Fresh install of Windows XP Pro SP2 problems..

[festivetu]

I recently purchased a TP770x, it has all of the default hardware:

8.1GB HD
64MB ram

It just barely meets the minimum requirements for Windows XP Pro.

The hard drive is bootable to C: prompt at the moment.

The problem is, when I insert the Windows XP Pro SP2 CD, I reboot, start the setup procedure through CD booting, it slows down to a crawl while installing the basic hardware drivers at the beginning. At the bottom it says "Please wait..." Then after about 5 minutes, it says "Please insert Windows XP Professional SP2 CD into drive A: and press any key when ready".

Well we all know CD's don't fit into A: floppy drive.

Why isn't it reading the CD properly? Problem with the CD rom? Or the CD?

I don't think it's the CD because I just used it to do a fresh install on my desktop computer.

Thanks!

[K. Eng]

Can you disable the A: drive in the BIOS to see what happens when you reboot with the SP2 disk?

Running Windows XP with 64MB of RAM is going to be an extremely painful experience... the absolute least you should run with if you want to do any sort of work is 128MB that will be enough for Microsoft Word, a browser, winamp, and AIM.

I would upgrade to at least 256MB of RAM...

Have you considered using Windows 2000 on that machine instead?

[pkiff]

I would reiterate K. Eng's advice to upgrade your RAM if you are determined to use XP on that machine.

Regardless, here are two other things you might check:

1. Have you updated your 770X to the most recent BIOS?
I'm not sure if this is necessary for installing XP or not but it is necessary for properly running it I think.

2. Silly suggestion, but be sure your XP CD is as clean as possible.
Another user on this forum had similar symptoms (not including the weird A: drive prompt however), and cleaning the CD seemed to help. Your CD drive on your desktop may be in better shape and/or be simply better at reading than your CD drive in your 770X.

Phil.

[GomJabbar]

Take a look at the sticky "The Official 770 Upgrade and general information Topic" in the "ThinkPad 770, 600 Series & Transnote" forum here. The fourth poster, Guest, had to boot from MS-DOS to get his CD-ROM recognized, so that he could do his OS installation. Might you need to do the same?