XP Home installation issues

You probably already have been here, but try going to support.microsoft.com.  Search for
"irql_not_less_or_equal 0x0000000a".  This should get you started.  
Also, were you doing an upgrade or a clean install?

It is an upgrade from Win98, the computer does not belong to me and customer is against a reformat. orignally the computer came to me with other issues in addition to the customer wanting to upgrade to winxp. the 98 file system was left intact and xp was installed to a different location on the same HDD, this was due to XP installation stating that it could not upgrade the existing 98 *have no idea why*,

it should be noted that this same problem occured in the original XP installation, at the time i determined that it was due to a generic USB header / SmartMedia reader attached to motherboard. removed header and disabled in BIOS, and XP installed. now the computer has returned with a boot issue, that everytime XP is booted after CHKDSK runs the computer reboots. this is a never ending cycle. I do not really believe that reinstalling XP will solve this issue, i would just like to be able to rule software errors out and the culprit.

thanks again.

pc911support,

Have you checked my link? It gives a link to a MSDN article concerning this error when upgrading to XP from 98.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=311564

Yes i did see your link,  i use the MSKB often. as i mentioned this problem arose a week or so ago when the computer was being upgraded, i was able to remove and disable a USB / SmartMedia header and the installation went through. now the computer is back on an unrelated issue, which the simple fix is to reinstall xp ontop of itself. so now i am back where i started and the USB / SmartMedia header is still disconnected and disabled in the bios