Installing WinXP on POS System - Need Help Please

energy69

Help Need Please

My problem. We bought a 2nd hand POS System (FlexPos 150) with WinXP installed. Seemed a bit slow so we put some RAM in it and thought we'd give Win 7 a go.

Installed. Missing Drivers. Decided we need to go back to WinXP. Not so easy. No CD Drive. Got a copy of FlashBoot Trial and tried installing WinXP SP2

Installation seemed okay and then on first boot got Blue Screen.

After trying a number of other times gave up and gave into a shop to fix.

They said they had no luck. Something about the Hard Drive IDE Driver missing. Did some searching and contacted people in Oz that sold the system. Was told I needed a POS ready version of Windows. Found a trial version. Downloaded. Tried to create a bootable USB with the new version.

Installation seems to happen and then it hangs somewhere along the way.

Any help is much appreciated.

Sam

Antar Bolaeisk

Not to be an arse but this is why you always take an image of a system before commencing such wide-scale changes.

How are you trying to create the USB bootdrive? Might I suggest using Rufus which I've found to be the easiest solution when making a bootable XP drive.

When you say the installation "hangs somewhere along the way", at what stage does it stop? Is it possibly failing to boot from the pen drive after a restart and hence not continuing with the installation? Does it provide a message of any kind?

You mentioned about the previous install failing because it didn't have the requisite IDE driver (Which I find a bit strange as Windows wouldn't have installed in the first place without one). Are you able to determine the manufacturer/chipset of the motherboard which could help to track a driver? Did you record the error code you received from the Bluescreen, if so what was it?

Capt'n Midnight

look up slipstream install or the how to use SATA drivers in XP setup (press F6 etc.)


did you wipe the drive before putting 7 on ?
if you installed inanother folder it might be as simple as fixmbr/fixboot


if 7 wiped the drive you may have to reformat since XP won't understand the new format


any live linux cd shold show you what's on the drive before you go painting yourself into a corner - you are hoping for an options\cab folder containing most (but not all of) the original install files

Antar Bolaeisk

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

look up slipstream install or the how to use SATA drivers in XP setup (press F6 etc.)

If it were a SATA controller issue then no available drive would show up at the 'choose destination' phase, or at least that's been the case in my experience. It just strikes me as weird that the installation is able to proceed so far, apparently without a driver to talk to the IDE/SATA controller.

energy69

Hi,

Antar: Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Have used FlashBoot and RMPrepUSB for USB Bootdrive preparation

It goes through the Starting Installation Environment and completes the broken bar along the bottom.

Next the Windows XP appears for 4 secs and then it goes to BLUE Screen with the following Technical Information message.

stop: 0x0000007b (0xf789ea98, 0c0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)


Motherboard Chipset:
CPU Socket 370 - Intel Pentium III FCPGA 100/133 up to 1GHz

---

Win7 was originally dirty install and then we were not able to roll it back so we formatted and started from scratch.

yoyo

energy69 wrote: »

Hi,

Antar: Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Have used FlashBoot and RMPrepUSB for USB Bootdrive preparation

It goes through the Starting Installation Environment and completes the broken bar along the bottom.

Next the Windows XP appears for 4 secs and then it goes to BLUE Screen with the following Technical Information message.

stop: 0x0000007b (0xf789ea98, 0c0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)


Motherboard Chipset:
CPU Socket 370 - Intel Pentium III FCPGA 100/133 up to 1GHz

---

Win7 was originally dirty install and then we were not able to roll it back so we formatted and started from scratch.

Could you try installing a Linux distro and see if it works out of interest (such as Lubuntu)? XP shouldn't have an issue detecting IDE drives, is your copy of XP a branded one like "Dell" or is it standard? Some branded disks contain drivers and specific software for certain machines, which could cause issues such as this

Nick

Rambo

I would suggest you get one of these

usb dvd rom

http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?productcode=GCE13206

energy69

have tried installing both. A standard SP2 Version of Win XP and POSReady Version directly from the Microsoft website.

The system was originally built with Win 2000. Might Win 2k have different standard drivers available that XP doesn't. What you think?

Thanks for all your help.

Rambo

from this doc

http://www.goodson.com.au/download/manual/systems/user/flexpos_120_150_um.pdf

appears to be using standard IDE controller
if you booting of usb pen trying to install windows xp from iso image
you may get blue screen of death.
xp cd disk needs to be configured to boot of such a device

in the manual you can install from usb dvd rom or network install

follow these steps

energy69

No luck with this. Where might I find a POS Ready version of Windows XP please? Or does anyone else have another solution?

Fysh

energy69 wrote: »

No luck with this. Where might I find a POS Ready version of Windows XP please? Or does anyone else have another solution?

I would be amazed if anyone's still legitimately selling XP for POS systems, given that 3 successive replacement OSs have been released by Microsoft. MS are selling POS-ready versions of Windows 7 Embedded and Windows 8.1 Embedded - a solution geared around one of those would be much better if it's feasible for you as it won't involve an OS that goes out of support in April next year.

energy69

I believe the POS system is to dated (2003/2004) and therefore may not have the capacity to handle Windows 7 hence the need to find an XP solution. Thanks Fysh

Torqay

Fysh wrote: »

I would be amazed if anyone's still legitimately selling XP for POS systems, given that 3 successive replacement OSs have been released by Microsoft. MS are selling POS-ready versions of Windows 7 Embedded and Windows 8.1 Embedded - a solution geared around one of those would be much better if it's feasible for you as it won't involve an OS that goes out of support in April next year.

You still get it from Microsoft, incl. a free evaluation license. Support life cycle ends in 2019, IIRC.

Fysh

Torqay wrote: »

You still get it from Microsoft, incl. a free evaluation license. Support life cycle ends in 2019, IIRC.

Interesting, did not realise that.

OP, there's a page with all the Windows Embedded options here. Scroll to the bottom and look for "Windows Embedded POS-Ready 2009" or click here - you'll need to log in to request a trial key and get the download. Presumably the trial key will come with info on how to buy a full licence.

energy69

Thank You. I thought we were onto something new. I have actually tried this and this is where I am getting my blue screen of death from with this version of Windows

GreenWolfe

OP, when you tried to install XP again did you take out the additional RAM that was installed?

energy69

No. What difference will this make. The machine was working with the new RAM in it. It was only until we started putting Win 7 on it that things went belly up.

GreenWolfe

The RAM was added at your end, there's a possibility it might be contributing to your problem. There's no harm in ruling it out as a factor.

energy69

Okay,

I normally never give up although 3 months later and it appears there is no solution to the problem.

I have identified that it is not a hard drive problem as I have installed a new hard drive. I have tried to also install Win 2K Pro and we get exactly the same problem.

So, it appears to be related to a missing Motherboard Driver. I then started searching for the Motherboard Manufacturer using the Award Bios Serial Code - SiS-630ST-6A6IRHE9C-00 - and it appear not exist anywhere online.

I am a total loss and feel beyond frustrated.

Any help PLEASE.

Sam

Did remove the new RAM although it had no effect.

GreenWolfe

Here's the website for the manufacturer, it might be worth it to drop them a mail.

http://www.heisei.com.tw/support/

Welcome to the Heisei Support and Service Center. You can browse below for Frequently Ask Questions and drivers can be downloaded via the product name. Should you be unable to download driver for our products or need further assistance, please feel free to send mail to marketing@heisei.com.tw.

Torqay

What you need is the chipset driver ("FlexPos 150 XP driver" search has led me here).

Inside the archive are two files, you'll need to extract infinst_enu.exe. Read secition 8C (INSTALLING THE WINDOWS* XP INF FILES PRIOR TO OS INSTALLATION) of the readme file. This refers to the installation method where you copy your installation source (i386) onto the HDD, add the driver and install the OS from there.

It is probably easier to slipstream the driver into your installation CD. And while you're at it, you might as well slipstream all the other XP drivers.

energy69

Thanks Earthly

They say there is no Motherboard drivers for this system. I finally decide to give up yesterday. I have put in around 100 hours of work into this and the system is not even worth 400 euro. Probably a total waste of time although I hate giving up.

energy69

Torqay wrote: »

Inside the archive are two files, you'll need to extract infinst_enu.exe. Read secition 8C (INSTALLING THE WINDOWS* XP INF FILES PRIOR TO OS INSTALLATION) of the readme file. This refers to the installation method where you copy your installation source (i386) onto the HDD, add the driver and install the OS from there.

It is probably easier to slipstream the driver into your installation CD. And while you're at it, you might as well slipstream all the other XP drivers.

Cheers for this. These seem to be the Chipset Drivers for the FlexPos 415 system although I have emailed the company again to ask for the equivalent drivers. What do you mean by "slipstream all the other XP drivers"

Torqay

How To: Slipstream your XP installation

If you slipstream the chipset driver into the installation CD you don't have to load the drivers manually via F6 or prepare the HDD with the installation source.

Of course you slipstream everything else as well, service packs, update bundles and other drivers (video, audio, network, WLAN, etc). This way they will be automatically installed during Windows Setup, saving you hassle of applying them later.