[Sir Poppin]

I installed max payne the other day, a game that I have installed on my computer before with no problems. I played for a while, before I tried to alt tab it. Unfortunately it froze so I turned off the computer the old fashioned way (holding the button in for 5 secs)I then turned it on again but I got a problem saying that the keyboard wasnt working at startup. I got passed it but then got up to a Blue screen of death saying Registry Error.

I Cant get into safe mode, since i get the same error. I did however get a bootable linux cd and have backed up all my data that I needed.

Now all I need help with is formatting.. When i put the windows cd into the drive and try to install I get the same errors as before. I was wondering if I could take out then put back in the mobo battery - would this wipe my hardrive and start everything fresh?

And if I did this would I have no bios or is the bios unloosable or something?

Cheers.

 

[Paladin-X]

Taking out the mobo battery will have no effect on your hard drive. At what point during the install are you getting these errors and are they really the same registry corruption error? Are you sure you had formatted your HD.

 

[Uranium-235]

taking out your motherboard batter would not format your hard drive, that would just reset the settings on your core hardware

Is the computer booting off the CD?

wait a linux boot CD? you don't need that, you need your XP cd, you can boot off of that, and if I remember correctly select to format your hard drive before re-installing XP

Taking out the mobo battery will have no effect on your hard drive.

Actually, taking it out will wipe the bios ATA detection settings, so it actually will effect the drive in some way, or at least detection of the drive (assuming the bios default isn't auto for all channels)

 

[Sir Poppin]

What happens is I boot off my Win XP cd, it asks me if I want to install Xp, I press enter. Then I get a Blue screen saying "registry error" from which I cant do anything except turn off the computer.

And for the record I only booted off a linux cd so I could get my files off the Hd.

 

[ibrokeit]

Set your BIOS boot order to boot from your CD drive first. Then start your computer with the Windows XP disk in the drive. Then you shoud get a screen telling you to press any key to boot from the CD. Then choose to delete whatever partition or partitions you have set up on your hard drive. You shouldn't have any problem with registry corruption stopping your install then because there won't be any registry or any other data remaining on your disk.

 

[Sir Poppin]

I know how to format my drive but I simply can't get up to the bit where you do that without getting the damn error! Its so damn frustrating

 

[ibrokeit]

I'm sure you know how to format a drive but just putting the Windows XP disk in the drive and choosing Install is different than booting from the disk.

Go into BIOS and make sure your CD drive is your first boot device then restart with the XP disk in the drive. You should get a screen telling you to press any key to boot from the XP disk. This is different than just choosing install from the menu while already in Windows. You'll be operating in DOS when booting from the disk.

 

[Sir Poppin]

Yes, I can do that! I can't get into windows at all so Of course I would be installing from dos. But when I put the cd in and boot from it I come up to a stage where I get an error message and all I can do is turn the computer off.

 

[ibrokeit]

That's weird.

What are your system specs?

First, I would flash to the latest BIOS for the motherboard. BIOS is non-volatile flash memory, BTW, it doesn't change until you flash it again. If you flash your BIOS incorrectly you'll turn your computer into a very expensive doorstop. Follow your mobo manufacturer's directions for flashing BIOS exactly.

Removing your CMOS battery will only clear your CMOS chip, that is, reset to default settings. It won't wipe your hard drive. To wipe the hard drive you have to delete ALL partitions and format. The proper time to do this is for your operating system disk is during Windows installation. You can install and format other disks later after your operating system is installed on your system disk. In Windows XP it's easy. No more FDISK. Just enter disk management, right click on the new disk, and choose Format.

After downloading and flashing to the latest BIOS from your mobo manufacturer's site enter BIOS (press the DELETE key during POST) then disable USB Legacy Support if you aren't planning on using USB a keyboard and mouse. Also disable plug and play operating system, set your video adapter to AGP or PCI depending on which type of video card you're using, set your PCI latency timer to 64, if you're using a sound card and your board has onboard sound disable the onboard sound, and disable Boot Virus Protection. Also disable Plug and Play Operating System. You can re-enable it later if you have problems with analog modems.

Disconnect all hardware that isn't necessary for installing Windows. Have only the hard drive you're installing Windows on, your CD-ROM drive, and preferrably a PS/2 keyboard and mouse connected. If you have to use a USB keyboard or mouse leave USB Legacy Support enabled.

When you boot from the Windows XP CD and you delete all partitions there is no way you can have a registry error because there is no registry on your hard disk until you re-install Windows.

If you continue to have problems installing Windows, you either have hardware that isn't Windows XP compatible or you have a defective piece of hardware.