Translation: This one is fairly straightforward: WinXP reports a serious crash along with a memory address. The question is, what exactly is this telling you? Reporting a hexadecimal memory address without further detail is no help at all in deciphering this message.

Solution: According to Microsoft, this error occurs if you have a Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad Pro USB device, and you unplug it during the boot process. The solution? Simple, really. Don’t unplug your Gamepad Pro during startup.

Error Message: “Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \Windows\System32\Drivers\Isapnp.sys”

Translation: This is another one of those messages that points directly to the culprit. ISAPNP.SYS is a device driver WinXP needs to function properly. The message is telling you this file is either missing or damaged. Most WinXP files with a *.SYS extension are Windows device drivers that reside in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS folder. This folder is one of the most important in your entire hard drive. If any of these files go AWOL or are damaged, WinXP will report serious errors and you won’t be able to get your system started until you restore a functional device driver.

Solution: Start the Recovery Console (we’ve already discussed how to start the WinXP Recovery Console). If the ISAPNP.SYS file is still in your C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS folder, the driver is corrupt. Rename the existing file and copy a new version from your WinXP installation CD. If the file is missing, then all you need to do is copy the file from your WinXP CD to the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS folder by typing the expand command: expand [CD drive letter]:\i386\isapnp.sy_ C:\windows\system32\drivers\isapnp.sys.

Error Message: “STOP: 0x0000009F DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE”

Translation: This error can occur when you’re starting up the computer from a standby or hibernation state or when you attempt to shut down your computer. The message is telling you that a device driver in your system—it doesn’t specify which one—is not behaving properly when WinXP changes power states.

Solution: According to Microsoft, you must find out if any device drivers in your system are not digitally signed by Microsoft. WinXP’s developers knew that a huge reason for Windows problems in previous versions was the use of device drivers that did not work well with Windows, especially with its power-management features. Many times, hardware and software developers did not take the time to properly test their device drivers, resulting in incompatibility problems with Windows. Microsoft’s solution was to digitally sign device drivers that were tested and verified to work well with Windows. Obviously, not every developer is going to have its driver tested. So, many third-party hardware devices and applications have unsigned device drivers. These unsigned drivers may be the root cause of the specific problem described here. To find out which device drivers in your system are not digitally signed, run a tool called sigverif.exe (File Signature Verification utility) by clicking Start and Run and typing sigverif.exe in the Open textbox. Click OK to launch sigverif.exe. At the sigverif startup window, click the Advanced button and click the Look For Other Files That Are Not Digitally Signed checkbox. Now, click the Browse button, go to the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS folder, and click OK. Click OK again to return to the initial screen and click Start to begin the search. The tool’s output is a list of device drivers that are not digitally signed. Now, the task is to disable each driver one by one to verify whether it is the root cause of the problem. There are three ways to disable a driver. First, right-click My Computer, click the Hardware tab, and click the Device Manager button. Scroll down the list until you encounter the hardware device that the driver controls. Right-click the device’s entry in the list and click Disable. Click OK to accept your changes. Second, if the driver in question is associated with a software application, remove the program. Do this by going to Control Panel and using Add/Remove Programs to uninstall the application.The third and final way to disable a driver is to browse to the Drivers folder in C:\WINDOWS\System32 and simply rename the device driver file. Once you disable the driver, try to duplicate the error by putting your computer into Hibernate or Standby mode and attempting to wake the computer from its low-power mode. If the computer restarts normally, you’ve isolated the problem; if the error message still occurs, you’ve got some more wayward-driver hunting to do.

Translation: WinXP doesn’t get along very well with older versions of Easy CD Creator software. If you upgraded to WinXP and didn’t remove your older copy of Easy CD Creator software, WinXP detects this incompatible program and lets you know about it with the above message.

Solution: The solution here is to purge your system of all traces of the program. This problem illustrates a tried-and-true principle of Windows computing: When upgrading to a new Windows version, always perform a “clean” upgrade. In other words, format your hard drive to wipe it clean and then upgrade. The first step is removing Easy CD Creator. Click Start and Control Panel and double-click the Add or Remove Programs icon. Locate the Easy CD Creator program on the list and click Remove. The next step is to disable any drivers Easy CD Creator copied to your system. Click Start, Search, and All Files And Folders. Type cdr*.sys in the All Or Part Of The File Name box, select your C: drive in the Look In dropdown menu, and click Search. If Search finds any files called Cdr4_2K.sys or Cdralw2k.sys, right-click the file names, click Rename, and change each file name to Cd*.old. Finally, you must remove any keys in your Windows Registry that reference Easy CD Creator files. Keep in mind, modifying the Registry is dangerous, so tread with care. A misstep here and you can easily end up with a very sick system. OK, on with our Registry surgery: Click Start and Run, type regedit in the Open textbox, and click OK. In the Registry editor, find the following key and click it to highlight it:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\
CONTROL\CLASS\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
If you see a value called UpperFilters on the Registry editor’s right pane, delete it by right-clicking it and clicking Delete. Click Yes to confirm. Likewise, if you see a LowerFilters value, use the same procedure to delete it. Now, delete the following Registry keys. To delete a key, locate it, right-click, and click Delete. Click Yes to confirm the deletion: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES \Cdr4_2K
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES \Cdralw2k
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES \Cdudf
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES
\UdfReadr

Error Message: “Hpppt.exe unable to locate component. This application failed because WNASPI32.DLL was not found.”

Translation: The message suggests that Hpppt.exe is executed at Windows startup, but because it cannot find the auxiliary file it needs, the program reports the error message and interrupts the Windows startup process. Hpppt.exe is HP’s parallel port test utility, a program that verifies whether or not your parallel port is set to ECP (Extended Capabilities Port) or EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port) mode, two parallel-port configurations that support bi-directional communications between your parallel port and whatever device is connected to it. Many devices that connect to your parallel port, such as scanners and printers, require bi-directional communication to allow a software utility that controls the device to get information about the status of the printer or scanner.

Solution: As you might guess, the key is to prevent the Hpppt.exe program from launching when Windows starts. To do this, remove Hpppt.exe from the Startup list of programs by clicking Start and Run and typing msconfig in the Open textbox. Click OK to launch msconfig (the System Configuration Utility) and click the Startup tab. Find the HP Parallel Port Test checkbox and click it. This clears the checkbox and removes Hpppt.exe from the startup list of programs. Click Apply and OK and restart your computer.

Error Message: “Hard disk drive failure”

Translation: This one is self-explanatory: WinXP is reporting a problem with your hard drive.

Solution: This is a hardware problem, so the solution is to determine whether your hard drive is permanently damaged or whether the hard drive information in your system’s BIOS is incorrect. The first step is to reboot the computer, enter your computer’s BIOS Setup program, and verify the settings for your hard drive. If everything looks OK in the BIOS, you may have a damaged hard drive. In this case, we hope that you have backed up your data because most likely the data on the damaged drive may be very difficult, if not impossible, to recover.

Translation: These errors have two possible root causes: As the first two messages imply, the errors can be caused by a device driver file (*.SYS) that is missing or has been corrupted. The third message is pretty straightforward, also: Again, something’s gone awry with a file—this time with USER32.DLL. This is one of those critical system files containing information that WinXP absolutely needs to run properly. In a nutshell, a DLL (dynamic-link library) is a file containing information that another program (this time, it is Windows itself) needs to run properly. For example, a DLL file may contain additional functions that another program’s code may call as the program runs. Programmers love DLLs because they let them simply call functions from within their code instead of having to code them from scratch. This particular DLL provides functionality related to the WinXP API (Application Programming Interface). Bottom line is, USER32.DLL is very important to WinXP.

Solution: The solution to this problem is to restore the missing or corrupted files to your system. This is done using WinXP’s Recovery Console. In the solution to the last message, we discussed how to access the Recovery Console. At the Recovery Console’s command prompt, type the following commands to restore the required files.
First, how to restore the drivers:

1. Type cd windows\system32\drivers at the command prompt to open that directory.

2. Type ren DRIVER.SYS DRIVER.BAK to rename the corrupted copy of the driver (if the problem is a corrupted driver; if the driver is just missing, skip this step and proceed to step 3).

3. Type copy [CD drive letter]:\i386 DRIVER.SYS to copy a fresh, functional copy of the driver from your WinXP installation CD to the WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\Drivers directory.

4. Type exit and then press the ENTER key to exit the Recovery Console.

Second, let’s restore USER32.DLL:

1. Browse to the required directory by typing cd [drive letter]:\windows\system32 at the command prompt.

2. If you have a copy of USER32.DLL in the windows\system32 directory that you suspect is corrupt, type ren USER32.DLL USER32.BAK to rename the file. If the file is missing, skip to step 3.

3. Type expand [CD drive letter]:\i386\USER32.DLL_ [drive letter]:\windows\system32 to copy the new USER32.DLL file to your Windows directory.

Error Message: “The file C:\windows\system32\c_1252.nls is missing or corrupt.”

Translation: As WinXP error messages go, this is one of the most straightforward. WinXP is simply reporting that the strangely named
file c_1252.nls has gone AWOL.

Solution: The strategy to solve this problem is the same as in the “STOP: 0xc000026C [Unable to load device driver] Driver” error:

Restore a fresh copy of the missing or corrupted file from your WinXP installation CD. Again, you must use the Recovery Console to do this. Once in the Recovery Console’s command prompt, type the following
commands:

• cd C:\windows\system32— opens the system32 folder in C:\Windows; this is the default location of the file.

• ren c_1252.nls c_1252.bak— The approach here is to give the existing copy of the file an extension that disables it by preventing WinXP from finding the corrupted file at startup. If the file is missing, this step is not necessary.

• expand [CD drive letter]:\i386\USER32.DL_ [drive letter]:\windows\system32—This copies a pristine copy of the file from the WinXP installation CD to the WINDOWS/System32 folder.

• Do as usual to exit the Recovery Console.

Windows XP, Microsoft’s flagship operating system, is widely recognized as the company’s most reliable consumer OS yet. With WinXP, Microsoft eliminated the Windows 9x architecture from its consumer OSes and adopted the technology core of its Windows NT and Windows 2000 corporate OSes. This strategy considerably beefed up reliability and virtually eliminated the constant crashes that plagued products such as Windows 98/Me.

Windows users hailed the dawn of a new era of reliable, crash-free Windows computing. But in spite of the significant improvement to Windows reliability, WinXP is not crash-proof. After all, we are talking about a program packing millions of lines of code that must work in a virtually unlimited variety of computer configurations. And we haven’t even mentioned the wide variety of computer user skills, from raw rookies who can barely turn on their PCs to accomplished experts who love to tinker with everything in their computers.

WinXP is much improved, but it does crash from time to time. And sometimes crashes occur at the worst possible times. Startup and shutdown crashes are probably the most frustrating for Windows users. Startup crashes are especially vexing because you can’t even get your system going long enough to diagnose and solve the problem. Shutdown crashes are frustrating also: Just when you think you can push away from the computer and go on with your life, a mysterious crash throws a monkey wrench into your plans. A 15-minute check-your-email-and-log-off session suddenly turns into a five-hour troubleshooting ordeal. When crashes occur, WinXP usually presents you with a message attempting to describe the error and, in some cases, telling you what you can do to fix it. The only problem is, for those of us who aren’t programmers or Windows experts, most error messages are virtually incomprehensible. Instead of making things clearer, cryptic error messages only muddy the waters. Seeing “Non-system disk or disk error” at startup sounds pretty serious, right?

In the next articles, we’re going to cut through WinXP’s gobbledygook and take a closer look at some common WinXP startup and shutdown errors.

STARTUP ERRORS

Error Message: “Non-System disk or disk error . . . Replace and strike a key when ready.”

Translation: This simply means that WinXP is attempting to boot from a disk (be it a floppy diskette or one of your hard disks) that doesn’t contain the system files WinXP needs to start. WinXP needs access to certain bits of information when it starts up. Your hard drive’s boot sector, a specific location on the disk, contains the startup files WinXP needs to continue the boot process. If WinXP can’t find those files, the boot process stops cold.

Solution: This one is either a simple mistake or a catastrophe. First, check to see if you have a floppy diskette in your drive. Nine times out of 10, this error is caused when you leave a floppy in the disk drive, turn off the computer, and then turn it on again without taking the diskette out of the drive. If the floppy is not a system disk with the required boot files, WinXP won’t launch. Check the floppy drive, and if there is a diskette in it, remove it and press any key on your keyboard. Windows should now start up normally. If a forgotten floppy disk is not the cause, then you’ve got a much bigger problem on your hands. Somehow, your hard drive’s boot sector has been damaged or erased. This is typically caused by either a boot-sector virus or a hard drive failure. Most antivirus programs let you create a rescue disk designed specifically for those times when a virus renders your computer unbootable.

If you created a rescue diskette, insert it into your floppy drive, restart the computer, and follow the antivirus software’s instructions to clean the boot-sector infection and restore your computer. If you don’t have a rescue diskette, go to a friend or co-worker who has one and either use his or use his antivirus software to create one, even if you use different antivirus programs. Right now, your main focus should be on disinfecting and booting your computer. If a boot-sector virus is not the cause, the hard drive’s boot sector, for some reason or another, has been damaged. WinXP’s Recovery Console has two utilities you can use to try to repair your boot sector: FIXBOOT or FIXMBR. FIXBOOT writes an entirely new boot sector, while FIXMBR repairs the MBR (master boot record) in the boot sector.

To run the Recovery Console, boot into your WinXP setup CD and press r when prompted. To boot into your WinXP installation CD, restart the computer and enter your Setup (BIOS [Basic Input/Output System]) program. Your BIOS should have a menu where you can change the sequence of boot devices for your computer. By default, your computer looks for a bootable disk in your floppy drive first, your hard drive second, and your CD drive last. Adjust the boot sequence in your BIOS so your computer searches for a bootable disc in your CD drive first (leave the hard drive as the second choice), insert your WinXP installation disc into your CD drive, and restart the computer. Because BIOS programs vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, consult your BIOS’ documentation to find out how to change the boot device sequence. To run FIXBOOT, type FIXBOOT [drive] at the command prompt, where drive is the drive letter for your boot drive (usually C:). To run FIXMBR, type FIXMBR [device name], where device name is the nomenclature the Recovery Console’s MAP command uses to describe the various hardware devices in your computer. For example, you might type FIXMBR \device\HardDisk0 to restore your boot record’s MBR. If you don’t enter a device name, FIXMBR repairs the MBR of the default system disk.

Finding the most confusing error message among so many candidates was truly a difficult task. But, we think we found a very worthy nominee. The following error message can occur during the WinXP upgrade process: “An unexpected error (768) occurred at line 5118 in \xpclient\base\boot\setup\setup.c Press any key to continue.” When you press any key as instructed, the following error message appears: “A problem has been detected and windows has been shutdown to prevent damage to your computer. PROCESS1_INITIALIZATION_FAILED”

Huh? Again, the Microsoft Knowledge Base comes to the rescue. The root cause triggering this error message is a software program (namely Roxio’s GoBack) that is incompatible with WinXP. To resolve the problem, disable GoBack when WinXP restarts by pressing the space bar at the GoBack boot menu, pressing d to disable and pressing y to confirm. Once GoBack is disabled, cancel the WinXP setup process and uninstall GoBack.

Most Unusual Error Message

After sifting through a few error messages, we nominated this gem for the most unusual error message: “Error Message: An unexpected error has occurred. (536821760) occurred at line 1768 in D:\xpclient\base\boot\setup\arcdisp.c” This error message gives us absolutely no clue as to what is causing the problem. Fortunately, the Microsoft Knowledge Base does have an answer: What’s triggering this error message is a problem with our computer’s memory, specifically a damaged memory module or a damaged memory slot (the physical area in the motherboard where memory modules are inserted. We can’t understand why Microsoft’s Windows developers can’t simply say that a problem exists with one of your memory modules. That approach would at least point you in the right troubleshooting direction.

We really can’t pinpoint any one setup or installation error message that occurs with greater frequency than others. The variety of hardware and software configurations out there is truly staggering, so every situation will be different. But there are two common situations that crop up time and time again behind many of the error messages we’ve examined: upgrading to Windows XP on top of an existing installation and not doing a thorough compatibility check.

A Clean Upgrade Path

Upgrading on top of your old Windows installation is, at first glance, the easiest road to take, but this road can turn treacherous in a hurry. Upgrading on top of an old installation means you instantly transfer all of the problem files and settings associated with your previous Windows OS (operating system) to your brand new OS. In some cases, the problems are serious enough to derail the WinXP setup process itself. We recommend you take the time to archive your important data, reformat your hard drive, and perform your WinXP upgrade on a clean hard drive. Some people think you can’t do this with an upgrade CD, but that is not true at all. If the WinXP Setup program does not detect a previous Windows installation on your hard drive, it requests that you insert your previous Windows version’s installation CD into your CDROM drive. Once the Setup program verifies that you have a bona fide WinMe or Win98 installation CD, the WinXP
installation continues normally.

Does Your System Have What It Takes?

If you’re going to upgrade your system to WinXP, visit Microsoft’s HCL (Hardware Compatibility List) Web site ( www.microsoft.com/hcl ) before you upgrade. Make a list of your system’s hardware devices and software applications and look for them in this list. If a device or application is not listed, go to the manufacturer’s Web site and see if it has updated drivers or patches that make the device or application compatible with WinXP. In some rare cases, you may have to upgrade to a new version. Performing this simple inventory before you attempt an upgrade to WinXP may save you a lot of time and grief when you attempt to install WinXP. It’s time well spent. Another even handier way to check your system’s compatibility with WinXP before you upgrade is to let WinXP’s Setup program do it for you. When you launch WinXP Setup from within Windows, you have three options in the Setup program’s initial screen: install WinXP, perform additional tasks, and check compatibility. Clicking the arrow to the left of the Check System Compatibility option launches another window where you can choose to go to Microsoft’s Web site and verify your system’s compatibility yourself or you can choose to let Setup automatically verify compatibility. Choosing the automatic compatibility option launches the Microsoft Windows Upgrade Advisor, which checks your system and compiles the findings into a text file that’s automatically saved to C:\WINDOWS\upgrade.txt. Please note that while running the WinXP Setup program, the Windows Upgrade Advisor may launch a window prompting you to check Microsoft’s Web site for updated setup files. This feature, called Dynamic Update, ensures that your Setup program files are the very latest. We recommend that you choose to let Dynamic Update download and install the latest WinXP setup files.

Translation: This is a specific example of a STOP 0x1E message; ASPI32.SYS is Adaptec’s Advanced SCSI Programming Interface, a device driver used in CD writers.

Solution: Upgrade your system’s version of ASPI32.SYS to version 4.57 or higher; download the file from Adaptec’s Web site at www.adaptec.com.

Error Message: During the WinXP setup process, you see the following message: “Uninstall Option Not Available There is not enough Space to save your current operation system. Your computer has enough disk space for Windows XP, but it does not have enough to save your current version of Windows for backup. The backup image size is [number _of_megabytes] It is recommended that you cancel Setup now, free additional disk space, and then restart Setup.”

Translation: This is a surprisingly clear Windows error message. When WinXP is installed, the Setup program saves a backup copy of your previous Windows version to a folder in your hard drive. This backup is in two files, BACKUP.CAB and BOOT.CAB, stored in a folder at C:\Undo. This is done in case your WinXP upgrade is not successful and you want to revert to your previous Windows version. But in this instance, the Setup program reports there is not enough space to save this backup copy of your previous Windows version.

Solution: You can do a number of things to resolve this situation. First and foremost, we certainly recommend that you take advantage of the option to back up your current OS. You never know what might go wrong with your WinXP installation, so it’s advantageous to have the option to go back to your old OS, just in case. You can cancel the Setup process by pressing ESC. After you cancel Setup, reboot into your existing OS and free up more drive space. If you have another partition in your system with sufficient space for this backup, choose this partition when prompted to back up the existing system files by the Setup program. This error is not a show stopper for the Setup program. If you choose to simply not do the backup, click Next to continue the Setup procedure. But, remember that you will not be able to uninstall WinXP and revert to your previous OS if you choose to do this.

This concludes most of the basic and common Windows XP Installation Errors. If you have encountered related installation issues that you consider can be helpful in this article, feel free to comment on it and if you also would like to post similar articles, make a comment and leave an email to where I can contact you about posting your articles.

Translation: This error is generated when one or more of your system’s RAM memory modules is faulty.

Solution: Remove a memory module and restart the setup process. If the error reappears, replace the memory module you just removed, remove a different memory module, and restart the setup process again. Continue using this procedure until you isolate the specific memory module that is causing the error message. Keep in mind that WinXP needs at least 128MB of RAM to run properly. If you have 128MB or less of total system RAM, this is a good opportunity to upgrade your system memory to 256MB or 512MB. The more memory you have when running WinXP, the better; 512MB is probably the optimum amount of memory you’ll need to run WinXP and all your other applications efficiently.

Error Message: During the WinXP installation process, you receive one of these error messages:
“Failed to install product catalog.” or “STOP: 0x0000008E (0×00000005, 0xBF869F22,0xF9470688,0×00000000)”

Translation: This error message is a variation on the “Cannot get main entry point for C:WINDOWSSYSTEMVIPERSTI.CPL. Error:127 [ERROR=127 (7Fh)]” message discussed above. Again, if the Setup program fails to completely remove the CATROOT2 folder in your previous Windows installation, Setup will report this error. This error also occurs if one of your RAM memory modules is faulty.

Solution: To resolve the first possibility, use the same approach discussed in the “Cannot get main entry point for C:WINDOWSSYSTEMVIPERSTI. CPL. Error:127 [ERROR=127 (7Fh)]” error message to rename the CATROOT2 folder. To determine which of your RAM memory modules is defective, use the troubleshooting approach discussed in the “STOP 0x0000008e” message.

Error Message: When upgrading from Windows 98/98SE/WinMe/NT to WinXP Professional, the following error message appears: “Setup cannot upgrade your current installation to Windows XP. Your copy of Windows XP does not support upgrading from an evaluation copy of Windows. Setup cannot continue.”

Translation: The problem here is your WinXP Pro installation CD may only be designed to upgrade an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) version of Windows 2000. In other words, you have the wrong type of WinXP installation CD for the type of upgrade you’re trying to do.

Solution: Contact the OEM or reseller where you purchased the CD and obtain a valid WinXP Pro upgrade CD-ROM.

Error Message: “STOP: 0x0000001E (0×80000003, 0xBFC0304, 0×0000000, 0×0000001) [bugcheck code] ([1] [2] [3] [4])”

Translation: Microsoft calls this specific error message (STOP 0x1E) a bug check code, which is a programmatic procedure used to report an illegal instruction detected by the WinXP kernel. The number 1 represents the exception code, the number 2 represents the memory address where the error occurred, and the numbers 3 and 4 represent the parameters 0 and 1 of the exception. In plain English, Microsoft uses this error code to report programmatic errors caused by insufficient hard drive space, a faulty device driver, or possibly a BIOS that needs updating. If a device driver is the cause behind the error message, the name of the device driver may be displayed in the error message text.

Solution: First, try to make more room in your hard drive for WinXP. Remember, WinXP requires at least 2GB of hard drive space, so if you’re at the ragged edge of that limit, try to make some more room. If a faulty device driver is the culprit, upgrade the driver to the latest WinXP-compliant version if one is available. If a WinXP-compliant version of the driver is not available, you may have to remove the hardware from your system to make WinXP Setup work properly. Finally, perform a flash upgrade to get your system BIOS up-to-date. Consult your BIOS documentation to learn how to upgrade the BIOS; follow all instructions provided by your BIOS manufacturer to the letter or you could wind up with major problems if you botch the flash upgrade.

Translation: This is another one of those messages that points to a possible problem with your WinXP installation CD.

Solution: To resolve the problem, copy the contents of your installation CD-ROM’s i386 folder to a folder on your C: drive (using the xcopy command we discussed earlier) and run the Setup program from your hard drive. To do this, click Start and Run and type c:\i386\winnt32.exe in the Open textbox. Click OK to execute the command.

Error Message: Again, this one is not an error message, but a symptom. You’ve just completed the WinXP installation, but when you reboot the computer, you discover that WinXP assigned passwords to all user accounts. Because you don’t know the password Windows assigned to each account, you can’t log in to any of them.

Translation: The problem here is the Setup program did not complete properly. During the Setup operation, Windows assigns temporary passwords to each user account; these passwords are stored in a file called setupact.log in your Windows installation folder. When the Setup program completes properly, these temporary passwords are cleared, allowing you to set up your own password. But if the Setup program does not complete properly, the passwords are retained.

Solution: To resolve this problem, find the setupact.log file and locate an entry that reads “Random password for Username is [password].” Write down the password exactly as it’s written and use it to log on to the account. How you do this depends on whether you configured your file system as FAT32 or NTFS. If the file system is FAT32, restart your system using a WinMe or Win98 startup disk. At the command prompt, type edit c:\windows\setupact.log and follow the instructions above to locate the password. If the file system is NTFS, configure your BIOS settings so the computer boots from the CD drive and insert your WinXP installation CD into your CD-ROM drive. Restart the computer, and at the prompt press any key to boot from the CD. Press r at the Welcome To Setup screen to launch the Recovery Console and then press ENTER when prompted for the administrator password. At the command prompt, input type setupact.log and press ENTER. Make a note of the password associated with each account. Restart the computer and use the retrieved password to log on to the user account.

Error Message: “This program cannot be run in DOS Mode.” This message appears when you attempt to execute Setup.exe from within a DOS real-mode command prompt.

Translation: The WinXP Setup.exe executable cannot be run from MS-DOS.

Solution: If you need to run the installation from within MS-DOS, type [CD-ROM Drive]:\i386\winnt.exe to start the Setup program.

Error Message: After the WinXP Setup program completes the file-copy process, the following error message appears: “Setup cannot set the required Windows XP configuration information. This indicates an internal setup error. Contact your system administrator.”

Translation: This is WinXP’s way of reporting a hardware incompatibility issue.

Solution: First, update your system BIOS to the latest version. Then, determine if any hardware in your system is incompatible with WinXP. You can verify this by using the Setup program’s automatic compatibility check or manually by browsing to Microsoft’s Hardware Compatibility List (www.microsoft.com/hcl) Web catalog. Either update the device drivers or remove the incompatible hardware from your system. Then restart the Setup program.

Error Message: When performing an upgrade to WinXP from Win98/Me, you get any one or more of the following error messages:
“Error: Cannot get main entry point for C:WINDOWSSYSTEMVIPERSTI .CPL. Error:127 [ERROR=127 (7Fh)]”
“Error: The signature for Windows XP edition Setup is invalid. The error code is fffffdf0.” or “The system cannot find message text for message number 0xfffffdf0 in the message file for Syssetup.dll.” or “Fatal Error:
Setup failed to install the product catalogs. This is a fatal error. The setup log files should contain more information.” or “Error:Warning! Setup failed to remove the setup catalog ieexcep.cat” or “Error: Warning! Setup failed to remove the setup catalog sp1.cat”

Translation: If the Setup program fails to delete all of the files in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CATROOT2 folder (or whatever drive letter and Windows folder contain the previous Windows version files), these error messages may be generated. This is another one of the many problems that can occur when you attempt to upgrade to WinXP on top of a previous Windows version.

Solution: Rename the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CATROOT2 folder to something such as catold to prevent WinXP’s Setup program from locating the folder and halting the installation. If you are still in Setup, press SHIFT-F10 to launch a command prompt from within Setup. At the command prompt, type cd\windows\System32 to open the System32 folder and then type rename CATROOT2 catold, press ENTER, restart the computer, and attempt the upgrade again. If you cannot reach a command prompt from Setup, reboot the computer from a Win95, Win98, or WinMe startup disk and rename the folder from the command prompt. You can also launch a command prompt by booting from the WinXP installation CD and running the Recovery Console.

Translation: This error message means the Setup program is unable to read from your WinXP installation CD.

Solution: If your WinXP installation CD is very damaged or scratched, you’ll have to get a replacement from Microsoft. If you’re in the United States, call (800) 360-7561 Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific to order a new CD. If you’re in Canada, call (800) 933-4750 during the same days and hours to get a replacement. You may be able to resolve this by copying the setup files from the CD to a folder in your hard drive. If you’re installing WinXP to a clean hard drive, insert a Win98 or WinMe startup disk in your computer’s floppy drive and reboot the computer. At the command prompt, type the following command: xcopy [CD Drive Letter]\i386\*.* c:\i386\*.* /s /e This command copies all the files in the i386 folder of your WinXP installation CD to a new i386 folder in your C: drive. The /s and /e command switches ensure that you copy all directories and subdirectories (even empty ones) to the new location. Now, type c:\i386\winnt.exe to continue the setup process. Winnt.exe is the installation file that must be used when you’re running the Setup program from a startup disk command prompt.

If you’re simply upgrading an existing Win98/Me installation, click Start and Run, type cmd in the Open textbox, and click OK. At the command prompt, type the same command as above to copy the files. When the copy process is complete, type c:\i386\winnt32.exe to launch the setup process. The reason you use the winnt32.exe file in this situation is that you are running the Setup program from within Windows.

Error Message: When upgrading from Win98/Me to WinXP, you get the following message during setup: “Setup has disabled the upgrade option, could not load the file D:\i386\Win9xupg\W95upg.dll. Setup cannot continue, because this version can only install as an upgrade.”

Translation: As the message implies, this issue occurs because the Setup program mistakenly assumes the upgrade option is not valid for your software. This occurs in spite of the fact that you are eligible for an upgrade because you are obviously installing on top of an existing Windows installation.

Solution: There are two solutions to this problem that Microsoft suggests. First, clean boot your computer and try to run Setup after the boot process completes. Please refer to the discussion above to find out how to clean boot in Win98 or WinMe. The other solution is to copy the i386 folder from the WinXP installation CD to a folder on your hard drive. If you’re already in Windows, simply use Windows Explorer to browse to the i386 folder in your WinXP installation CD, right-click the folder, and click Copy. Browse to a location on your hard drive, right-click, and click Paste. The copy process might take a few minutes because you are transferring a large amount of data when you do this.

Error Message: This one is not a message but a behavior that occurs when you upgrade from Win98/Me to WinXP. The WinXP Setup program freezes during the “Preparing Installation” step.

Translation: Again, this is a symptom that occurs when performing an upgrade to WinXP on top of an existing Windows installation. According to Microsoft, the root cause of this problem is antivirus software installed with your previous version of Windows that is running in the background and interfering with the setup process.

Solution: To resolve this issue, exit Setup and then disable or uninstall any antivirus software in your computer. Once the antivirus software is disabled or uninstalled, restart Setup.

Error Message: After restarting your computer when an upgrade to WinXP is complete, the following message may appear:
“STOP: 0x000000ED (0xaaaaaaa,0xbbbbbbb, 0xccccccc) UNMOUNTABLE _BOOT_VOLUME” (NOTE: aaaaaaa, bbbbbbb, and ccccccc represent various hexadecimal numbers.)

Translation: If you have a UDMA hard drive and motherboard controller but are using a standard 40-wire connector cable to connect the drive to the controller and the BIOS is configured for UDMA mode, this error will be triggered. This is a complex way to say that you’re using the wrong cable with your UDMA drive and controller. Another possible cause of this error message is a damaged file system. If the second reported memory address is 0xC0000032, the file system is damaged.

Solution: To resolve the first cause behind this error message, replace your 40 wire IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) connector cable and reset your BIOS settings to the default options. To resolve the second problem triggering the error message, reboot your computer using either a startup disk or the WinXP Setup CD-ROM. At the Welcome to Setup screen, press r to launch the Recovery Console and type chkdsk /r to begin repairing your damaged file system. When the process completes, type exit to leave the Recovery Console and press ENTER to restart the computer. If this doesn’t resolve the problem, repeat this process but use the fixboot command instead.

(To be continued)