New XP install hangs on setup screen

Maybe, shut it down, and remove almost all the pheripherals that are not needed, so that you are left with only a keyboard, mouse, and LCD( or monitor).

Also include in this list is any extra cards inside the case, that are not abosolutly needed for boot up.

Then, if you can get past the inital setup login, you can add them back one at t time detecting the new hardware.

I would go for a hardware failure, most likely Network but maybe anything like sound perhaps.

My debug would be:
Go to bios via pressing f2 or f10 or del depending on your system then look for lan card and sound
card usb wireless card and so on disable them all.
after you have finished installing windows turn and install them one by one with  a restart in between eech two until you get the one that is causing the problem.


Note:  It is possible that the bios software is the problem but its less likely so I'm not talking about it now!

You might also try booting to a normal XP cd.... blow away the partition on the hard drive and reformat it.. then run the recovery CD again.

Ok here is what I've tried, thanks for the help....

1) I just looked on E-machine's website and chatted with their tech support, they do not offer the drivers for this pc anymore so installing via an XP cd and manually installing the drivers is not an option. Yuck.

2) I unplugged everything except the VGA LCD and PS/2 mouse and keyboard. I unplugged the CD drive and the PCI modem, tried again and it still hung at the same place.

3) Wiping the whole partition with an XP CD is not a bad idea, I'll try that next.

4) BIOS check is coming up to.

Thanks so much for the help. I can't believe that Emachine doesn't have the drivers available for this model anymore online. Crazy. I also can't believe my luck that a simple recovery with factory CD's could screw up at the point it is.lol

I wasn't suggesting you perform the install using the XP cd. I meant you should boot to a standard xp cd and use it to blow away the partition and reformat the drive... then reboot and put your E-machines recovery cds in and install via those CDs. That way you can make sure the drive is completely clean before you start your recovery process.

Woops.. sorry.. I didn't completely read #3... just wanted to make sure you didn't misunderstand the suggestion.

I understand Dorkestra and I'll try that but if I could just find the darn drivers I would have another avenue to get the machine back up and going without having to use the Emachine restore disks.

I can't seem to find the drivers online anywhere, it's an Emachine desktop W4885.

I'll try to blow the partition then run the Emachine restore cds again. Thanks!!!

I'm really surprised the drivers aren't available anymore either... what's the model? Many of the drivers may be included in XP already, and you may be able to download others from manufacturer's websites.

Quick update: I used an XP CD to format the partition and now I'm reinstalling via the Emachine restore cds. Pray for the best.....

Oh and the model is a W4885.

Thanks

Yeah... I saw you already posted that prior to me asking... it's been one of those days.  I looked at the specs on that system. Many of the devices are pretty mainstream. I'm sure the drivers are out there somewhere individually, but it'd not doubt be a pain to hunt them all down.
Good Luck!

Thanks for the help. Typical deal.....I figured I'd pick the pc up at 5pm from the customer, do the simple factory restore in my home office tonight and they'd be back up and running by 8 am. Doesn't look like that is going to happen. I might be trying to get a loaner pc up and running if nothing else, so I can try and work this all out.

No chance of this being a bad spot on the HD and that is why it freezes when it gets to that exact same point every time? Guess I'll run SpinRite next on the HD and see......

Fun times.lol Thanks for the advice.

LOL!!! I just came here to post the answer....which was a copy/paste of the link above. I found it and tried it and it worked great! Thanks so much for posting that info though, if I hadn't happened to find it at the same time, you would have saved my life.

Thanks for everyone's help.