I am unable to install windows to my Athlon XP/Gigabyte GA-7DX+ system

I have the following hardware:

Gigabyte GA-7DX+ motherboard
AWARD Modular BIOS v6.00PG 05/22/2002 GA-7DX+ 6A656G0CC-00
AMD Athlon XP 1800+ processor
256MB DDR 2100 RAM
300W power suppy
Creative Lab Blaster Banshee AGP video adapter
32x12x40x CD-RW
18G Western Digital Caviar 172AA hard drive

I am able to partition and format the hard drive. I am able to boot with

Windows 98 from the A: drive (with CD-ROM driver installed), but unable to

install Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000, or Windows XP professional from the

CD-ROM.

With Windows XP, the system hangs during the text-portion of the installation

and gives me the error message:

"File setupdd.sys could not be loaded. The error code is 4"

With Windows 98 SE, the system hangs during the text-portion of the

installation and get the following error message:

"Copying files needed for windows setup"
then....
"Standard mode: Bad fault in the MS-DOS extender. Fault: 000D Stack Dump: 0000

0000 0070 Raw fault frame: EC=0000 IP=5EF7 CS=03AF FL=3087 SP=FF4E SS=030F"

With Windows 2000 professional, the system hangs during the text-portion of the

windows 2000 installation and gives the following error message:

*** STOP: 0x000000A5 (0x00000011,0x00000007,0xF40C00C0,0x0100000C)
The ACPI BIOS in this system is not fully compliant with the ACPI

specifications.

This seems odd because the motherboard is reportedly ACPI compliant.

Any suggestions?

hi Michael..

i had the same prob with winXP CD
i don't think its a hardware prob but since its AMD you have to cheack CPU temp and CD drive.
reformat you'r hard drive and make sure you foramt it the right way
{
1- if you want to Partitioned use fdisk.
2- you must restart after fdisk.
3- you must format (a normal format without '\q') all partitions after restartting your system.
}

i think the problem is in you CD, if there is some scratches try to get another CD, if there is no scratches then cleanup the CD
when i had the same prob. i leaved it down for a while.

and about the ACPI thing

"ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) is an open industry specification co-developed by Compaq, Intel, Microsoft, Phoenix, and Toshiba.

ACPI establishes industry-standard interfaces for OS-directed configuration and power management on laptops, desktops, and servers.

ACPI evolves the existing collection of power management BIOS code, Advanced Power Management (APM) application programming interfaces (APIs, PNPBIOS APIs, Multiprocessor Specification (MPS) tables and so on into a well-defined power management and configuration interface specification.

The specification enables new power management technology to evolve independently in operating systems and hardware while ensuring that they continue to work together."

**from http://www.acpi.info/index.html**
**i thing you have to cheack bios settings**

You're not overclocking your system are you? I've had problems installing Windows before while OC'd.

upgrade your PSU... amd xp's need the extra juice... oh, and stick to a reputable company (i.e: enermax, antec, pc power & cooling, etc)...

I had the same problem and found out was the memory you need to match whatever memory your system board supports. In my case I was using DDR pc2100 and I only can use:
Two 184-pin 2.5V DDR SDRAM (DDR266/DDR200) or
Two 168-pin 3.3V SDRAM (PC133/PC100)
I hope this can help you!!!

I am running an update on this due to the fact that this was the one helpful page that google pulled up:

I had the same setupdd.sys error when installing XP on a system of mine. Changing the memory fixed it. The odd thing was, the memory I had in there was working and at spec.

Just had the same error with Windows XP and I took one Memory out of two and the installation continued.

With an Athlon XP processor, I would recommend at least a 400 watt power supply to run everything. That might fix the problem. Hope it helps.

Shane

Hi, I just had the same setupdd.sys problem (with XP Pro) and I must admit the above mentioned letters helped tremedously! Thanks to everyone that contributed. However, my problem was linked to a bad cd-rom. I went with swapping it first---since it seemed to drag out booting from it in the first place. I swapped it with a known good drive and the install flew. My hardware: memory (256 sd), 200 watt power supply, XP 2000 processor, and a seagate hd. XP just finished installing from the cd I first recieved the error from. I hope this helps someone.

EPoX 8K5A2+
Athlon XP 1700+
512MB Crucial PC2700 333MHz DDR RAM
(2) Maxtor ATA133 40GB HDD's (RAID)
(1) IBM ATA100 20GB HDD (RAID)
64MB GeForce2 MX400
DVD-ROM
CDRW
300W Power Supply (El Cheapo)

all that running on a 300w p/s... not one problem whatsoever... 300w is enuf for an athlon xp processor

seems alot of people are having problems with gigabyte boards too, and seems there is terrible tech support... so my advice.. stay away from them ;-)

Having the exact same problem with an Asus A7N8X. This is after I swapped out a Gigabyte 7VAXP. I'm starting to lean toward the memory. Being that this is a common problem, has anyone seen a definitive solution to this?

File setupdd.sys could not be loaded
The error code is 4
Press any key to exit.

This is usually RAM related while trying to re-install XP Pro/Home after the PC crash's for no apparent reason & you just cannot get any operating system back on, it even gives problems if you try to sneekily, bypass this, by thinking you will be clever by putting another hard drive in your system & install onto that, forget it same problem. It also gives differing errors when you try to get around it by re-installing
W2K/W2K Server & 98,

BUT & its a big BUT its not guaranteed to be RAM related
.
You can try the following walk through but start by changing the RAM first of all which could save you a lot of time if changing the RAM solves the problem, however if it do's not then you have no option but to follow the following exhaustive checks to find the offending culprit.
I got the above error 1 week outside of the computers warrenty so I was gutted, mine was the RAM,

Here it is try changing your RAM first if it still gives the error then try the following:

Remove everything that is installed or connected to your computer so the only things remaining in the case are:

Motherboard, processor, and cooling fan
Graphics card
One stick of RAM
One hard drive
One CD ROM drive

That's it. No sound card, no network interface card, no modem, no extra hard drives or CD ROM drives. Especially important is not to have more than one memory stick, and it should be a minimum of 128MB. Connect up the monitor, the keyboard and the mouse and power up the machine. Go into the BIOS settings and look for a setting for the basic BIOS default configuration. Select it, then make sure that if you're booting from a CD ROM that the CD drive is the first boot device.

Reboot and let the installation process begin. I haven't kept track of numbers, but in the vast majority of cases the installation was completed with no problem. Once you have the basic operating system in place it's a simple matter to start adding back in the extra memory, drives, and devices that were stripped out initially.

A FINAL TIP. I know it's tempting to add everything else back in at once after a successful install. DONT DO IT. Something was causing a problem initially or you wouldn't be using this procedure. Add the pieces back one memory stick, one hard drive, one network interface card at a time and test the system for proper operation after each addition.

I had a similar message from an Abit XG7-RAID that had a fully installed and working Win2k installation,
STOP 0x000000A5 (0x00000011, 0x00000007, 0xEB8680C0, 0x0100000C) , after installing a drive cage. The cage was catching the DIMMs and I didn't install it. When I started the system I got this stop message.

I reseated the DIMMs, removed and reinserted, and when I restarted the problem had gone.

Definitely 1 vote for RAM related......

You MUST disable virus protection within the bios for windows to install, or reinstall, as this virus protection does not enable writes to the MBR in your harddrive, and you will get the File setupdd.sys could not be loaded. The error code is 4" errors as you stated, it's as simple as changing your bios into fail safe mode, installing windows, then reverting back to performance mode afterwards, I hope this helped someone, I had the same problems for a while, then I figured it out.

Yes! A very helpful thread.

Although I'll probably never know the reason for the original crash of my original HDD, being vexed by the same setuppdd.sys error 4 didn't improve the dent in my head as I attempted to install XP Pro to a new Western Digital HDD.

After reading this thread, I removed all extraneous PIC cards, the CDRW, and replaced the new memory with the old. XP Pro installed smoothly and the new memory, CDRW, and PCI cards were all accepted (one at a time) by the system and it is now running smoothly.

Thanks!

I had the same problem, and it was ram related. But I didn't have to replace the ram, instead I just slowed it down from 200Mhz or whatever down to 100Mhz, and then XP installed fine.

Also, when I disabled my level 1 cpu cache, the installer hung on loading the kernel debugger file.

I'm using an ASUS motherboard with an AMD processor and PC3200 ram. XP's running fine now.

I also got such a problem when i am trying to re-stall xp pro to my computer.And my computer :
amd xp 2000+
gigabyte 7vac
ddr 333 kingston
60g harddisk seagate
I can't decide whether it's a hardware problem.
Since there are two system in my computer
one is win xp,and the other one is linux 9.0
I even can not start my linux and restall it too.

I removed one of my ram.The system was installed smoothly.But
when I wanted to add the other stick of my rams,some error happens.
stop :0x0000007E(0xC0000005,0xF84A454C,0xF894D3D8,0xF89D1D8)
I wondered whether my ram was damaged.

you guys are great!!!!!!!!!!! this solved my(or should i say my dads but i created it)problem. Have now installed xp, and finally got a partition with 98 on it. again thanx 2 u guys. It was the guy who suggested the fail safe option in the bios that hit the nail on the head. Thanx dude!!!!

Hte problem is the frecuenci whit the memori works whit the motherboard... I have this problems tow times una whit a sys motherboard and the solution was to setup the bios whit safe values... and then it install XP correctly and the second time whit a Ipaq Compaq Pentium III this motherboard don't have safe values.. then I change the memori for works exactly whit the delaer espesify... and it work good.. I discober it makind the test memory..then fail.. works good whit win'98 .. but no whit XP...