECBA2-CB63-485E-BDF4-0B9F88934565@microsoft.com...





bb202:

There may be other problems affecting your system but first...



First of all, we're assuming that whatever HDDs have been installed in the

system have been properly configured (jumpered) & connected. Ditto for the

optical drive(s). So do be sure to re:check these. The fact that the BIOS

detects both HDDs during bootup is a good initial sign, but not an absolute

indication that the drives have been properly connected/configured.



Uninstall your secondary HDD from the system before fresh-installing the OS

onto the primary HDD. Again, ensure that HDD is properly

connected/configured. No other storage devices should be connected in the

system when fresh-installing the OS.



Assuming the XP install is successful, then connect your secondary HDD.

Should the system fail to boot with both HDDs connected or you run into any

other problems, check out both HDDs with the HDD diagnostic freely available

from the disk's manufacturer.

Anna



On Thursday, January 08, 2009 4:53 PM

bb20 wrote:



There is only 1 hdd which is corrected jumped and connected to IDE1 (Pri

There is only 1 hdd which is corrected jumped and connected to IDE1 (Pri

Master) while the optical drive is also correctly jumped as Sec slave and

connected tro IDE2.

Siize of hdd is 20 gb. All connections check and seems ok

"smlunatick" wrote:



On Thursday, January 08, 2009 9:43 PM

bb20 wrote:



Re: "error loading operating system"

It appears to be a bios problem in which I downloaded from

http://www.findmysoft.com/drivers/download-Aopen-AX6B-1-20-bios-driver.html



and save into A. When I set the pc to boot from A:, it just wont boot? Any

idea what are the steps to update bios? Thanks



"bb202" wrote:



On Thursday, January 08, 2009 11:44 PM

sgopu wrote:



Have you installed a bootable sys on the floppy?

Have you installed a bootable sys on the floppy?

Usually you need to format and install some kind of operating system on the

floppy

before it will boot to it, a bios update is not an operating system. try

downloading NTDOS from download.com and follow the instructions to create a

bootable floppy.



"bb202" wrote:



On Friday, January 09, 2009 9:59 AM

bb20 wrote:



When I try to flash, it say my current version is AX6BCPro dd 10-22-1999 and

When I try to flash, it say my current version is AX6BCPro dd 10-22-1999 and

thus I have the wrong bios update. However on the mobo, its stated AX6BC Pro

which I just cannot locate the bios.



fyi, I downloaded the bios from here

http://members.driverguide.com/index.php?action=dosearch&qa5=1&qa6=90&qa7=Windows+XP&dp=3&sm=b&fzz=d



specifically AX6BC Pro II



Any idea where can I get this bios update? Thanks



"sgopus" wrote:



On Friday, January 09, 2009 12:47 PM

Paul wrote:



Re: "error loading operating system"

bb202 wrote:



Why not go to the manufacturer's site ? Click your

product, and then use the download link. You have

to select the model *again* from the pulldown menu.



http://global.aopen.com/search_prod.aspx?modl=ax6bc



Example of a BIOS download.

http://global.aopen.com/userdownload_List.aspx?RecNo=4402&Model=192



R1.19 1/6/2003 202.0 KB

# checksum 6277H

# Supports DieHard BIOS Lite.



The download is a zip, consisting of a .bin file (256KB)

and a flasher utility. I presume the flasher runs from

a MSDOS boot floppy.



With some manufacturers, they change the BIOS ID, and

sometimes, when you attempt to change from a really

old release, to a new one, the flasher may deny that

the identity of the motherboard is correct. This

happens occasionally on Asus motherboards, when they

change BIOS release tools in mid-stream.



Flashing a motherboard BIOS is not without its risks.

If you "brick" the board, such that it won't boot,

you'd want the BIOS chip to be socketed, so it can be

removed. Some boards solder the BIOS chip right to

the board. If the motherboard is socketed, you can go

to a site like badflash.com and order another pre-programmed

chip. As long as you can figure out what BIOS version

to get programmed in the chip, it offers another way

to repair a bricked system.



Paul



On Saturday, January 10, 2009 1:03 AM

bb20 wrote:



Many thanks for your info.

Many thanks for your info. I click the 1st link and download from here

http://global.aopen.com/userdownload_List.aspx?RecNo=4402&Model=192



the model AX6BC Pro file 6bcp107.exe Version R1.07 into the floppy and reboot.

Upon reboot from floppy and type 6bcp107.



The info from the 'old' bios is the same as well as the version except it

says New checksum 9559h. In any case it say 'yes' to reflesh and efter that

re boot/reload defaut.. Its boot sequence is set to cd rom and it still give

me the same error message as when I first try to install the OS, "press any

key to boot from cd....error loading operating system



I then download R1.16 and repeat the whole process and it give me the same

error message "press any key to boot from cd....error loading operating

system"



So what else could cause the error then. Look forward for your guidance,

thanks





"smlunatick" wrote:



On Saturday, January 10, 2009 1:45 AM

Paul wrote:



Re: "error loading operating system"

bb202 wrote:



I suspect we have a terminology problem.



You have two IDE connectors on the motherboard. At least

on my motherboard, one is referred to as primary and one

as secondary. They would correspond to IDE1 and IDE2

respectively.



I generally try to use 80 wire cables (because the signal

quality is better with them, and that is why the cables

can be used for speeds up to Ultra133). The 40 wire cables

can also be used, but the driver is supposed to sense

you're using one, and prevent higher speeds from being

used. A 40 wire cable would still work, but I try not

to use them any more if I have spare 80's sitting around.



You try to fill the connector on the end of the cable first,

if you have only one drive for the cable. Since that first

drive is the only drive, it would be jumpered as Master.

You should never fill just the middle connector by

itself (as that leaves a reflecting stub after the drive).



So I can see a couple ways I would cable your system.

I'd use this method, if it was inconvenient to use

one cable to connect the two drives. I would use a cable

per drive. Since the drives are the only thing on the

cable, they're Master.



(Primary) IDE1 X--------------X----------X

|

Master



(Secondary) IDE2 X--------------X----------X

|

Master



The second method is if the drives are in the same

rack, within a few inches of each other. Now one

cable can fit both without stress.



(Primary) IDE1 X--------------X----------X

| |

Slave Master



Western Digital further complicates matters with

their drives, in that in the first diagram above,

the Master would be jumpered "Master only", meaning

it is the only drive on the cable and is the master.

In the second diagram, if a Western Digital drive

was on the end of the cable as shown, it would be

jumpered as "Master", as in "there is a second drive

on the cable".



Try either of the above diagrams, and see if your

symptoms change.



Cable_Select is an alternative jumpering method,

but it relies on a feature in the cable and typically

is supported by the 80 wire cable. Cable_Select

is preferred by large manufacturers, as all the

equipment can be jumpered Cable_Select and just

plugged in without worrying.



Occasionally one flavor of jumpering won't work for

some reason, in which case you may have to experiment.

If Cable_Select refuses to work for a mix of two

drive products on the same cable, then the Master/Slave

method is the thing you'd try next (keeping that

detail about Western Digital in mind while you work).



When parking extra jumpers (i.e. storing them in

the jumper area), you have to be careful, because

there are an unbelievable number of active combinations

possible on some brands of drives. It is better to

find a small zip-lock baggy and store extra jumpers

in there.



Hope that helps,

Paul



On Saturday, January 10, 2009 4:35 AM

smlunatick wrote:



Re: "error loading operating system"

On Jan 8, 3:20=A0pm, bb202 wrote:

bios

ot

he RAM

2000



What is set as PRI master and SEC Slave?



I also had this. My solution was to:



1) Main hard drive (to be C:) set as PRI master



2) CD drive (for the install) set as SEC master.



On Saturday, January 10, 2009 4:35 AM

smlunatick wrote:



Re: "error loading operating system"

On Jan 8, 9:53=A0pm, bb202 wrote:

g

the bios

o boot

o

z,(the RAM

=A0Win 2000



I have personally seen CD drives not "booting" when set up as SEC

slave. Some PCs seem to only be able to boot a CD when the CD is set

up as Master on any IDE port.



IDE settings follow the requirements that a Master should be connected

on the IDE port before a Slave is connected. Usually when an IDE

drive that is set for Slave, the IDE controls are usually "turned" off

in favour to let the Master drive controls.



On Saturday, January 10, 2009 8:26 AM

bb20 wrote:



Thanks for the info. Think found the solution for the 'error loading ...

Thanks for the info. Think found the solution for the 'error loading ..."

When it ask to 'hit any key ......." and if I do so for the second time, it

was able to read the cd and window does the setup. Although I am still unable

to use the pc as it has another set of problem as during the installation or

window setup, an error message "file setupdd.sys could not be loaded. The

error code is 4. Setup cannot continue.Press any key to exit'. Guess back to

the drawing board to see which hardware is the culprit. Wish me luck ///////

thanks



"Paul" wrote:



On Saturday, January 10, 2009 11:18 AM

Paul wrote:



Re: "error loading operating system"

bb202 wrote:



I have a copy of the i386 folder from the CD, and

SETUPDD.SY_ is in that folder. So the install is

having trouble copying that file over. I believe

the underscore means the file is compressed and

the installer will take care of the details.



Sounds like maybe you're having trouble either

reading the CDROM, or any amount of heavy data

traffic on the cable results in corruption or

something.



So how are the drives cabled and jumpered ? Are the

HDD and optical on a single cable ?



When I installed WinXP, I did mine using a hard drive

install. (I did this purely for fun, because I heard

you could do it that way.) What that means, is I created

two partitions on my 80GB IDE drive. The first partition

is 78GB and the second is 2GB. In the 2GB partition, I

copy the contents of the i386 folder of the WinXP CD.

The trick then, is to use that folder to complete the

install. The procedure requires a second computer,

to prep the drive and copy the files from the

Windows CD.



When creating the partitions, it is important to

create the 78GB partition first (so it is the first

entry in the partition table), and the 2GB partition

second. (I determined that empirically, getting it

wrong the first time.) The partitions should be FAT32,

for the purposes of being able to access the partitions from

DOS. The first partition could be converted to NTFS

later if needed (with "convert"), but I didn't bother.



The basic concept is outlined here.



http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307848



It took me a good part of the day, to cook up a

MSDOS floppy with the necessary files to do what

was required. Including SMARTDRV supports caching

when accessing the disk, and that makes some

improvement to the process. But considering the time

I wasted, I'd be happy to just let it chug along

at 1MB/sec if it wanted, because the caching wasn't

that smart after all.



This is my autoexec.bat on the MSDOS floppy . The

numbers are "cranked", because I was experimenting

with getting the best disk to disk transfer rate possible.

I think I added the MSCDEX stuff later, when I added

support for CDROMs to the floppy (to make it a better

all-round recovery floppy). The "pause" is so I could

read the screen.



mscdex /D:MSCD001 /L:R

pause

a:\smartdrv.exe /V 32768 32768 /E:32768



This is my current config.sys. I've since added

CDROM support to my MSDOS boot floppy, and I downloaded

XCDROM because oakcdrom wasn't working. The "?" in

the first three lines, causes the floppy boot process

to pause. Hitting return lets it continue. I was getting

stuck at the EMM386 step, and had to manually experiment

with the "X" parameter, until I no longer had a resource

conflict. On many attempts, the floppy boot process would

get stuck with the floppy light on, which means the

hardware was being trampled by something being loaded.

The last four lines are pretty standard stuff which

I didn't bother changing.



DEVICE?=HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF

DEVICE?=EMM386.EXE NOEMS X=A000-CFFF

DEVICE?=XCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001

FILES=20

BUFFERS=20

DOS=HIGH,UMB

STACKS=9,256



My boot floppy started from one made from Win98, and I

added stuff to taste, like a pot of stew :)



The install ends up being not much faster than doing

it straight from the CDROM. But, if your CDROM

is having problems, the DOS floppy plus hard

disk partition trick, is an alternative installation

method. Naturally, you still need to fix your CDROM,

but if you're living in the woods, and a new CDROM is

a week away, it gives you something to do in the

interim.



Depending on whether you have a broadband Internet

connection, you could also consider experimenting

with Knoppix (Linux LiveCD) from knopper.net. That is

a 700MB download for the CD version, and all you

need in this case, is the latest CD version, as

the DVD version is too big to be practical.



As a test mechanism, Knoppix gives you



1) No need for a hard drive. It runs straight from the CD.

2) At boot time from the CD, Knoppix gives you boot

time options. Memtest is one of them, allowing

you to test system memory. In addition, Knoppix

has an integrity check boot option, which causes

the checksums of the files on the CDROM to be

verified. If any of those verifications fail,

you know you have a CDROM drive problem (or

bad media). So that makes a quick way to verify

the CDROM drive is good and the cables are OK.



It isn't much of an OS, but as a means of doing

hardware testing, it is a great alternative. But

only feasible if you have some way to download

a 700MB ISO9660 file and burn a bootable CD

with Nero or something.



HTH,

Paul



On Saturday, January 10, 2009 8:40 PM

bb20 wrote:



Thanks very much for the guidance.

Thanks very much for the guidance. Thats a lot for me to digest and I will

give it a go after I get my other hdd back from the manufacturer. (hdd test

shows that the hdd has failed). Thanks for walking me through this.



"Paul" wrote:



On Saturday, January 31, 2009 9:42 AM

bb20 wrote:



At long last, I got my other replacement hdd (80gb ide) back.

At long last, I got my other replacement hdd (80gb ide) back. Before

installing the OS, I cleaned the mobo and found out that the connector on the

mobo end is switch around (ie cable pin80 is on pin1 on mobo). I dont know if

that is the cause of the error but in any case with the new hdd, I was able

to install the Win xp without any problem.

However in the Device Manager-under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers,there is an

item STANDARD IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller which have an exclamation mark.

The pc seems to work ok.

Many thanks for all the help, regards







"Paul" wrote:





Submitted via EggHeadCafe - Software Developer Portal of Choice

C# And The Little Iterator That Could

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/tutorial...32-0ae26adaa533/c-and-the-little-iterato.aspx
 
S

Shenan Stanley

nu n wrote:

> did you unplug the computer when it was formatting?




Not real quick on the uptake, eh?



Notice - the conversation you chose to respond to began and ended in January

2009. Weclome to April 2010. -)



Here it is - archived with dates and everything - including your chime-in 15

month after it ended. *grin*



http://groups.google.com/group/micr....hardware/browse_frm/thread/1d5dea4acfaff749/



Better late than never? haha



--

Shenan Stanley

MS-MVP

--

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
 
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