After my old motherboard died, I purchased a new motherboard MSI RX480 NEO2. Since the old HD wouldn't boot, I bought a new Seagate 120 MB drive to do a new W2K install. The problem I have is that on each attempt to install, it quits when it reaches parallel.sys (87%) when copying files for installation.

I've disabled the parallel port in BIOS and it still does the same thing. No one seems to know why, the W2K installation worked OK on another computer.

HELP!!!!!

Did a CD or floppy come with the new HD and did you run it? Are you getting a "cannot copy _ file" error?

Your specs state Win2000sp4. Is SP4 slipstreamed on the CD? Is the new HDrive SATA? What graphics card? I ask because I have had problems installing 2000 to some newer hardware. Especially if the CD is SP1 only. You could try copying the CAB files to the HD and running them from there. I don't know if the point at which the install fails is significant. I would guess the problem could be a little prior to that point. I had a machine that gave me fits installing Win2000, usually hanging at the point of setting up hardware. Turned out to be bad capacitors on the MBoard and the MB had to be replaced. I am not inferring that is your problem. Just pointing out that you can't assume the problem has anything to do with the parallel port. What happened with the old HD when you attemped to boot to it? When the old MB died it may have taken other hardware with it. Are you even sure the original issue was the MBoard?

I didn't have any previous CD problems, I even installed an unused CD player in the spare bay that I bought a year ago. It's a 52x. The HD is an IDE drive, makes no difference if you use cable select or single master on the jumpers.

When I tried to boot the old HD on the new MB, it got the blue screen which said boot device not found. I tried the repair console and the MBR command. After that I only got as far as NTLDR not found.

The old MB was having problems a few weeks before it finally died, taking half hour to even Power On Test before booting up normally. It finally died out with a stuttering picking noise coming over the speakers.

I had to buy a new graphics card for this MB which is PCI, since the new board has no AGP slots. It's a NVidia GEForce FX5200.

To the first responder, a CD does come with the new HD, didn't get that error.

I guess my question wasn't very clear. I was asking what service pack is included on the CD you are using to install Win2000.

Service Pack 4

One thing I can suggest is to delete all the Temp files that are created during the failed installation before making another attempt. If you have hardware that won't be recognised by Win2000 I think you need to have the drivers available ahead of time. Possibly installed to the root directory of the drive. Did you try to perform a Win2000 repair? Win2000 is old and never was intended to run on some of the hardware we run it on. Winxp has drivers for much more hardware. That would explain the ability to install XP but not 2000. If you want to attempt a 2000 install again I would suggest you try with minimal hardware installed and/or enabled in the BIOS. Pull all non essential cards and disable all non essential onboard hardware in the BIOS. This will give a better chance of success. Also, if you can, when screens appear to install hardware, hit escape and install manually later.

I put an old video card in today, removed the modem, disabled everything that BIOS would allow, and it the installation still stops at parallel.sys. The CD shuts off, the hard drive shuts off, just the screen with that point where the files are copying.

I wish I could at least get to the spot where windows installs hardware. It craps out while copying over installation files.

I've already spent close to 500 bucks on the new parts on this, and money is too tight right now to blow 200 bucks on a full version of XP, not knowing if that will even do the trick.

If anyone can tell me how to workaround that parallel.sys file copy, I would love to hear it.

Is there a way to install the MB and video card drivers onto the new HD before attempting another Windows install?

I've already bought a new computer to use but I have so many files, programs, and games on the old HD of the old computer that I don't want to lose them.

If you are sure the Win2000 CD is good then it must be a hardware issue. I went to the MSI site to download the Manual and I couldn't find it online. I am pretty sure the MB is compatible with Win2000. Some thoughts that come to mind. On the MSI site it mentions that the default settings may be too agressive and you may need to reset them. Also there is a recommended list for memory modules. Your MB has provisions to use RAID. Be sure this isn't enabled. Try different IDE channels. If using cable select try Master and vice versa. Isolate the HD on its own cable. Look for any special settings regarding the graphics card. If using a PCI card, try a different slot. There is a method of installing the OS by copying the CAB files to a directory on the drive. I am a little weak on this so I don't want to advise wrong. Make sure the CD is clean. Read the manual, especially the part about OS compatibility. I am going to check at ATI to see if the chipset is supported by 2000. I'm guessing the issue your having is Win2000 doesn't know what to do with the chipset on the MB. I'm not sure what the answer is though. Maybe you can supply the chipset drivers somehow. Did you slipstream your Win2000 sp4? If so, maybe insert the chipset drivers there. Don't know what CAB file to place it in. Might be time for a new thread to see if anyone else can help. You are getting a hard lock possibly due to a wrong driver installed by 2000. Sorry I can't help more.

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate the effort.

I have a hunch that this is something obscure that hasn't come up yet or is uncommon. Either there is some problem with the file itself on the CD, or the MB was made with the idea of installing XP and not W2k. It said nothing about any W2K issues, you'd think it would come up. It's also possible that the makers overlooked a clean install and assumed that someone doing this would copy the drivers onto the existing drive before installing a new MB.

How do I Slipstream? I'm not quite knowledgeable enough to understand that term.

Thanks for your help on this.

Did you try any of the suggestions I mentioned in my last post? Didn't you state that the CD you use to install Win2000 had sp4 on it? I wasn't aware that Win2000 could be purchased with SP4 already on the CD. The point is that I assumed you slipstreamed SP4 onto your CD. The concept of slipstreaming is to add files to the original OS and have them run seamlessly. I haven't done this myself as I haven't had the need. There are various software programs to aid in this or it can be done manually.
Before we get into that further verify that your Win2000 CD has sp4 on it, or do you need to apply SP4 after you install Win2000?
Did you understand my post concerning aggressive settings? If you read the MBoard manual you will find settings for memory that can be changed. The default (auto) may be causing the issues you are having. There are some settings in the BIOS that possibly could aid in the installation of Win2000.

The SP4 was slipstreamed onto the CD by someone who knew how to do it, it isn't an original O/S.

Someone at work has an original W2K that I can try, it's possible that this CD is missing something that's needed when doing an install on a new HD.

What I'll try first is the W2K without the SP4 to see what happens. If it works there won't be a need to further tweak the BIOS settings. I get a little uneasy messing with them since I'm not a pro at this.

Your last answer is very helpful, as this CD might not be set up to do a full install. I believe that it's more likely that's the case. The friend who tested it didn't run it on a blank HD.

Thank you once again for your tips, I really appreciate your time.

If you haven't changed any settings in the BIOS as of yet the settings are defaults. Of course the boot order, date, time, etc have been set. The worst thing that could happen by making a bad change in the BIOS settings would be the inability to boot. This is corrected by clearing the CMOS by moving the Clear CMOS jumper from the run postion to the clear position momentarily and then restoring it back to the run position. It is good to be cautious but there isn't too much danger.

Hello team,
I am having the same problem with the same model of motherboard.

I have tried a base installation of Windows XP Pro 2600 and Windows Server 2003. I have tried to install on two seperate drives: IDE and SATA. Also, I have rotated out 2 different CD-ROM: one, a DVDRW and the other a plain CD-ROM (Both models are less than 6 months old).

During the DOS based installation of both disks, the setup hangs while copying the files over to the drive.

I have a deadline soon and I really need the processor... so, I will try to contribute when I get this solved.

*Thanks for the configuration suggestions so far!

Todd Morrison

Exciting news friends.

I finally was able to format the drive to Fat32 get DOS installed on it(6.22).

Manually ran SMARTDRV.exe and then initialized the winnt.exe from the CD-ROM.

The set-up copied all of the setup files to the local hard-drive, where it requested me restart.

After booting back up, the setup typically seen during a "from the disk" senerio took place; this time, without any IO access to the cd-rom.

THE SETUP HANGS AGAIN!

I tested the above senerio on an IDE and SATA drive. Same results.

This has to be a motherboard issue.

Ill keep you all up-to-date.
Todd

toddpi314

While you may have problems that are similiar to kbdabear it would be best if you started your own thread here. Working with even one poster can get confusing.

I tried another W2K CD from a coworker, straight W2K executive. Still got the hangup although at a different spot in the file copy.

I emailed MSI's tech support and from their answer it appears that one big hitch is that I installed a PCI graphics card, which the chipset doesn't support. They told me that a PCI Express slot graphics card is needed. I have a compatible CPU and I'm not using SATA, so the card is the issue.

PS - I never heard a beep on startup, the first time that I noticed it, that might have been a clue to those helping here. My bad.

Here's the reply from MSI tech support;

"Be sure to install and use support it processors for the mb: • Supports 64-bit AMD® Opteron™, Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core, Athlon™ 64 FX, Athlon™ 64 processor (Socket 939): http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_cpu_support_detail.php?UID=700&kind=1 Make sure the SATA HDD is SATA I 150GB HDD and not SATA II HDD which the controller on the mb does not support. Update to the latest bios for the mb too: http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/bios/bos/spt_bos_detail.php?UID=700&kind=1 Use and install PCI-Express video card and not PCI video card which the chipset does not support too."

Wow, i do have a PCI Video Card.
Could you email me if that works. I won't have any extra cash until this saturday.

kb

In my response #8 I suggested this must be a hardware issue. I thought the issue would be Win2000 support for the newer technology. As it turns out it looks like you need to use ONLY a well defined list of hardware with the MB. So, what now? Buy a PCI-E card?

todd
I suggested that you start your own thread. It appears that you are misreading the MSI information. The MBoard in question appears to ONLY support PCI-E graphics cards. That should be part of the owners manual.

Looks like another dip into the cash for the PCI-E card. No point in having a pile of unworkable hardware because the card is wrong.

The purchase will have to wait for payday since a few bills will be autodeducted before the end of the month. I'll let you know when I get the card if the problem goes away.

Ok, we'll be watching for your post.

Hey,

I have an update. I went ahead and purchased a PCI Express Radeon X1300; with this as my primary graphics driver, the Windows XP and 2003 install ran just fine!

Thanks for all of your help!

Sorry for re-posting OtheHill, this news is just so great!

Success! I bought the Nvidia GEForce 7300 PCI-Express and the installation went through with no problems.

Thanks to OtheHill for all your help.

kbdabear

Glad to hear you finally got it sorted out. Thanks for letting us know.