crash after installing on first boot

When it asks about last known good configuration look for the memory test option. Your RAM or GPU is likely crapping out.

You'll need a command prompt -- boot from your Windows installation CD and press shift+F10 at the first screen. A command window will display, change to the root of your windows drive and dir /a *.log | sort. This is a chronological list of log files on your system drive. Use notepad <logfile> to examine each, in reverse order and post any "interesting" issues as needed.

I'm going to assume that Windows is installed on drive C: so

Code:

c:
cd \
dir /a *.log | sort

the hard drive will make awful crunching noises and output something like

Code:

04/15/2009  07:19 PM         1,310,720 edb.log
04/15/2009  07:21 PM            47,698 aswAr.log
04/15/2009  09:45 AM            12,770 ReportingEvents.log
04/15/2009  09:46 AM               433 Notice.log
04/15/2009  09:46 AM           152,515 setup.log
04/15/2009  09:46 AM           199,726 Setup.log
04/15/2009  12:37 PM           109,179 setupapi.app.log
04/15/2009  12:38 PM         4,385,305 setupapi.dev.log
04/15/2009  12:53 PM           172,124 CBS.log
04/16/2009  12:00 AM            23,706 setupact.log

now make note of the file last listed and find out where it is

Code:

dir /s setupact.log

which returns something like

Code:

 Volume in drive C is 7
 Volume Serial Number is B4C7-2504

 Directory of C:\Windows

04/15/2009  07:13 PM            26,791 setupact.log
               1 File(s)         26,791 bytes

 Directory of C:\Windows\Panther

04/12/2009  06:26 PM           585,759 setupact.log
               1 File(s)        585,759 bytes

 Directory of C:\Windows\Panther\UnattendGC

04/16/2009  12:00 AM            23,706 setupact.log
               1 File(s)         23,706 bytes

 Directory of C:\Windows\System32\sysprep\Panther\IE

04/12/2009  08:26 PM               580 setupact.log
               1 File(s)            580 bytes

     Total Files Listed:
               4 File(s)        636,836 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  11,359,551,488 bytes free

make note of the directory and open the file with notepad thusly

Code:

notepad C:\Windows\Panther\UnattendGC\setupact.log

now put on your Sherlock Holmes hat and look for clues as to why startup, didn't. Read the file from end to beginning as the failure is likely logged at the end of file.

You see what we're doing -- the thing that caused startup to fail is likely the last thing logged. By searching for log files and displaying them in chronological order we can examine each file from latest to earliest looking for the root cause of your problem. Make sense?

bakerboy said:

Found completion flag [True], reboot requested flag [True] --> rebooting computer before proceeding with deployment...

Making sure that SystemSetupInProgress is cleared.

An immediate reboot or shutdown was requested/required... rebooting / shutting down computer

Flushing registry to disk...
Flush took 1109 ms.

WinDeploy.exe exiting with code [0x0]

it appears as if some thing needs to reboot to work but after the reboot it still thinks it needs to reboot (correct?)

Issue is likely before that -- do you have a floppy drive in the computer? Or some other way to copy those log files off to the computer you're posting on? You can attach them to a post and I'll take a look at them.

Code:

copy <logfile> a:\

That doesn't look like the latest log from the timestamps in the file. Since you can get at the logs in XP lets just use explorer's find facility to list all the logs and sort by timestamp. Then send me the most recent 2-3 logs. You don't have to use MediaFire -- click the paperclip icon and attach there (might have to zip the files)