[johnboy1998]

yes i have tried this but still nothing happens the cdrom drive works to boot xp but as i said crashes with a cd within xp the cdrw never works from boot or the dvd drive

thanks

[johnboy1998]

yes phil downloaded it is preactivated

thanks

[philthomas]

Originally Posted by johnboy1998 yes phil downloaded it is preactivated thanks

Well that's probably why you have problems then.
Lots of the stuff on torrents etc. contains malware/spyware etc. and has been tampered with and cracked, by removing various system files.

To be honest ..... dont waste your time with them, unless you want the type of headaches you're getting.
Not only that, they are illegal and it's against forum rules to discuss in any way.

If you have a genuine copy of XP, we can try to help you install this, if you wish.

[johnboy1998]

hi phil yes i agree with you to be honest just wanted to see what difference directx10 would make not worth the money i think my xp is genuine though got the key and everything.

so do you think a fresh install of xp would work but it wont boot from the dvd drive would just have to use the cdrom drive and hope it doesnt play up

thanks

[philthomas]

Unless the DVD Drive is faulty, there's no reason why it shouldn't boot from the XP CD, as all XP Installation disks are bootable.
It should just be a case of inserting the disk and restarting the PC, assuming your boot sequence in bios is set correctly.

Then use the XP installation wizard to overwrite the Vista partition and do a format and clean install

[johnboy1998]

so maybe the dvd drive is broken and the cdrom drives are just old as i havent used them for ages talking two years.

i will try the fresh install with the dvd drive again if it dont work i will just not bother with the fresh install and just save for a new dvd drive but think i will get a sata one

so do you think this is the best solution just now thanks again been a great help

[johnboy1998]

sorry just want to say i have already got xp installed at the moment so it would just be an xp partition that i would delete as you mentioned a vista partition i presume you meant xp

thanks

[johnboy1998]

hi again

defo wont boot from the dvd, looks like i will just get a new writer, serves me right i suppose

cheeers again

[philthomas]

Well .... if it won't boot from the XP Installation disk, it is likely due to 3 possible reasons :

1. A damaged or faulty XP Disk

2. A damaged or faulty DVD/CD drive

3. Incorrect boot drive sequence settings in bios

[johnboy1998]

hi again

just a wee update, i tried my cd-rw drive today and it worked so i thought maybe i would try the dvd/rw but still didnt work put the cd/rw in again now that wont work!

Could this be a registry problem then and if yes will a new windows installation sort this. (reason i say this is thats the only thing i done before trying the cd-rw was use a reg cleaner)

going to save for a sata dvd writer and dont want to do a fresh windows install so just worried it might be a problem with something else

thanks again