Win ME upgrade hangs at setting up hardware, pnp

[medlogic]

I am trying to install win me over win98SE. All was well until the "now setting up hardware and any Plug and Play devices you may have" step. The system hangs and returns to the same step no matter how many times it is turned off. I am caught in an infinite loop and can't get to anything except my BIOS settings, none of which are helpful. I also have not even been able to get it to read a start-up disk.
What next?

12/30/01
Thanks for the suggestions but I cannot get to a command prompt. Neither can I get it to boot to the floppy drive. It seems to have had the boot sector modified so that it can complete the Windows ME installation....only it won't do it. Maybe part of the problem is that the system has a motherboard with built-in ethernet and audio (K7S5A). The only other hardware present to detect and setup is the CD-ROM. I disconnected it with no change in the hang, so reconnected it. I'd sure be happy to format the hard drive, but can't get to a prompt to do it.

[ 30 December 2001: Message edited by: medlogic ]

[Theoran]

Are you able to get to a command prompt? I think it would be best to try to reinstall Windows ME. Since you don't seem to be able to boot to your startup disk we'll work around this.

Start the PC and just after the first window changes to the next, Tap the F8 key until you see the Safe Boot menu. Then select Command Prompt Only from the menu, press Enter. Place your startup disk into the floppy drive and put your WinME CD in the CDROM drive. At the C:\prompt change directories to the CDROM. It should be either the D: drive or the E: drive. Once you change it to the CDROM drive, type dir /w and then press enter. You should see the executable file setup.exe. If you do then type setup and the CDROM prompt. If you donot see setup.exe then please post back with what files you have listed.

If you are not able to change to the CDROM drive then I think the best course of action would be to format your hard drive and start over from scratch. At the C:\prompt type A: and then press enter. At the A:\ prompt type format c: and then press enter. For complete instructions on format please refer to this tutorial (http://www.cybertechhelp.com/html/tutorials/format.shtml).

Please post back if you have any questions what-so-ever. We are here to help. :)

[medlogic]

12/30/01
Thanks for the suggestions but I cannot get to a command prompt. Neither can I get it to boot to the floppy drive. It seems to have had the boot sector modified so that it can complete the Windows ME installation....only it won't do it. Maybe part of the problem is that the system has a motherboard with built-in ethernet and audio (K7S5A). The only other Plu and Play hardware present to detect and setup is the CD-ROM (a DVD-ROM drive). I disconnected it with no change in the hang, so reconnected it. I'd sure be happy to format the hard drive, but can't get to a prompt to do it.

[Mr1drful]

when you try to boot from a floppy disk , does it just ignore the disk or do you get an "invalid system disk" error ?

you may want to go to bootdisk.com and download a Win/ME boot disk.

[Theoran]

Go into your BIOS and have your boot order to boot from the A drive first then your CDROM and lastly your C drive.

[medlogic]

The computer stubbornly refuses to recognize instructions to boot from the floppy. There is an on-screen message stating that it is looking for boot information on the floppy but the floppy does not spin/light and it proceeds directly into the Windows ME splash screen and then into the part of the installation that hangs. There is a boot sequence set menu (F8) that has the floppy set as the first boot source and I've also set the CMOS so that Floppy is the boot device and devices #2 and #3 are disabled. The system ignores these settings.

[Mr1drful]

check the connection (ribbon and power) on your floppy drive. you may have knocked something loose when you removed the cd-rom drive.

[medlogic]

Gentlemen,
I believe we have found the culprit. We (my son and I) removed the hard drive, plugged it in to another system and wiped the drive. On reinstalling it in the original case, we were able to get to a command prompt but were unable to "read from Drive A". It looks like we have a fried floppy drive and I will replace it tomorrow. I'll let you know how things turn out from there.

[Theoran]

Great! . . Well bad about the floppy, but atleast you found the culprit. :)

[medlogic]

To Theoran and MR1DRFL,
Thanks for your suggestions and willingness to help. The problem was indeed a toasted floppy drive. Have restored the system to working order and have a clear head for 2002.
Have a great year! And thanks again.

Medlogic

[Mr1drful]

you're very welcome.
glad we could help and happy new year to you.

[Theoran]

Ditto! :)