Haviong problems installing software on computer I built

I have built a new computer but I am having trouble installing anything on it. The system consists of a DFI LANparty nforce3 250gb mother board with intagrated sound, 10/100/1000 lan, an AMD athlon 64 2800+ processor, 512mb kingston pc2700 ram, BFG AGP nvidia 5500 overclocked (overclocked from factory) video card with 128mb ramdac memory, 40gb maxtor HD (ata 133) (set as slave on primary IDE), 52X cd-rw (set as master on primary IDE), and floppy drive, powered by a 420 watt power supply in mid tower case.

The main problem that I am having is during the inital install of windows (98se) the computer does fine up untill the time it starts to finish setting up plug and play harware then it will almost always develope a fatal program error (blue screen of death) and shut down. After restart it will sometimes make it through the install, but after making it through install if I attempt to install any drivers such as a video card driver or attempt to install the upgrade to windows XP the computer will again develope a program error and shut off the install. After attempting to install the drivers or other programs several times windows will begin to develope errors as though it is loosing system files (DLL), and the system will crash. After the system crash the only solution I can find is to format the entire hard drive and start over.

At first I thought the problem was with the hard drive but I took the hard drive and placed it in My other machine which is an intel P4 2.4, on a soyo mother board (VIA chipset), with about the same other devices (Video, audio, lan, CD-ROM, and floppy) being about the same as the AMD macine. After placing the harddrive in my other maching I configured it so that I was able to boot from the new machine. At this time I formated the drive installed windows 98se, and windows xp upgrade. The P4 machine runs fine so I figured the hard drive was fine. (I also checked with scan disk, found no errors, file or surface).

As a note, when the new hard drive was placed into the P4 machine the original operating system, windows 98se was still on the hard drive, and when the P4 machine attempted to boot from it the same missing file error came up.

Another problem that I thought may be is that the cmos setting may be wrong, bu I don't know enough about the AMD processor to know what is right.

This question was answered on January 17, 2005. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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Installing Optional Software on CFS

| 1 Introduction | 2 Components necessary for using CFS optional software | 3 The CFS Client Software Installer for private CFS clients | 4 Installing Optional Software on open access CFS clients using the Installable Software Directory | 5 Installing Optional Software on private CFS clients using the Advertised Programs Wizard | 6 Troubleshooting |

1 Introduction

Two methods are available for installing optional software on CFS clients; the method used depends on the type of CFS client you are using.

Open Access CFS clients

Users of open access CFS clients in Computer User Areas must use the Installable software directory method to install any optional software that they require, see Section 4 below

Private CFS clients

Users of private CFS clients should use the Advertised Programs Wizard method to install any optional software that they require The "Installable software directory" method may also be used but the Advertised Programs Wizard has the advantage of not requiring any intervention by the local administrator of the CFS client concerned, see Section 5 below

2 Components necessary for using CFS optional software

Optional software for the CFS service requires three components to be present before it can be used:

1 A Server Component

This consists of files that are made available by the Computer Centre and are stored centrally on the CFS software volumes The files concerned are configured as read-only and as such may be accessed simultaneously by many users

2 A Client Component

This is a combination of files and settings that must be installed locally on the computer configured as a CFS client before the CFS software concerned may be used Note: All of the Client Components available at the start of a session are installed on open-access CFS clients in Computer User Areas

3 A User Component

This comprises files and settings that must be installed by the individual in order to use the CFS software concerned

3 The CFS Client Software Installer for private CFS clients

The local administrator of a private CFS client should use the CFS Client Software Installer to install the Client Component necessary for optional CFS software This program may also be used by any CFS user to check if a particlular Client Component has already been installed on a machine Proceed as follows:

1 To access the CFS Client Software Installer you must first perform the following mappings to the Y:drive:

Right click on the My Network Places icon on the Desktop and select the Map Network Drive option

Select Y: from the drop-down menu in the drive box

Type \\cfs.le.ac.uk\root\software in the folder box

Ensure that the Reconnect at logon box is unchecked

Follow the Connect using a different user name link, enter a valid CFS username (as cfs\<username>) and password, and click on OK

Select Finish

2 To run the CFS Client Software Installer program (to either install or check components installed):

Log on to the CFS client as the local administrator if you wish to install a Client Component (If you wish to check the components already installed on the CFS client you can do this from any CFS account.)

Right click on the "My Computer" icon on the Desktop and select the Open option

Select the drive Software on 'cfs.le.ac.uk\Root' (Y:) (If this drive is not available you will have to perform the necessary mappings, see above.)

Next navigate to, and open, the Client Installers folder

Double-click on the CFS Client Software Installer.EXE icon within this folder Instructions for using the program are displayed

Note: On private CFS machines the Client Component need only be installed once by the local administrator for each piece of software After the Client Component has been installed on a machine any user may then install the necessary User Component and run the software concerned on that machine.

4 Installing Optional Software on open access CFS clients using the Installable Software Directory

Before you can use any optional software on an open access CFS client the User Component for the software must first be installed (Note: The Client Components for the optional software available at the start of a session have already been installed on open access CFS clients in Computer User Areas.) You must use the Installable software directory to install the User Component as follows:

Log on to CFS

Click on the Start button on the Taskbar and select the Programs option

Select the Installable software option and a window is displayed showing three folders called Central Software, Departmental Software and Old Versions

To locate the software required right-click on the Installable software folder in the top of the left hand pane and then select the Search option Or, if you know the location of the software you wish to install you can navigate directly to the required folder

Then double-click on the icon for the software to be installed

When the "installer" has completed a shortcut to the software is usually placed in your Programs folder This folder is accessed from the Start Menu and the shortcut may be used to initiate the software.

NOTE: In some cases you will not be able to install software from the folders in "Departmental Software" unless you are a member of that department If this is the case an "Access Denied" is displayed.

5 Installing Optional Software on private CFS clients using the Advertised Programs Wizard

The Advertised Programs Wizard should be used to install optional software on private CFS clients If this program wizard is installed and activated on a private CFS client an Install CFS Software icon is available from the Start Menu:

If the Install CFS Software icon is not present first check it is not hidden by clicking on the if this is present If still not listed then contact the Computer Centre Help Service (email: [email protected], tel: 2253) with your details and please include the name of the CFS client (machine) e.g DD-NT23.

To initiate the wizard click once on the Install CFS Software icon and then proceed through the screens displayed until you reach the program selection screen This will list the programs available for installation (Note, programs in bold have been added or modified since the last time the wizard was run on the CFS client in use.) Select the software you wish to install by selecting the appropriate check box.

To help locate the software in the list displayed click on the icon shown below on the right:

Next click on Name in the title bar to sort the list of software in alphabetical order:

Select the software you require and proceed to the next screen where you will be presented with the option to schedule the program installation for a time of your choosing or you may run the installation immediately.

Finally you will be provided with a brief summary of the software you have selected Click on Finish to set the installation (or schedule) in motion.

If the program being installed requires a machine reboot, or requires the currently logged on user to logoff, you will see a warning message at the start of the installation.

At the end of the installation there is a message which shows a countdown to the CFS client being automatically restarted, with an option to cancel It is recommended that you do not cancel this action, but if you must it is advised that you logoff/reboot, whichever is required, as soon as is practicable.

The Advertised Programs Wizard has two icons that it may display in the System Tray (usually located on the right of the Taskbar at the bottom of your screen.)

This icon indicates that there are new or modified programs available, click on this icon to open the Advertised Programs Wizard.

This icon indicates that the Advertised Programs Manager is currently running a program on the client.

6 Troubleshooting

Question: When I run an installer from the Installable Software directory I get the message "System Software Not Present".

Answer: The Client Component for the software is not installed; follow the instructions in Section 3, Using the CFS Client Software Installer.

Question: I have set up a CFS application on my CFS client but it doesn't work when I move to another machine.

Answer: It could be that the other machine has not had the Client Component for that software installed, use the CFS Client Software Installer to check which Client Components are installed on the machine (NOTE: You do not need to be an administrator to check which components are installed.)

Question: I have set up a CFS application on my client and it has been working well for some time, however I recently ran the CFS Client Software Installer and the application no longer works.

Answer: You may have installed a later version of the application It is not uncommon for different versions of the same application to conflict with one another Use the CFS Client Software Installer to check which version of the application Client Component is installed on the machine and compare this with the version of the software accessed from the Start button (NOTE: You do not need to be administrator to check which components are installed.)

About the author

Posted by cristina of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on January 17, 2005

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