I need some help installing Windows XP. First of all, I have an upgrade CD of Windows Home Edition (Service Pack 2). I also have a CD of Windows 98 SE ( it also says for PCs without Windows). I’ve never had any trouble using these before. Anyway, I have a T2885 eMachine. The power supply went bad, so I bought a new one. Turns out the old power supply took everything with it. So I bought an ELITEGROUP motherboard GF6100-M754 (http://www.ecsusa.com/ECSWebSite/Products/ProductsDetail.aspx?detailid=854&CategoryID=1&Deta ilName=Specification&MenuID=48&LanID=9)
The hard drive is a 80 GB Western Digital Caviar .(IDE)
Everything appears to be recognized in BIOS. I do have the hard drive as Slave and CD drive as Master because there is only 1 IDE connector and the cable is only long enough to connect it this way. I’ve put the upgrade XP CD and it goes through the process as normal. I partition using NTFS and then choose to format. It formats, examines disks, then copies files to the Windows installation folders. It then proceeds to reboot from the CD and starts to load setup files again. It won’t ever go to the XP main screen. The hard drive is set to boot 1st. I’ve tried to do a fresh Win 98 install and I get this message “Setup cannot install Windows 98 on your computer…An error was detected while trying to read or write to your hard disk. To quit setup, press F3. The motherboard does support ACPI and I came across an article talking about how XP doesn’t always recognize that the motherboard BIOS is ACPI capable so you press F5 during install.
The only 2 options I get when I press F5 is Standard PC with C-Step i486 and
Other. When I select Other, I am supposed to put the disk in the A: drive that contains the drivers. I have a CD for the new motherboard, but not a floppy and I wouldn’t know what files to put on the floppy from the CD. Any suggestions on how to proceed?

Hi fotosetc - Welcome to PCHF!

Do you have a Windows 98 boot disk - you will need one to be install windows 98 successfully. Then you could try upgrading to XP. You can get the files here - you will need to save them onto a floppy and boot off the floppy.

Bootdisk.Com - Free Windows Bootdisks, Free DOS boot disk

Also when XP reboots after loading setup files are you pressing any key to boot from cd again. If so this would be why it starts over again. Just let it restart and don't hit any keys on the keyboard and it should start to install.

I switched hard drive to MASTER and CD drive to SLAVE by jumpering it that way, but still not work. Does the same thing. I did what was suggested suggested and tried to make it boot from floppy with a Win98 bootdisk and I get this message--"verifying DMI Pool Data... Boot from CD:
DISK BOOT FAILURE< INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER."

I've got it set to boot from the floppy first and it tries to (light comes on) and I know it is a working bootdisk because I tries it with another computer. BIOS recognizes the floppy drive. Any other suggestion?

Try the following:
Only have 1 stick of ram in the pc when you install windows - after windows has finished installing completely you can put it back in.
After XP has finished copying files and is about to reboot - remove the XP CD or otherwise go into BIOS and set the hard drive back to first boot device. With your motherboard you may need to set the Removable Device to Floppy as well just to make sure it won't try to boot off CD at all. Some motherboards automatically boot from cd if there's one in the drive - it sounds like this may be happening in your situation.

To try to get the Win98 bootdisk to work go into BIOS and set Floppy as the first device in Removable Device Priority. If you can get the floppy to boot correctly then use FDISK to delete the XP partition off the hard drive. Then you'll be able to try a clean install with the XP Upgrade cd.
You will need to change Removable Device Priority back to CD. One in Windows setup - choose New Installation not Upgrade.

If the 98 boot disc absolutely won't work then try the XP disc again. You need to delete the current partition and make a new one. When XP asks what file system you want - select NTFS (but not the quick option). Once again make sure you select New Installation not Upgrade. It will then ask you to insert the Win98 cd - insert it - windows will check it and tell you to put the XP disc back in. Don't forget to change BIOS as soon as it reboots.

Also regarding your ACPI query - in the BIOS menu under Advanced Chipset features - the PMU setting enables or disables ACPI. I think the default is disabled. So maybe try changing it to enabled and see if this fixes your problem. Let windows try to detect ACPI by itself don't press F5.

You can disable ACPI by pressing F7 on the window where XP prompts you to press F6 during setup to install 3rd party drivers. You will not get any confirmation. I wouldn't recommend doing the F7 unless none of the above works.