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seahorser

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    XP Pro x86

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  1. Of course. I simply write a good alternative solution for people having similar major issues with crappy bios. If I post that workaround in another thread alone, no one is going to find it as a solution to USB connected to motherboard with bugged bios and WinSetupFromUSB can't do it this time.
  2. I was find the fastest method possible that work on all computers both old, new and with bugged BIOS. I copy I386 to the root of hard disk's active partition (usually a second hard disk in the active partition that will be any partition, not only the first one.) Delete \ntldr form that partition (the partition which now has the i386 folder). If \ntldr is hidden, read only etc., attrib -R -S -H \ntldr then delete it or use the Total Commander or any other orthodox file manager On TC the Ctrl-T make a new tab, Ctrl-W to close a tab, Tab goes to other panel, Numeric +/- makes a set selection/deselection, * makes the selected one deselected, and the deselected selected, Insert selects/deselects a file or folder, Alt-left arrow to go back in history, Alt-right arrow to go forward in history, hidden file view Configuration->Options->Display, side by side compare by content two files or two folders eg. a backup copy and the working one. Ctrl-PageDown to go inside the ms packed two character and a bottom line extension like .ex_, .iso, .cab, .zip, .7z etc. by iso.wcx and Total7zip.wcx plugins which without TC to see them I have to call expand.exe on two separete folders for one file and for the other which had to work. Ctrl-D for folder bookmarks, separate editor with F4, internal TC file associations and many more copy \i386\setupldr.bin ..\ntldr copy \i386\ntdetect.com .. So on the root I now have setupldr.bin renamed as ntldr and ntdetect.com Inside \i386\txtsetup.sif replace the line [SetupData] as: [SetupData] BootPath = "\I386\" SetupSourceDevice = "\GLOBAL??\C:" and save it. copy \i386\txtsetup.sif .. So now on the root I have the modded txtsetup.sif Connect that hard disk to the computer which the real setup will take place and boot from it. P.S. The second hard disk should have at that partition boot record as NTLDR (the Process PBR button on bootice tool and press Install/Config button if needed). The MBR on that hard disk should be Windows NT 5.x/6.x at which the bootice came handy because I was used a backup taken place earlier of the MBR and any PBRs to revert that disk to the previous state. (\ is the root of the drive)
  3. Unpack wmp11 with 7zip and run wmfdist11.exe The mtppk12.exe (Media Transfer Protocol Porting Kit) and Microsoft MTP Device Driver 1.0.0.0 for XP cab are bs in my case.
  4. Since I came from the XP where there is no roaming folder inside the appdata or LOCALAPPDATA variable (eg. the set console command (cmd) indicates that appdata points to C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data), now it's clear why they had to change that. It must be cache data that had different usage from the user settings. Probably XP wasn't able handle cache/user data that efficient on true roaming profiles which reside on a server. Wonder why they don't see that at the XP era. Anyway the overwhelming majority don't use domain server and roaming profiles.
  5. I don't have roaming profiles but on a new user which belongs to administrators group, the AppData goes to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming. I think that it should be C:\Users\username\AppData\Local Which system settings affect that? Which one is the correct?
  6. Dear Wunderbar98 where I download the libpng dos binary? I download some files from http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html but I only find some source code for linux etc. and nothing like the dos .com or .exe executables.
  7. winnt32.exe /unattend:[file produced by nlite, which shows partition selection in text mode setup when run from usb] and selecting the directory which will windows will install later etc. options from winnt32 wizard ends-up with the usual folders $WIN_NT$.~LS and $WIN_NT$.~BT. Then I modify the \$WIN_NT$.~BT\winnt.sif to include the [Unattended] and other sections which winnt32 removes from my original winnt.sif. I have Autopartition="0" flag at all times in [data] section. When the computer begin the text mode phase, it continue to install windows in C drive without to show any question or the text partition manager screen with the modify winnt.sif while by the originally made winnt.sif by winnt32.exe it show that screen but that file lacks all other options of my nlited unattend file. Is there a combination of settings which ignores the Autopartition="0" and bypass that screen, or, how to enable disk partition menu to show when text mode setup begins from $WIN_NT$.~LS and $WIN_NT$.~BT temporary hard disk folders?
  8. I didn't say otherwise! It was revert to UP. BIOS reported one processor on any clean XP 2003 etc. installation I was trying, so both Device Manager and Task Manager shows what they think they find. Also I was try to force install the MP HAL (also try all the other options it has that menu) using F5 key on a new XP setup, but again windows shows one core. The problem solved by reloading the BIOS default settings (although the settings are the same). PS. Some years ago I was see the following peculiar problem: The PC doesn't POST and doesn't boot. Believing that the GPU had fail (from my previous experience with PCs I was thinking the capacitor plague issue), I replace it with another GPU and the PC POST/boot as usual. I then replace the new GPU with the old GPU and the PC, again, doesn't POST or boot. I was try many times add/remove memory DIMMs, changing PSU, keyboad etc. The PC by no god wasn't able to POST/boot with the old GPU. Then with the new GPU I reflash the BIOS from pure DOS. Then I install the old GPU again and the PC POST/boot as should be! Maybe that was the time it revert to UP, don't really know. Now I have the new GPU which is faster laying around because the old is fanless (although I had a small fan to keep it cooler in summer times).
  9. If it is exists and it isn't something else, like BIOS rootkit which control the other core individually from the OS by side channel, it must be hidden. There isn't any setting like this anywhere in the BIOS tabs. I can take pictures of the BIOS if you don't believe me.
  10. Problem solved by reload default BIOS settings (F9 in this m/b) and suddenly 2 processors appear in device manager. The previous BIOS settings and the "new" reloaded defaults are the same as I double check them before and after!!! Another mysterious aspect is that before the reload to defaults action, I had try to change the NoExecute memory protection and the Enhanced Halt State to Enable but then the XP stays forever in a blank screen so I have to press the hardware reset button. XP detect the reset and they boot to safe mode just fine, but then they won't boot to normal mode as long as BIOS NoExecute memory protection and Enhanced Halt State settings are enable. When I set them to disable XP boot as always with one processor available. Probably ACPI BIOS got "corrupted" as described by Mark Shuttleworth at wikipedia's ACPI article. Now with ACPI multiprocessor PC in the computer's device manager and the two performance columns in the task manager, wPrime benchmark needs half the time to finish when wPrime advanced settings is set to 2 threads. It even boot whatever the setting I have at NoExecute memory protection and Enhanced Halt State. After 4 days of waste research the conclusion is that the defaults BIOS values are not internally equal as those I had seen on the screen, although they appear the same.
  11. Msconfig shows one CPU and the numproc value isn't in use (none of the options is in use). In fact I never use Msconfig. Occasionally I use autoruns. Also the new test installations I was saying in my first post didn't have any chance to run msconfig. This motherboard BIOS doesn't have the OS compatibility setting which had earlier motherboards. What you mean by reset the BIOS? Load default values or re-flash it again with the same BIOS version? If is that the case, that should mean that a very sophisticate BIOS level firmware is sitting there...
  12. Device manager shows one processor. The CPU is Core 2 Duo. I don't think my BIOS has the ability to disable cores. BIOS has: Enhanced Halt State, Intel virtualization tech, CPU thermal throttling, Intel speedstep tech, No execute memory protection, Intel C-STATE options. I have try some combinations with enable and disable settings but windows still shows one processor on the Device Manager, whatever the Computer is ACPI multiprocessor PC or ACPI uniprocessor PC.
  13. On the performance tab I remember that I see how many cores a CPU had by separate "CPU Usage History" columns (one graph for each core). Also on the View menu there is an item called "CPU History"->One Graph Per CPU. My old XP and any new installations I make for that matter, even with different Hardware Abstraction Layer than ACPI (by pressing the F5 key early at text mode setup), all show one graph at CPU Usage History where my CPU isn't a single core CPU. How I get Task Manager like this ? PS. I feel that I'm going loose on my memory :(
  14. From my first post all this time I experience sudden lockups, freezes and reboots. Several times windows setup tell that "some xxxx line in txtsetup.sif is invalid", grub4dos dies after recognize usb etc. The same UFD with exactly the same files, sometimes boots to windows setup and others freeze etc on this old BIOS. When I remove some stuff using nlite it may go to the famous 7b error, but it never arrive to the screen which shows disk/partitions to choose for the installation to continue. It is not a hard disk controller driver issue either because the disk is IDE. To investigate further after usb --init I chainload to DOS IO.SYS. This time grub4dos provides me with D drive which is the UFD. Nor the DOS setup (winnt.exe), neither a simple copy of the UFD I386 folder to the internal IDE disk came with success. DOS copy reboot after it copies some 200MB of files. With debug 3 in the winsetup.lst I had found that grub4dos throws some warnings on find and geometry commands "MBR cylinders(xxxxx) is not equal to the BIOS one(xxxx). MBR total sectors(xxxxxxxxx) is greater that the BIOS one (xxxxxxxx). Some buggy BIOSes could hang when you access sectors exceeding the BIOS limit. Initial estimation blah-blah-blah, err=1 blah-blah" for the UFD, but it throws err=0 for the internal IDE. That same UFD throws err=0 on another newer PC at which both WinSetupFromUSB and the Rufus work fine to the end of the windows setup. Do you believe the "second thought" approach could work in my case?
  15. I don't know at which UFD format scheme you refer to. My current UFD format is made from fbinst from within WinSetupFromUSB 1.9 using as format options chs zip force and import the grldr to the primary data area and also copied to the root of the UFD. I boot straight to grub4dos without any menus or scripts. Find command give me a list of: (ud) (fd0) (fd0,0) (hd0,0) (hd0,1) (hd0,2) (hd0,3) , map ( and TAB give me fd0 hd0 rd ud. geometry (fd0): drive 0x00(CHS): C/H/S=370/255/63, Sector Count/Size=5944050/512 partition num: 0, active, Filesystem type is fat32, partition type 0x0C Filesystem type is fb, using whole disk geometry (hd0): drive 0x80(LBA): C/H/S=38913/255/63, Sector count/Size 625137345/512 partition num: 0, active, NTFS, 0x07 partition num: 1, NTFS, 0x07 partition num: 2, NTFS, 0x07 partition num: 3, FAT32, 0x0C geometry (hd1): Error 21 selected disk does not exist geometry (hd2): Error 21 selected disk does not exist map (fd0) (hd1): floppies_orig=1, harddrives_orig=1, floppies_curr=1, harddrives_curr=2 map --floppies=0 map --harddrives=2 map --hook (no output) usb --init: Found 1 USB devices. Device Num: 0x82; { Now, form that point on (because of usb --init), geometry (fd0) reports the same numbers as above (drive 0x00(CHS): C/H/S=370/255/63, Sector Count/Size=5944050/512) Error 25 Disk read error. geometry (hd1) now reports Error 21 selected disk does not exist } geometry (hd0): the same as above drive 0x80(LBA) etc. geometry (hd2): drive 0x82(LBA) C/H/S=7539/255/63 sector count / size 121101568/512 partition num: 0, active, fat32, 0x0C find --set-root /WINSETUP/XPpSP3.ISO: (hd2,0) root: (hd2,0) Filesystem type is fat32, partition type 0x0C ls /WINSETUP/XPpSP3.ISO: XPpSP3.ISO map --mem /WINSETUP/XPpSP3.ISO (0xff) map --rehook root (0xff): Filesystem type is iso9660, using whole disk Volume Name is: "XPpSP3". root: (0xff) Filesystem type is iso9660, using whole disk Volume Name is: "XPpSP3". chainloader /I386/SETUPLDR.BIN: Will boot NTLDR from drive=0xff, partition=0xff(hidden sectors=0x0) boot: The system encountered an I/O error accessing multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1) Setup cannot continue. Press any key to exit. That error indicate I have to edit txtsetup.sif inside XPpSP3.ISO and change the rdisk(1) to rdisk(2). Then setup goes well until it is freeze on Mylex EXR2000 SCSI atapter. Again I remove all Mylex EXR2000 and dac2w2k entries from txtsetup.sif as I don't have any SCSI adapter. This time setup freeze at Kernel Security Provider.
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