Windows Installation - big problems.

[Isolize]

I've built a new PC. Everything's wired and ready according to every tutorial I've looked at. I have my DVD drive and one hard drive on an IDE cable in order to install and set up Windows. However, I'm encountering countless errors during the dozens of installations I've tried. I'm using Windows XP Professional SP2. I usually encounter the errors during the initial setup - the 39-minute one. The errors come in all sorts of varieties. I've gotten 0x0000008E, 0x0000007A, 0x0000007E (I think), 0x000000A1... definitely others. Some of those codes might not be right, but that gives you the idea of the many errors I've come accross. These errors occurr during every installation, except different errors during each attempt at different points in the installation. The errors are terminal, so the installation progress is lost.

I've even tried Vista RC1. It encounters the same errors during unpacking files.

I really don't know what else I can describe - I've been troubleshooting for about a total of 10-12 hours now with no luck. I have formatted the hard drive several times.

I can install Windows XP using the same hard drive and optical drive on my old computer (with its motherboard and processor, etc), I've tried a couple times during the troubleshooting. I can not, however, install Windows on the old machine and put the HD back in the new - it comes close to working, but at the 'Start windows normally'/'safe mode'/'last known good configuration' screen, selecting any option results in either absolutely nothing happening or a bunch of command prompts appearing that do nothing. I have let it hang for hours at a time with no results.

Here are my hardware specs:

Motherboard - MSI P965 Neo
Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E6400
Video Card - GeForce MX4000 128MB PCI
Hard Drive - 40GB Western Digital 7200RPM

Please, please let me know if you can lend some advice here - I'm really stuck at the moment, and short of spending $100 for somebody to do it for me, I can not get this thing going.

Thank you in advance.

 

[KBlair]

According to Microsoft, most of the errors you've listed are RAM related problems, either the RAM is faulty, or your RAM settings are wrong. Try fiddling with the RAM timings and other settings in the BIOS to see if you can get it to install (With 1 stick), if you can't, then try with different RAM.

 

[toniaxp]

Also since you can install it on the other hard drive and run it but cannot get it to work after moving the new HD to the new machine I would check any jumpers for the IDE connections as well.

 

[Isolize]

Well I've given in, sort of. I brought in the system to a computer store,a nd they wan 'memtest'. It stopped at something like 760MB, meaniing the memory is corrupt. So I brought the memory back to the retailer, Tiger Direct, and they ran the same test there with the memory on their computer. It turned out perfectly, no errors. I brought in my system, the one they tested the RAM on at the first place, and they ran the same test again as they ran at the other place. It again turned out fine. Since I bought the memory there less than 30 days ago, diagnostics are free and the tech guy said he'd keep it today running tests and call me in later on to tell me what's wrong.

Hopefully the pros can figure this out with the system in front of them!

Thanks for the responses!

 

[Apokalipse]

I was going to suggest running memtest..

anyway, if you replace the RAM and it passes memtest fine, then Windows should have no problem installing