Xp Home Stuck In Activation Loop - instruction-matter28’s diary

Aug 30, 2012 16 thoughts on Windows XP stuck at login screen in activation loop loop xp delete to safe mode with command prompt 1 click start click run.

Stuck in a Windows Activation Loop - Cannot login and get to desktop

Computer Hope Forum

Had a problem with the computer where it would not boot up Windows. It would show the Dell Logo and then go to a blank screen and never boot up. Found out that a sys file, mycgweh.sys, was preventing isapnp.sys from loading and hence preventing windows

xp from loading. Removed the sys file and was able to re-install windows xp.

When I tried to login, got a message this copy of windows needs to be activated. Went through the activation process by putting in the key and getting an installation id and a code. However, every time I try to login, I still get the same message this

copy of windows needs to be activated. If I try to activate it, I get a message in windows activation frame windows activated and I get logged out.

Have tried this in regular mode and safe mode and I get the same error.

Intermittently, I am also getting an error message:

The instruction at 0x77F69G5F referenced memory at 0x00000000. The memory could not be read.

Is this a Microsoft problem or potentially a virus problem. I had Microsoft Defender running on the machine before this happened.

Stuck in a Windows Activation Loop - Cannot was preventing isapnp.sys from loading and hence preventing windows xp Went through the activation process.

Feb 03, 2012 This works on either Windows XP Home or Professional. Windows XP Activation Loop It gets stuck in the Windows log-on screen. A.

Xp Home Edition Activation Stuck In A Loop. When you try to log on to a computer on which Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.

Steve G. wrote: I got a message saying my grace period for activation has expired. But when I click to activate I get a message saying Windows is already.

I have the exact same problem.

A client dropped his netbook on the floor and had a cracked screen and a bad HDD. Replaced them both.

As he didn t have an installation disc, I used a Win XP Home OEM disc and used his product key during the setup. Everything went fine, as usual. I always do the exact same process with XP, Vista and 7. If the person has an OEM key it will activate from a OEM disc - even though it s not the one given by the manufacturer in this case, Toshiba. The only difference is that if doing this with Win7, you can t activate online and must call that phone number they give you at that wizard screen.

Anyways. My install was perfect. Everything went smooth and etc.

When it rebooted for the last time and asked to confim if I could see that box on the screen, the problem began:

I got a window saying that you must activate Windows before log on - Do you want to do this now. I select Yes and it offered me three options:

1 Yes, I want to activate online impossible as I didn t have the network drivers installed

I selected the option I want to telephone but the installation ID number was not there. I had a blank gap, with nothing on it. I called anyway and got the automated service. After pressing a million buttons on my phone, I got through a person who said he couldn t help because there is no installation ID. I had to call on Monday today is Saturday some other department in order to get help. That was not an option as I needed to return this laptop to my client tomorrow Sunday.

Whatever option I picked, would lead me to the same You must activate windows screen.

Somehow, after several reboots, it loged on. Don t ask me how, but it did.

Then, I installed all the drivers, without rebooting. When I rebooted, I got back to the same You must activate windows.

2 Installed Windows XP Professional

3 Cracked and made a few changes to the registry

4 I m just installing the lastest updates now.

I am so happy that I use Linux. So bloody happy. And I am even happier because Windows exists. Otherwise, computers wouldn t stop working and I d have no job at all.

Thank you Microsoft for being so incompetent. Without you, I d be starving without a penny in my pocket.

Honestly. If a guy from Microsoft offered me a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate for free, I wouldn t accept it. Windows has always been a piece of you-know-what. I m on Windows at this very moment, but it s only a virtual machine. Microsoft websites don t like Firefox very much and make everything difficult. They trully believe that IE is a good product.

Sorry for the rant, guys. I m not even from this forum but I get so stressed with this Microsoft stupidity that I had to shout at someone.

I have an Acer laptop with windows XP and office 2003.

It has a built in microphone which worked just fine before formatting the computer few days ago. Now it does not work anymore. It is a Realtek AC 97 type.

The speakers work just fine. Does anybody know what to do.

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CC as usual is correct2 different steps

Just curious thoughis there a reason you need FAT 32. .

All generalizations are false, including this one.

I worded my last post wrong, I created a partition, then I reformatted it, EASEUS said that was successfull, but I still get the needs to be formatted error and if you look at the screenshot I posted it says its not formatted..

Just curious thoughis there a reason you need FAT 32. .

When I first got the drive it wouldn t work until I formatted it to FAT32.

Drive is defective, get RMA from Seagate.

Return Merchandise Authorization, truenorth

Thanx Jason, will give that a shot..

I have been having an issue with this graphics card I am using, something I have never came across before. This card Nvidia 8600GT used to work but randomly started doing this. I have tried this card in multiple machines since but I still get the same problem. I have a dual DVI graphics card and I can t get either DVI to work UNLESS I am using a DVI to VGA adapter. Once I have a VGA connection up it works as if there is nothing wrong. I have tried multiple monitors/TV s to diagnose this. Does anyone have any ideas. I ve changed setting in the BIOS the graphics card is set as default.

The onboard card on this MOBO has been acting up too, weird graphical glitches on the screen when there are a lot of images

If there is more info needed I will post a. NFO

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate

Other OS Description Not Available

OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation

System Manufacturer BIOSTAR Group

Processor AMD Athlon tm II X4 630 Processor, 2800 Mhz, 4 Core s, 4 Logical Processor s

BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 080015, 11/12/2010

Hardware Abstraction Layer Version 6.1.7600.16385

Installed Physical Memory RAM 8.00 GB

Total Physical Memory 7.97 GB

Available Physical Memory 6.45 GB

Total Virtual Memory 15.9 GB

Available Virtual Memory 14.4 GB

I am currently running WinXP Professional on my computer. I recently tried to add another monitor to my setup. My computer has several video card slots. One has a different connecter than all the rest. An NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro card occupies this slot. When I inserted a new card into one of the other slots and connected the new monitor properly, Windows boots and works fine. However, the new card is ignored by Windows. When I looked in Device Manager at the new card, it said The device could not start Code 10. I tried the same with a different new video card and the same thing happened. When I removed my standard card and only left the new one, Windows booted fine, sending video data to the new card and monitor. But when I put the old one in with it, the new card fails to start. Help.

You have to turn it on, Control Panel---Display

Windows doesn t see it unless it s the only video card. I can t turn it on from there.

I have already tried all the methods shown there.

1. My computer has several video card slots.

2. One has a different connecter than all the rest.

My PC is 4 years old. It has got 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Raedon HD 4600 PCIe series, CoolerMaster 550W running on XP SP2.

Recently, it shut down immediately after a cold boot. Sometimes it shut down before I could see the Desktop screen.

Since it kept shutting down, I thought that the problem might be caused by some corrupted core files of Windows XP, so I used True Image 10 to restore the system back to 2 years ago when everything ran very well. But the PC still shut down after the restoration of the system.

I had also used MeMTest86 to do the memory check, and the 2GB RAM passed the test.

Thank you so much for your time.

Last Edit: July 29, 2011, :30 AM by kwfine

Hi Guy s, will try to be as thorough as possible.

I have an Advent 9315 1.5 Duo Core

SiS mirage 3 376mb shared memory which does seem a little higher, hard to say though.

Win Vista 32bit SP2 version 6.0

OK, so I purchased 1x 2gb module from here

and installed it. The computer starts up fine with the module in.

However the new RAM is not showing in the BIOS or in windows experience index/DxDiag specs, I m still showing 1916mb in both.

Here s what I ve tried up to now.

Opened msconfig boot options advanced and maximum memory is unchecked already.

Looked in the BIOS but there are no options available for the RAM, just shows the 1916mb available

Tried a memory test on boot and no errors came back.

Tried refreshing the Windows experience index, nothing changed.

I ve been assured that swapping the modules over will have no effect. The second slot requires taking out the MB.

The site I purchased the RAM from also states that 4gb is the max RAM 3.2 or so available and that 2 similar modules are not required.

So that s where I m now stuck at. Tried reading through multiple threads on here and other forums, seems to be a problem for others as well but with no definitive answers.

Any help gratefully appreciated as always. Thanks in advance.

Alright, so basically, my boyfriend and I got in a fight, and he ripped my laptop in half, as in, the screen is completely disconnected from the bottom part.

I plugged his desktop monitor into it, and it worked fine, but my laptop no longer could pick up any wireless signal, or if it did, the signal was so weak I was unable to connect.

I took it apart, and tried to fix everything, but now the monitor won t work at all.

I am looking to buy a lap top for stock/share trading so need something fast and reliable. I also want to run 2 or 3 monitors off of it to show different graphs etc. Does it matter what size the lap top screen is if I want to have large monitors and how do I wire them up. My budget is about 800 for the lap top. I think that the ram is more important than the memory but please correct me if I am wrong

1st of all, RAM is another name for memory. 2nd, a laptop running multiple monitors may be difficult or impossible to find.

I would look for a laptop that had a 3 year next business day warrantee. Most brand name business laptops have a option to restore a backup to any model from that maker so if you want to change in a couple of years you can use the same windows and software on the new laptop. This is also important should the Laptop get stolen. Matrox make this unit that allows up to 3 monitors from 1 video out put.

And i have used this on a build for Flight simulator X and it worked very well.

The rules say that i can t push one make or model but if you have a laptop in mind please post the link for comment.

Hi Lisa Thanks for the info. The Matrox looks like a good bit of kit. I am thinking of buying either a Samsung R780 or a Samsung RF510 or maybe a Toshiba Satellite L775-11E. What do you think.

I think I d go with a desktop/tower system if I wanted multiple monitors. You just have more flexibility in video card choice to support multiple monitors with a desktop system.

Thanks Soyabean and Transfusion The reason I want a laptop is because I tend to only spend about 5 months in my home and the rest in a couple of other places. I hear what you say about the graphics card. which card on a lap top do you think is best. for my usage Also you say the i7 is overkill do you think the i3 is good for me or is i5 the best option. Thanks for your imput

the i7 is geared towards extremely CPU-intensive applications, say video encoding or photo editing, which will definitely put a strain on the battery life. Any graphics card with specs equal to or better than the Radeon HD 4350 will suit your needs.

The i5 is a good balance between price and power. The Asus X77 seems just about right.

I d recommend that you take a look at Lenovo ThinkPads, they are designed for business enviroments and are very robust and reliable. They are quite expensive but well worth it for the quality in my opinion.

my sound driver are not getting installed properly, dont know what may be the reason..after installation is donemessage appearsno audio device foundMSI motherboard

You mean font arial, helvetica, bitstream vera sans, clean, sans-serif MSI mainboard, VIA P4890M /font Chipset Based.

It would help if you posted your motherboard model, there is more than one MSI mobo out there with a P4890M Chipset.

How are you installing the driver. More info. is needed if this is a soundcard/brand or built-in. Also, did you reinstall your OS and the mobo driver after.

Re-install the MBoard chipset drivers from the MSI CD

How can I lower my CPU temperature.

And this is what Asus AiBooster tells when my PC is at idle after restart:

Give thanks upon thou who help thee the most on computerhope - Shakespeare

I applied the thermal paste as instructed in many websites/forums - a very thin even layer.

FYI, currently I remove the side cover casing i.e. it s totally exposed to the air ventilation of the room.

I m not sure whether putting any additional fans will help.

If I close the side cover, the CPU temperature would go up to around 90 deg.

Get readings from another app such as SpeedFanor Speccy.

The reason i suggested this extra fan is that it will create an air flow. Where at the moment you have stationary air in your room probably and the fan on the heatsink is just circulating the same air. With one fan on the front of the case, drawing air in, and one on the back pushing out, will give a wind tunnel effect and help remove hot air nicely.

Either that or run a desk fan into your open case until you get it sorted.

Hi Patio, Speedfan gives the same readings.

Hi Luke, there is a ceiling fan in my room so the air is not stationery, and my computer desk is almost directly under the fan.

Anyway, I ll get a fan and blow in directly on top of the CPU fan with the casing closed and see what I get.

Are you sure the airflow from the CPU fan is IN. I always thought it should be all OUT for any direct and passive cooling.

I can confirm my CPU and GPU fans are IN.

Is it just me, or is that FSB too high 800 MHz.

Hi Jason, yes, it s IN i.e. blow down.

As I understand from previous forum discussion, it seems that most fans blow down while some suck out.

All those I had used are blowing down.

I have an old laptop. About 4 years ago, the screen died, so I packed it away and forgot about it, planning to deal with it some day. I forgot completely that I even had the thing until someone asked me for an old family picture that was stored on it. There are several pics/videos on it that I would like to get back. In the past 4 years, I have moved 3 times, and the computer has spent a lot of time inside self-storage units and most recently, my storage shed. It s in a box, but I know it has gotten both extremely hot and extremely cold inside the buildings. No sun exposure though. This past week it was 100 degrees with a heat index of 115, and that got me to worrying. I still need to go through boxes and find the computer, but assuming I do this, I have no way of knowing if it works or not because the screen died long ago. Is it likely that data from the hard drive data will be recoverable after all this time and temp extremes, or is the data likely destroyed. I have no idea exactly how cold or how hot it s gotten within the storage facilities, but I have to assume below 0 and over 120. I am not concerned about the computer itself, as it was already broken. I just want my data back

Thank you Is it likely there is still data on there though. Or is it common for temperature extremes to cause the data to be lost. I m sorry, I just really know nothing about this.

I bought a new computer today, 8GB ram aprox 1.8 Tera space Said 6 GB ram and 1Tera space on specs though lol

Eitherway, I start up minecraft, and BOOM. 1-4 fps with a texture pack, I shut down texture pack and its 10-20 fps.

I ve updated my drivers and all so I suspect it might be my graphic card.

Intend to have it as a gaming computer

regaining space - attachment deleted by admin

Intel R HD Graphics Family is not a gaming GPU.

You could see if there is an updated driver:

Your Driver Version: 8.15.10.2342

Latest Driver Version: 8.15.10.2413

Doubt a driver update will improve it muchbut it certainly can t hurt to try it

I agree. These 2nd Generation Intel Core processor family graphics drivers are so new, there is probably not a lot of gaming support as of this time.

Intel says: Intel HD Graphics is built into the processor and delivers immersive mainstream gaming and 3D experiences.

If we knew what MBoard this was perhaps we could suggest a decent card for your needs

Within the last 30 minutes my speaker output is not working. It keeps switching from my headphones to speakers which is annoying as I want to listen through headphones.

2. changed speaker output port

My PC is a HP pavilion dv7 notebook PC. It is only a year old and has had no modifications to it.

My soundcard is fine in actually playing the sounds it just wont play it through the right device.

Topic: Recently Acquired older Laptop has bad hard drive. Read 379 times

I was able to get into set-up and change the boot order to diskette, then CD, then hard drive.

When I start the computer, it takes about 20 minutes to actually start - but does eventually start.

The CD also doesn t work - but I think I just need to get the drivers, onto the diskette.

Any ideas on the why its taking so long to actually start and how do I fix this.

I got the computer free - because it was old with a bad hard drive. I want to put PCLinuxOS on it to learn without causing any problems with my desktop.

CD drives require no drivers. What is make model of laptop. What OS.

Long startup time could be due to dead CMOS battery.

I don t think its the Cmos battery because - the date was correct and the time was about right and I didn t unplug it between restarts.

Regarding the Operating system - right now it has none and I booted frim a Dos5 disk I found. I m trying to find additional dos disks so I create a startup drive with the correct drivers. The drivers are on 2 CD I received with the computer.

I also wants to try reformatting the hard drive - I don t think this will work because setp doesn t even recognize them. If you don t unplug the laptop, power for clock is from the AC adapter, not the CMOS battery.

You will have to enter Setup BIOS to see if the hard drive is there.

You can can get bootdisks from www.bootdisk.com

Drivers for the CDROM will be on the bootdisks. It s oakcdrom.sys

The problem was not the Cmos battery. The date and time were correct when I first plugged it in and turned it on. I also have an old copy of Nortons utilities and ran it and it said it was ok.

The problem was - even though I changed the boot order - The adapter was still showing in set-up. I removed the adapter in Setup and it s booting right up.

Also thank you for the Driver list. I have the drivers that came with the computer - but since I plan on running linux, I need Linux compatable drivers - for the CD, the mouse and the touchpad, and possiblley the additional memory

Hi, I have recently installed Win 7 on a Toshiba Satellite L300 0G0 all is good except now I can t use the webcam. The webcam is in the list of devices and the driver is showing as installed Chicony USB 2.0 camera. So then how do I use the webcam or do I need to do something else to make it accessable.

I need a 256mb graphic card with 3.0 pixel shader. i want to play global agenda which needs 3.0 shader.I do not understand all of this stuff about graphics cards and so i am asking you.

I want something around 70 if that is possible.

MS Windows Vista Business 32-bit SP2

3.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 266MHz 4-4-4-12

Dell Inc. 0M3918 Microprocessor

128MB ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series ATI

ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series Secondary ATI

625GB Western Digital WDC WD6400AAKS-00A7B2 ATA Device SATA

I also have 305 maximum watts for the power capacity.

From 3, 4 days my PC has scratchy sound sometimes no sound and sometime normal sound in starting for a short time .

A voice like pat pat also comes from speakers.

Note :i hv windows xp., speakers are normal as i cheked by using different speakers.

1.5GB RAM, dual channel 512x2 256x2

The computer powered off in use without warning and has not successfully powered up since. On pushing the power button, the fans spin and the hard drives start to spin up but everything stops and powers down before there is even a BIOS display. Attempting to power up again rapidly, while the drives are still spinning, doesn t change anything. On the theory that the power supply may be worn out, I have disconnected all hard drives and disc drives to see if it would at least get to BIOS, but the same thing happens. Transplanting with a power supply from a computer that works doesn t change anything. Replacing the CMOS battery has not changed anything. Using the clear-CMOS jumper does not change anything.

I have not changed any hardware or major software recently. I got a battery UPS a few weeks ago but I doubt that would affect anything.

I would do a visual inspection of the motherboard. Look for any blown capacitors.

There don t seem to be any damaged capacitors, but I suppose the bulging ones could be difficult to spot. I ve discovered that if I do not connect the secondary motherboard power cable, everything starts up normally but it doesn t actually boot up. I m not sure that really proves anything useful.

Then swap in a known good PSU of the same or greater wattageborrow one since it may not be the culprit.

I ve moved several of the RAM sticks around among all the sockets, removed the CMOS battery, and traded out for another power supply. Nothing seems to have changed, no boot, no chirps. I suppose it may just be dead then, I think I backed up everything important about a week before this happened so it s not too bad.

I ve owned a few SOYO MBoards in the past and never had 1 give up the ghost on me

However judging by what you ve tested this may well be the case

A local PC shop can test it for a nominal fee to determine if it is in fact the MBoard.

Also, remove heatsink and check your computer processor s condition. If possible, try reapplying thermal paste. But first check the bristles like of your processor for any dust,oxidation or broken pins.

The adapter Amps figure tells you how much current the power adapter is capable of supplying. The laptop won t take any more than it needs. If the adapter Amps figure is less than the laptop needs then the adapter may well overheat after a while, but the laptop won t be damaged.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits; on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

I have an HP Pavilion a350n that I bought around 2003 or 2004, it worked great until about a year and a half ago when there was a blackout in my neighborhood, once the electricity came on the computer stopped turning on, after a few months I had decided to check if it still worked real quick, otherwise I would get a new computer, I pressed the power button and it worked fine. A similar thing happened a few months ago, also because of a blackout, and it worked fine a month later. So that brings us to this, Yesterday my power went off, you can see where I m going, the computer refused to turn on. Now I have semi important documents on there, probably a little stupid of me beings how untrustworthy it is, so I need to get on soon, not wait a month or two. Most likely you have already realized this, but all three times were the result of my electricity going off, I don t think there is anything wrong with the computers power supply though, I looked in the back and their is a little green light that blinks when it is plugged in, but the computer will just not turn on. If someone can help me that will be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Hi all. I have a Gateway E4100 desktop running Windows XP. This is a single-core computer with four RAM slots on the motherboard to provide dual-channel memory. You re supposed to have identical paired DIMMs on both channels to let you run in dual-channel mode. I m planning to use a pair of unbuffered sticks of 512 MB Crucial brand DDR in one channel and a pair of 512 MB DDR Corsair brand in the other channel, also unbuffered. Does anyone know if performance would be enhanced by using the same brand in all four slots. Or decreased by using different brands. I thought since the pair in channel A would be identical and likewise the pair in channel B it should work fine, but I d like a second opinion. Thanks in advance.

You re supposed to have identical paired DIMMs on both channels to let you run in dual-channel mode.No, the 2 pairs need not be identical. Therefore, both pairs need not be the same.

I have a computer with a pair of 1GB a pair of 256MB. BTW, there is no setup or configuration for dual channel. It either works or doesn t, but you ll probably not notice the difference, either way.

No, the 2 pairs need not be identical. Therefore, both pairs need not be the same.

Correct. Usually for dual channel to work, however the sticks have to be identical in size, and the sticks have to have a common timing. I have had two different DDR2 800 2GB sticks in dual channel, however they only ran at the common timing of 667 until i swapped for two identcal sticks.

however the sticks have to be identical in size, and the sticks have to have a common timingNot all 4 sticks, only the individual pairs need be matched.

Not all 4 sticks, only the individual pairs need be matched.

True. I was describing a 2 slot only situation You are correct; the slots are colour coded, and the sticks should be matched to the colours. Purple with purple, orange with orange ect

once i turn on my computer, the first screen that appears tells me that ZUSMR is compressed, press ctrl alt delete to reset.how do i get past this.

I ve never heard of that message or that file. You say you see that as soon as the system boots before you see anything else. Are you sure of the spelling.

Yeah it comes up right after the Dell loading screen, also I can only press f2 and f12

Do you know what drives you have booted from recently. If you check your settings to see what drive you are booting from you know what drive is being accessed first.

Although, should you be able to access your physical boot settings before your operating system boots, you might be able find this information, like I have, it is important not to change anything or save anything unless you have a solution in mind by using those settings.

Those are settings that, at the very least, could keep you from booting your operating system. F2 or F12 both labelled hopefully - one may allow you to access settings - have been my only hope of looking into my computer s operation before I even start an operating system.

The more the better, as long as there is no malice nor poor planning.

If I couldn t boot my operating system but I could guess at what drive was causing the error, I would try. Knowing that I wouldn t tamper with the boot order right off the bat would be a benefit.

dannysiu: if you don t have more than one hard drive, you don t have to take my commentary to heart. I wouldn t want you to change anything that would make it harder to fix your problem, either. Thanks for allowing me to explain myself, as vague as I might be, Allan. The more the better, as long as there is no malice nor poor planning.

I don t mean to be rude, but your posts are not relevant to the question at hand. Anyway, the individual who asked the question hasn t returned for two weeks since posting.

I m just giving my input on something that doesn t have a check next to it. I m new to this place. As long as it seems that something is unsolved, it feels like I am contributing to mention what s on my mind without, you know, showing malice.

Okay so: as you are the moderator I will respectfully pull back from this string. Since you now know how unclear I have been today, please feel free to let me know when I should pull myself off of a string because I am new to this place and don t want to disrespect the process which leads to hardware solutions.

You probably won t want to do this, if you have the disks or probably CD s. you can usually start from a cd then run diagnostics. If the hard drive has a bad spot, some manufacturers like Seagate provide free software to correct mark them as bad sectors and move the files in those sectors to another location. Sometimes they might tell you to do a low level reformat the hard drive drive.

This might work sometimes - but the part you won t like is that it might also destroy/corrupt the entire hard drive.

Before you start do a full backup

It can also be a host of other problems - but I would start by trying to boot from an CD and running diagnostics. If you cant boot from the CD, Trying going into setup and write everything down. If your can t get into setup usually f2 when computer starts then count the beeps as it fails - oneone might be able to tell you what they mean.

My HD in my laptop went bad on me Friday afternoon - BSOD with unrecoverable_error, chkdsk gets about halfway through, the works. Not quite certain what happened - had just cancelled a defrag, and had been deleting lots of stuff off of it it had been performing really slowly for a while, so I was trying to clean it up ; probably just a confluence of events that created a toxic environment. No big whoop. BUT:

I was going to mount it on another machine, pull off the data I needed hadn t been backed up in a while - it was the machine that basically ran all the home backups, but there was still a few bits and bites to recover.

Then I was thinking I d go ahead and reformat it - but I wasn t certain if I could set it up as a bootable Windows disk while it was mounted on another machine. I mean, I m certain it s possible - but I sure want to avoid screwing up the machine I m on particularly as I ve got the original XP recovery disc, but the machine I ll be using is running 7.

I could always plug it back into the original laptop and reformat it, but I m on the road for a few weeks. So I have the drive, but not the machine.

So, I guess the question is, is it possible to format an external drive and put a bootable XP OS on that drive.

Dan: You re gonna need to get someone to fix my computer. Kim: What s wrong with it. Dan: It s in several pieces on my floor.

Windows will not install /boot properly from an external HDDMS designed it that way

Your best bet would be to mount your drive in an external enclosure and/or use a laptop to IDE converter on a working desktop machine

Then retrieve whatever data you needformat itthen re-install it in the laptop and do a clean install of Windows

Sorry - once I m done, I ll put the drive back IN the laptop so it becomes an INTERNAL drive

But I m doing the data extraction whilst on the road with the drive mounted on an IDE connector, and was thinking I d just go ahead and format the thing at the same time.

Thats what i d dosorry if my suggestion sounded otherwise

In case there is confusion and ambiguity: put simply, part of preparing a new hard disk for use in a computer involves creating one or more partitions on it and then fomatting each. Note: no re prefix. Formatting a volume means creating a filesystem on it. NTFS, FAT, ext2, reiserfs, there are different types. It blanks the volume or disk. When this has been done you have an empty volume. You can do this to an internal or external drive. However, a slang, non-technically approved word, reformat seems to have come into use, -- I don t like it -- and usually people use it to mean Sticking a Windows disk in the optical drive, and then using it to 1. format the drive, 2. Install Windows on it.. You cannot do this to an external drive.

I suspect it s like flammable / inflammable The drive is formatted now, so I will be formatting it again So, yes, I m formatting it, but I m also REformatting it

Obviously, my concern is thus:

Let s call my working laptop s internal hard drive C, let s call the CD-ROM drive D, and let s call the IDE-mounted wonky HD pulled from the other laptop A.

My concern is that if I pop the XP CD into D, and tell it to re format A, I don t want anything untoward to happen to C.

Just wanted to confirm that I ll be OK.

I am not clear why you want to use a CD to format a drive. You can do it from within Windows. You start your laptop, boot into Windows, open My Computer, see the disks that are listed, by drive letter and type, choose the one you want to format, which will be the external one, right click that disk s icon, select Format This option will not appear for your C: drive Then select the options like quick/complete format, filesystem type, volume name, etc, click Start, then respond appropriately to the Are you sure. message, and the disk you selected will be formatted.

Because when I put that drive BACK into its original laptop, it will be the boot drive. My understanding is I must use the MS OEM disc to do that.

What I don t know is if I can do that when I and the drive are a couple of thousand miles away from the laptop it will eventually be re united with.

1. Because when I put that drive BACK into its original laptop, it will be the boot drive.

2. My understanding is I must use the MS OEM disc to do that.

3. What I don t know is if I can do that when I and the drive are a couple of thousand miles away from the laptop it will eventually be re united with.

1. Irrelevant. Doesn t matter where or how it will be used.

You are making this far more complicated than it needs to be.

I know I m being dense, but everything in that article appears to me that all it does is prepare the drive for read/write operations.

I m trying to put the OS on it, so it becomes the internal, bootable and REbootable. c: drive for another machine.

I would not be so uncharitable as to say that you are being dense, but I think I can justifiably accuse you of not having read thoroughly the replies so far in this thread. Maybe you should RE-read them.

Patio wrote this on the 25th July:Windows will not install /boot properly from an external HDDMS designed it that way

He put it admirably clearly. Maybe you prefer numbered points -

1. Windows will only install on a fixed internal disk. This has to be in the machine for which the installation is intended. It will not install in an external e.g. USB drive.

2. This is deliberate, by design, and cannot be got around.

3. When Windows is installed on a machine, a tailored install is created that takes account of the particular hardware found: motherboard, chipset, display/network/sound cards or onboard chipsets. For this reason it is also impossible to install Windows on a fixed disk and then put that disk in another different machine and expect it to boot.

4. This applies double for an OEM disk which can only be used on the hardware with which it was purchased. but everything in that article appears to me that all it does is prepare the drive for read/write operations.

Yes. I m trying to put the OS on it, so it becomes the internal, bootable and REbootable. c: drive for another machine.

You can t do this. This has now been explained twice. I ll say it once more. You can t do this. If you want to get Windows on that disk, the only way you will achieve this is to install it as an internal disk in the machine on which you intend to install Windows.

but I think I can justifiably accuse you of not having read thoroughly the replies so far in this thread. You can, but you d be very wrong. I have read very clearly - but obviously I felt my particular question wasn t being answered, while questions I wasn t asking were being answered. The closest was your FIRST answer - but even then, I was unsure. Hence my follow-up questions.

The way I read Patio s response was that I could not boot Windows from an external drive, nor will it install FROM an external drive.

What I m trying to do is not either of those conditions.

I didn t see an answer, obviously, to what I was specifically asking. Format it.. then re-install in the laptop and do a clean install didn t make it clear that I could NOT do the clean install PRIOR to adding it to the machine. Surely IT departments format bootable drives away from their ultimate home machines time and again. 1. Windows will only install on a fixed internal disk. This has to be in the machine for which the installation is intended. Actually the FIRST time that point was made. That was what I was explicitly trying to determine. Again, I would think there is a way to work around that after all, we ve all received replacement hard drives that already have an OS on them, but didn t know. You can t do this. This has now been explained twice. I ll say it once more. You can t do this.

I thought I was respectfully asking for an answer to a question. When I didn t get an answer that made sense, I asked again - and I thought respectfully - until I got an answer that did make sense.

If that was frustrating or upsetting, I apologize.

Surely IT departments format bootable drives away from their ultimate home machines time and again.

If they have a large number of identical machines and a Windows volume or corporate licence they can deploy a standard disk image.Again, I would think there is a way to work around that

You seem to be a questioner who knows or thinks they do more than the people supplying the answers. I salute you, and wish you every success in the future. after all, we ve all received replacement hard drives that already have an OS on them

Have we. I never have. Maybe if you have a branded PC you can get a disk with the standard install image on like I described above, but I think we all is a bit too wide-ranging.

Topic: Gaming performance/hardware. Read 1385 times

transfusion the 9600 is probably his onboard chip so therefore it s not in use.

Josh re-set your memory settings to Windows managedre-boot and test.

Holy Cowz there are ONBOARD GT 9600s. scours the entire internet No there do not seem to be any integrated GT 9600s

The NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT GPU powers the visual computing experience by offering immersive, extreme high-definition gaming and video. /size

integrated GPUs do not have fans I think the extreme high-definition would immediately burn up the 9600 if it didn t have a fan.

How do I change my memory to windows managed.

Rightclick my Computer properties advanced system settings advanced tab performance then, what.

I ve just clicked adjust for best performance rather than best appearance.

To save throwing more messy stats on this, the bench mark I did on my PC monitor is no different, still 97 video memory usage.