Repair install crashes at 25 minutes

I have been trying to repair xp home sp2 on a laptop for 5 days now, and it keeps crashing at the 25 minute mark - completing installation.

I have tried disabling everything that is unnecesary in the BIOS including network card, usb, some battery options for the laptop and the wireless LAN (well i can't really disable that, so i set it to "Always Off". I have tried to access the add remove programs wizard from command prompt during the setup but that stalls as well. Can anyone help?

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Comments

sthomas

If you can backup you data you may want to do that, then do a fresh install of Windows XP instead of a repair. If that does not work you may have an issue with your harddrive. It is hard to tell, if you could give more details that would be great.

Sie

pizzaboy wrote:

I have been trying to repair xp home sp2 on a laptop for 5 days now, and it keeps crashing at the 25 minute mark - completing installation.

Have you checked the Windoze CD?

Could be a problem with the media rather than the laptop

sprkymrk

Check the hard drive.

Megadeth4168

Where in the install process does it crash and how specifically?

Does if give you a specific error? Does it make it to the GUI portion of the install?

blackmage439

I had the same exact thing happen to me with a laptop I have. Except, in my case, the error was so severe that I could not boot the machine after the error, nor could I just run a clean install. It kept returning me to the repair process, right where it failed. (Keep in mind this was before my A+ studies, so I had no knowledge about the Recovery Console...) Luckily, my computer was still under warrenty, and the LCD screen was crapping-out. So I just sent it in, and they gave me a clean image.

Recently, I've been having an issue with Office 2003. I tried a repair. It did something, but the problem still persisted.

Henceforth, I have lost nearly all confidence in M$'s 'repair' features in their applications...

Megadeth4168

blackmage439 wrote:

I had the same exact thing happen to me with a laptop I have. Except, in my case, the error was so severe that I could not boot the machine after the error, nor could I just run a clean install. It kept returning me to the repair process, right where it failed. (Keep in mind this was before my A+ studies, so I had no knowledge about the Recovery Console...) Luckily, my computer was still under warrenty, and the LCD screen was crapping-out. So I just sent it in, and they gave me a clean image.

Recently, I've been having an issue with Office 2003. I tried a repair. It did something, but the problem still persisted.

Henceforth, I have lost nearly all confidence in M$'s 'repair' features in their applications...

I have had wonderful luck in the past with Repair install for Windows... There has only been a couple of time where that has not worked but I was able to get things worked out in Recovery console on those issues!

As for Office! I share your pessimism! None of the Office "repairs" have ever, Ever!!! Workied for me!

You are better off downloading the office uninstall cleanup tool from MS, perform a regular uninstall, run the cleanup tool and reinstall office from scratch....

pizzaboy

Megadeth4168 wrote:

Where in the install process does it crash and how specifically?

Does if give you a specific error? Does it make it to the GUI portion of the install?

It stops responding at the point where it says "completing installation", and by this i mean i can not access command prompt (shift + F10) or see specifically where the install is i.e. (shift + F11).
However the mouse still works though, well at least the touhpad.

can't remember the exact error but it goes something like "can not set security " and i am paraphasing.

It makes it to the GUI yes but it crashes at 25 minutes.

mrhaun03

blackmage439 wrote:

Henceforth, I have lost nearly all confidence in M$'s 'repair' features in their applications...

I agree. I had way more problems doing a repair than necessary. When in doubt, do a fresh install.

JDMurray

If the hard drive checks out OK it may be a problem installing a driver or interacting with a hardware subsystem. Before starting the installation, disconnect all unnecessary peripherals and deactivate unnecessary motherboard features in the BIOS menu to see if you can get the installation to complete.

pizzaboy

JDMurray wrote:

If the hard drive checks out OK it may be a problem installing a driver or interacting with a hardware subsystem.....

Thanks, i will run the chkdsk in recovery console to see if there are any errors but the hard drive wasn't giving problems before. However, i disabled everything i could in the BIOS incuding the battery options and it still crashed at 25 minutes. Would it help if i took out the battery altogther? i am wiling to try anything except a clean install, that is a definite last resort.

JDMurray

Removing the battery wouldn't be useful, but I would disconnect all USB devices. I once had a Windows installation crashing the same way because the installer didn't like a USB flash drive that was connected to the machine. Windows had not problem with the drive after it was fully installed.

Is there a log file produced by the installation process? It would sure help to know what the installer was doing (or did last) before the crash.

pizzaboy

i disabled the usb on the BIOS settings. Would i still be able to view what happened last when the setup restarts? The reason i ask is because i could not access command prompt to take a look at the setup or error logs.

The GUI was stuck on "completing installation" and it was about 2/3 complete.