Win XP and ATI 9200 problems

I'm not sure where to post this, but I should post it somewhere as I haven't been able to find any thread that discusses my issue.

I started getting errors within win xp. Most of the errors related back to my ATI 9200. I tried installing updated drivers, but the problem proceeded to get worse. I backed up all of the files I wanted to save on my trusty external hard drive, and formatted my HD. When I run win xp setup I get the message "setup cannot copy file xxxxxxx.xxx" every time I run the setup, setup gets stuck on different files that it cannot copy. I tried using three other OS disks win2k server and win2k pro, both of which where new out of the box, so I know that it wasn't just a scratch on the disk. I took my external HD out of it's box and tried it with that one, and still got the same error. I put my old drive back in and downloaded the low level format from the disk's manufacturer. After I checked the fitness of the disk, and formatted the MBR and rest I tried again with no luck. The hardware that I'm using is a soyo kt600 motherboard, AMD 3000+ 400 FSB, 512 MB PC 3200 DDR @400 MHZ RAM, ATI 9200, Hitachi 60 GB deskstar, and a Mad Dog DVD-R/-RW CD drive. I'm wondering how I can isolate the problem, and if there is a problem with one or more of the components, will be able to correct the problem by replacing it. I'm afraid that there may be some problem in one or more of my components that will create another problem with other components, thus if I only replace one of the faulty components the problem will be continued by the faulty component I've failed to change.

This is also my first post, and if I should have posted somewhere else, by all means, please let me know.

I would start with square one. Mobo and cpu intact, HDD and known good CDROM drive.

Troubleshooting system issues is more of having known good parts, so pick the easiest parts that you can replace at hand and working backward. If you have a known good cdrom drive then start there. Copy errors 9 times out of 10 are cdrom errors. If you get the same issue then start replacing the parts you are unsure about. It's really all about eliminiating the unknowns or the deltas ("changes" in layman's terms).

Work methodically and carefully, and ye shall be rewarded.

I have no personal experience with those parts and chances are no one that will answer will have thse exact parts so it's up to you to do the work.

Also make sure that you have the mobo settings at the lowest, try the slowest settings for everything and increase the speed one step at a time, that way if it's a problem between the mobo and our memory you'll know right away.

Hope that helps.

peace

We have a hardware forum.

This sounds like classic faulty memory to me, in fact I recently went through the same issues.
Try a docmem floppy disc, or even see if a knoppix live distribution will load properly into memory, if it doesn't then you have removed the HDD from the equation.

Although it sounds like memory to me.

Is your ram one 512 stick or two 256 chips.
I've herd of problems using only one stick of 3200 ram.
Although I am thinking that may only have to do with duel channel ram on 800 MHz FSB boards.

If you can I would reccomend trying a different cd drive. It sounds like it is either the cd drive or as others have said the memory, but it's quite a bit easier and cheaper to start narrowing down the problem with the cd drive.
Hopefully that helps.

Soda may have reason. I have one machine with crap PC3200 sticks (not sure if it is your problem) and sometimes it was hanging on certain operations.
try this:

- Be sure that driver pack (you have d/l'ed it from manufacturer website, right?) is good. redownload it for sure.
- Go to bios and put your memory on 333.
- if you have your xp perfomance settings to "system cache" turn back to default one "applications"
- try again
- I had some problems with ATI drivers, in special with A/V and memory sticks. Also, anti-spyware (webroot) open several prompts due the fact that ATI install some software on "auto-load" Windows config. If you dont pay attention, install looks to "hang" but its just waiting your answer on other screen,

I think that it may be the CD drive, because I get varying resopnces from the computer when I have the same settings. Message one, is that Setup cannot copy files, message two is when it tries to boot up the CD-ROM it says, "NTLDR is missing". I took the liberty of taking the CD-ROM apart and wiping the laser with a Q-tip. I know you're not supposed to do this, but it's always worked on portable CD players for me. Right now my HDD is formatting, so I guess we'll just have to wait. Thanks for the responces everyone:)

I talked with ultra technitions today, they had me download, a memory test from www.MEMTEST86.com I ran the test and it appears that my memory is bad. I thought this was a great tool to have.