Some help needed

[WalkerBD1]

 First off I hope this is the right thread for this question.  I've searched for this problem and found some help, but not one that will work.  First off I'm rebuilding a simple system for my daugther so the hardware and software are older.  The computer is a pentiem 4 system with a 40gb hard drive and 512 ram.  Here is the problem.  I'm trying to install windows xp home edition to the system, the cd boots up and everything seems to be work all right.  The files load and it states that setup is starting windows.  Ok so far so good..however it doesn't do anything...20 mins go by and still nothing.  So I decided to restart the computer and they a blue screen is there telling me that windows has shut down( did it really ever start) to protect my computer and files  it then states DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL  Now I looked into ways to fix this, but they all state going into window safe mode, since windows never started or was as far as I can tell never fully loaded that won't work.  So my question is how can I tackle this problem if I can't get into safe mode since windows was in the process of loading  not on the system..Thanks for any help you can give, if more info. is needed just ask and I'll answer them for you.  Thanks.

[DaveLembke]

Have you used this same XP Home CD to build this system up prior successfully without any problems? If so, I would get a bootable hard drive utility to make sure the hard drive is healthy as for I have seen hard drives with bad sectors not get though an install and perform these problems. Each drive manufacturer has a downloadable tool that can be burned to a CD and booted to diagnose their drives health. * Also I'd check to make sure the Windows XP Home disc doesnt have any scratches as for it could be an install issue where the disc can not be completely read and so its installing incompletely and hanging through the install. * Also I have seen dirty CD-Roms cause this, so if you have a spare CD Rom to swap with the one in this computer and make sure the jumper is set the same for CS, MA, or SL setting.

[WalkerBD1]

Thank you for a fast reply.  I tried the suggestions you gave with no luck.  About a year ago I loaded xp on to this computer and hard drive with out any problems...so I'm still trying to see if anyone has some other suggestions to get it up and running.  Hopefully other suggestions come in and one of them will help.  Thank you in advance for any help that is given.

[Geek-9pm]

Here are some areas to check out.
1. Something is sucking a lot pf juice from the PSU. Remove the floppy ndrive. try another CD-ROM.

2 . The CD itself may have starches or sludge marks.  Clean the CD with toothpaste, dry carefully, try again.

3. The hard drive has some issue. Use a program like Gparted to divide the HDD into two partitions The first partition can be about 200 MB.  The second can be the rest of the drive. You are going to 'waste' the first 200 MB of the drive. Install on the large partition.  (Some hard drives have bad sectors in the first part of the disc.)

Gparted is on Linux live CD.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
I like puppy, but Ubuntu will do.
http://puppylinux.com/download/
http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop

Have a fiend help you download and burn CDs.

[WalkerBD1]

 Well I tried these next few suggestions but still not working.  I'm not sure what is still happening you'd think it would be something simple, but so far simple suggestions so far( I know you start small and only two people have suggested) haven't done the trick.  Well first off thanks for the help so far, but I'm still looking for some more.  So please send them in so I can get this problem fixed.  Thanks in advance for any help that is given.

[Salmon Trout]

I have heard of this problem with burned Windows CDs that were burned at too high a speed. Of course they are mostly illegal! Assuming this is not the likely cause, DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL can mean hardware problems - motherboard or RAM. I would definitely try another CD if one is available.

[WalkerBD1]

 I've been try to find another xp disc, but I haven't been able to get one....at least not yet.  While I'm trying to do this if anyone has some other suggestions that would be great.  I've found that a community of help is the best way to fix a problem.  So if you have any ideas please let me know.

[Calum]

I have heard of this problem with burned Windows CDs that were burned at too high a speed. Of course they are mostly illegal! Assuming this is not the likely cause, DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL can mean hardware problems - motherboard or RAM. I would definitely try another CD if one is available.

Agreed, DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is normally down to bad RAM if the system is up and running, but during installation it could be the CD or drive as well.  If you don't have access to another XP CD, remove a stick of RAM (if you have more than one) or try another if you have a spare as that's the next most likely cause.

[Geek-9pm]

Yes, it may install with less RAM.

Also, a poor CD and be copied to a new CD-R and it could  work fine. I have had that happen.

[WalkerBD1]

I have tried it with different ram..going from 1gig down to 256.  it didn't have any affect.  I also made a copy of my xp disc and tried that,,,still nothing.  I also was able to get a different xp disc and still the same end results.  I thank you all for the help so far, b ut must still ask for more.  I ask for all of you to dig down deep to see if there is anything else that might be done.  Thank you for any help you might pass on to me.

[ImnoGuru]

Hi, I have just been reading through your dilemma and what you have tried to resolve it. Do you still have this problem?

If so, do you have another drive of any type or size to try in this build?

What if you add the drive into another operating system/ desktop or tower, as a slave and see if windows has actually loaded onto it. ( you wont actually open Windows on the drive, just see how much data is available/used. )