Black screen after formatting and installing XP

hmm.. there is a quick message before the thank messsage that says NO SWAP SPACE!

 

hmmm so you didn't see it doing tests ?or didn't you have to make a choice what to do, or maybe an ok to continue?

 

is the machine still running on the dvd?

 

nope, no choices to make, just like a 10 secs proccess then the thank message i see it was doing something like copying to ram or something, then a quick table comes and then goes then the no swap space quick message, then the thank message

 

ok a test should run longer than that still strange there was no interface with questions.
k before we replace the disk would you plz boot the xp cd again.

 

just did without you asking, after pressing enter to make it boot, it says its configuring hardware or something then the screen goes black. the Vista recovery disk opens up and i can install, but when it comes to booting it doesnt boot :S

 

k i need to know what interfaces your disks have. plz take the power plug out of your pc and see if the cable connected to your disk is wide (parallel 40-80pins) or small like 1cm wide (serial)

 

i'm extremly confused.. it can instal stuff, but it cant load them..

 

erm? took out the charger then what?

 

??? install??? load??? what....AW dvd?

 

k tell me about your machine i don't know about AW models since you say charger that would make it a notebook in that case turn around the machine

 

..... i told you i have an alienrespawn recovery dvd. i can go inside and set partitions but after the install i get black screen

 

and tell me what you see where looking for a little lit it's will also be described in your manual

 

hmm i dont understand you anymore

 

every manufacturer has its own recovery method I dont know the AW method since i have no AW yet

 

ok.. pop the recovery dvd in, choose language, set partition you want the recovery to be on, install and then youu are supposed to be ready, but i got black screened.

 

I'm looking for a lit that we can open to see the disk it is a laptop right? And the usb disk you have is a 2.5" model (kinda small) remember i don't know when you can follow me or not.

 

Look all i need to know if the HDD is gonna go to trash or not, if its not damaged and its a software thing i think i can get it fixed for 10$

 

ok.. its 4 at morning and i got school tomorrow, thanks for your time buddy, talk to you tomorrow

 

k lol 10 bux thatz nice ...i think it is, from what i can understand what you're saying. I thought you wanted to replace the disk sorry but since i can not get the right information i had to try different approaches..

 

k bud good luck !!

 

.................allrighty then, back to sticking my head in my slack servers. Long time ago helping users with their lil' pc's. Better yet go to bed, scary this talking to myself in a laptopusers forum . Good night world, over and out.......................................................................................................soooooooooooo ssssssssssssssssssssssurrealllllllllll.

 

damn guys.. that was sooo long..

btw, AW customer service should learn a thing or two from you.. never gave up..

 

brainer im really sorry for you I wish i could help but i cant
atleast you know that i wont have mine for atleast a month...
good luck anyway

 

:back 4 a sec:

That's what we've been trying to find out and it's kinda difficult from what you say for certain. Remember this 3-4 hour session normally costs me less than 3 minutes.
So once more (whether the disk is broken or not):
if your USB disk is a 2,5" disk with the same interface you can exchange them to see if another setup of xp will continue further than it does with your current disk. See your manual how to exchange the disk (don't forget to unplug the power). Don't worry its very easy to do this. This way you will know for sure if the current disk is broken and you can easily change it back again. Also should you decide to buy a new disk, a 80GB costs in Holland about 50 euros which is about 75 bux a 120GB is about 70 euros (105 dollars). If you buy a new 1 in a shop take the disk or laptop to the shop where you're buying it to show it to the sales person or when you want to buy it on the internet be sure whether it has a serial (SATA) interface or a parallel on (PATA- wide cable 40/80 pins). Then when the disk is inside your (auto) BIOS will probably detect it automatically and you can run the setup. This all seems overwelming but is rather a small operation......
I will check this thread from time to time to see if you have more questions.

Good luck buddy!

 

I'm not sure about the problem but since I see you have both respawn and an original Windows XP sp2 CD (or dvd or whatnot) is it possible to try...

Put in the Windows XP CD (forget the alienware thing) and boot up the computer with it.
When the first questions pop up you can choose to repair with the recovery console, this will bring up a cursor interface.
There you have some handy tools that should solve the problem, mainly fixmbr and fixboot. I'm not on a pc at the moment (macbook for work pc for games) but I'm sure some of the guys can tell you how to use those exactly. When in doubt run fixmbr /? or fixboot /? to see how you should use them but it should fix problems related to what you are having.

PS do you have more than one partition on that hard drive? I mean you have 100 gigs and 1 ntfs partition or do you have more than one? Did you try installing XP without anything else (no alienware respawn), maybe the respawn tries to make a second recovery partition (like dell does) and that screws up the boot order.

 

Oh, and once in the recovery console of XP run:

chkdsk c: or whatever your partition is called (i guess is c

If anything is broken this guy will say it.

If he finds broken stuff run it again as

chkdsk /r c: (i'm not sure if is not chkdsk c: /r)

 

If there was another partition and active we needed to make this one active in order to be able to boot.
We where checking this possibility

MBR is set during partitioning and he said he could copy files to the disk @ 1 point, hence the partitioning would have been successful but still a good option because it would need to successfully reboot. fixboot will help you repair a bootsector of an installed OS to which point he did not get. Checkdisk can only check /fix (parameter /r) a broken filesystem but this could stumble over a bad sector (time for the disk 2 die)true but the latest message was that his screen blacks out after booting his XP cd so no recoveryconsol. This inconsistent behavior is pointing to hardware failure. Or.....
He was getting too tired or....... I misinterpreted his story......
Oh well thanks anyway good input

 

Ssurreall you rock, now i have SP2 installed successfully, REP UP!

 

Well done Buddy !!!