System Fails to boot setup DVD - STOP ERROR 0x000000A5

Ok. Sorry I thought it was STOPping just after the first load splash. No as far as I´m aware you cannot have a live mode... Which is kind of sad in a way as it would make life a lot easier troubleshooting these things.
I have been informed the problem with mine shot from an initially unrecognised ATI graphics card. I´m kind of thinking you may have the same issue somewhere in the mix.
It might be an idea to see if you can find as many compatible drivers and add them into a fresh install at the aproppriate time.

JasRain said:

Ok. Sorry I thought it was STOPping just after the first load splash. No as far as I´m aware you cannot have a live mode... Which is kind of sad in a way as it would make life a lot easier troubleshooting these things.
I have been informed the problem with mine shot from an initially unrecognised ATI graphics card. I´m kind of thinking you may have the same issue somewhere in the mix.
It might be an idea to see if you can find as many compatible drivers and add them into a fresh install at the aproppriate time.

Yep. The splash kind of comes up. It says "windows is starting" or whatever on the bottom, but goes to STOP before the logo starts "shwooshing" in. I was thinking of doing one of those "lite" modification programs. I had an S3 Twister video card, which is sort of obscure, but not removable.

As of this past friday however, things have significantly changed. The antique, pathetic hp pavilion zt1250 that I called a laptop for what seems like forever finally bit the dust. Over the past couple of months, every once in a while it would reboot with a blue screen that would pop up (in win xp) for about a half second, and then restart and work fine. This one time, it "STOP"d, and then upon rebooting, nothing happened at all. So, I just shut it off and tried again, but to no avail. No BIOS POST screen, nothing. The hard drive and dvd drive still spin up and make their normal "starting up" noises like usual, but nothing appears on the screen or happens. I even waited a while for the hdd access light to come on in case the screen had just gone bad, but nothing. I tried switching the ram pieces (one slot is where you would expect it - under a panel on the bottom, another one is behind the keyboard), booting without the dvd drive or hard drive connected, but still no deal. I have one extra stick of RAM, and I will put that one in, just to see if somehow the system just killed both chunks of ram.

Then will maybe look into something new .

Keep the suggestions coming though, in case I can revive it.

- 2 Bunny

2 Bunny said:

JasRain said:

Ok. Sorry I thought it was STOPping just after the first load splash. No as far as I´m aware you cannot have a live mode... Which is kind of sad in a way as it would make life a lot easier troubleshooting these things.
I have been informed the problem with mine shot from an initially unrecognised ATI graphics card. I´m kind of thinking you may have the same issue somewhere in the mix.
It might be an idea to see if you can find as many compatible drivers and add them into a fresh install at the aproppriate time.

Yep. The splash kind of comes up. It says "windows is starting" or whatever on the bottom, but goes to STOP before the logo starts "shwooshing" in. I was thinking of doing one of those "lite" modification programs. I had an S3 Twister video card, which is sort of obscure, but not removable.

As of this past friday however, things have significantly changed. The antique, pathetic hp pavilion zt1250 that I called a laptop for what seems like forever finally bit the dust. Over the past couple of months, every once in a while it would reboot with a blue screen that would pop up (in win xp) for about a half second, and then restart and work fine. This one time, it "STOP"d, and then upon rebooting, nothing happened at all. So, I just shut it off and tried again, but to no avail. No BIOS POST screen, nothing. The hard drive and dvd drive still spin up and make their normal "starting up" noises like usual, but nothing appears on the screen or happens. I even waited a while for the hdd access light to come on in case the screen had just gone bad, but nothing. I tried switching the ram pieces (one slot is where you would expect it - under a panel on the bottom, another one is behind the keyboard), booting without the dvd drive or hard drive connected, but still no deal. I have one extra stick of RAM, and I will put that one in, just to see if somehow the system just killed both chunks of ram.

Then will maybe look into something new .

Keep the suggestions coming though, in case I can revive it.

- 2 Bunny

Update! Looks like I was able to start it after taking a vacation, but it will only stay started for two to three minutes (enough to get it started, and maybe launch one application for a little bit - I got thirty seconds of usability out of it) before completely locking up.

This is really quite unfortunate.

- 2 Bunny

2 Bunny said:

2 Bunny said:

JasRain said:

Ok. Sorry I thought it was STOPping just after the first load splash. No as far as I´m aware you cannot have a live mode... Which is kind of sad in a way as it would make life a lot easier troubleshooting these things.
I have been informed the problem with mine shot from an initially unrecognised ATI graphics card. I´m kind of thinking you may have the same issue somewhere in the mix.
It might be an idea to see if you can find as many compatible drivers and add them into a fresh install at the aproppriate time.

Yep. The splash kind of comes up. It says "windows is starting" or whatever on the bottom, but goes to STOP before the logo starts "shwooshing" in. I was thinking of doing one of those "lite" modification programs. I had an S3 Twister video card, which is sort of obscure, but not removable.

As of this past friday however, things have significantly changed. The antique, pathetic hp pavilion zt1250 that I called a laptop for what seems like forever finally bit the dust. Over the past couple of months, every once in a while it would reboot with a blue screen that would pop up (in win xp) for about a half second, and then restart and work fine. This one time, it "STOP"d, and then upon rebooting, nothing happened at all. So, I just shut it off and tried again, but to no avail. No BIOS POST screen, nothing. The hard drive and dvd drive still spin up and make their normal "starting up" noises like usual, but nothing appears on the screen or happens. I even waited a while for the hdd access light to come on in case the screen had just gone bad, but nothing. I tried switching the ram pieces (one slot is where you would expect it - under a panel on the bottom, another one is behind the keyboard), booting without the dvd drive or hard drive connected, but still no deal. I have one extra stick of RAM, and I will put that one in, just to see if somehow the system just killed both chunks of ram.

Then will maybe look into something new .

Keep the suggestions coming though, in case I can revive it.

- 2 Bunny

Update! Looks like I was able to start it after taking a vacation, but it will only stay started for two to three minutes (enough to get it started, and maybe launch one application for a little bit - I got thirty seconds of usability out of it) before completely locking up.

This is really quite unfortunate.

- 2 Bunny

Update! It looks like now everything was just a fluke ram thing, as reseating both chunks of memory got it by a one hour ram test from the linux ubuntu live boot cd, which it had completely failed within minutes (before).

Anyway, next I would like to looking into using vLite to create a lite install (looks like it boots differently in the demo vids) and try that.

- 2 Bunny

All right. I'm back after a quick "vacation" here. The problem still exists, and any help would be, well, "helpful".

To recap, I still can't boot the Setup disc (official or "vLited" versions). I have seen videos of modified setup/startup sections that have ran on computers with less than half the specs that mine has. Here's a "recap" of those:
hp Pavilion zt1250 (Laptop)
1.3Ghz Processor
512MB of RAM
20GB Hard Drive
S3 Twister Video Card
VIA something or another Motherboard (upgraded BIOS - common accross all different zt1*** series laptops)

When trying to BOOT the SETUP DISC, I get a STOP Error. No description, no automatic restart, nothing but the error code: 0x000000A5.

Any new suggestions are welcome, as usual.

Thanks!

- 2 Bunny

2 Bunny said:

All right. I'm back after a quick "vacation" here. The problem still exists, and any help would be, well, "helpful".

To recap, I still can't boot the Setup disc (official or "vLited" versions). I have seen videos of modified setup/startup sections that have ran on computers with less than half the specs that mine has. Here's a "recap" of those:
hp Pavilion zt1250 (Laptop)
1.3Ghz Processor
512MB of RAM
20GB Hard Drive
S3 Twister Video Card
VIA something or another Motherboard (upgraded BIOS - common accross all different zt1*** series laptops)

When trying to BOOT the SETUP DISC, I get a STOP Error. No description, no automatic restart, nothing but the error code: 0x000000A5.

Any new suggestions are welcome, as usual.

Thanks!

- 2 Bunny

I apologize guys for what seems like a "triple" post, but I've got a new lead. Here's what I did:

With Windows xp up and running, I put the dvd in and started the installation from inside of Win Xp, which of course has to restart after sometime, only at this point, it is about half to three quarters installed. In this state, it has replaced the Windows Boot Manager with the new one, and now the two options are "Earlier Version of Windows" or "continue setup" or something like that for the last one. Anyway, now it is like (from a boot manager perspective) booting into the normal OS, and I can press F8, and found that after going through the list, it gets stuck on "Disk.sys" before the 0x000000A5 STOP Error, if it helps at all. I also tried the option to create a log of "ntbtlog.txt", but after tying that twice, the log file is nowhere to be found.

Does anyone know of a startup customization for W7 or a BIOS modification for the "Insyde Software" BIOS?

- 2 Bunny

Untill HP make a BIOS update,well.:)

theog said:

Untill HP make a BIOS update,well.:)

I somehow doubt that's going to happen, just spitballin' here.

Anyway, back to serious now, this thread was a good start for repairs on the BIOS end of things. Is there any modification that can be made to the Windows 7 setup/boot to accommodate the system's needs. I know that an adjustment in the BIOS or in the setup is all it needs, I've seen people run 7 with half of what I've got here.

I thank the community for all their help so far, and welcome any and all new suggestions, ideas, or comments. :)

- 2 Bunny