WinXP upgrade disaster

caleb · Post by **caleb** » Fri May 14, 2004 7:09 pm

Hi all,

I recently upgraded my Win98SE to WinXP Home because I was thinking of purchasing Sonar3 which can't run on Win98.

The upgrade was a breeze in most senses except probably the most important - my Scope and PulsarII cards.

During the upgrade it did warn me that there might be troubles with these cards. However, I noticed that many other users were getting success with their cards and WinXP so I (probably quite stupidly) ignored the warnings and went ahead.

Surprise, surprise - the system now does not recognise the cards.

I downloaded and activated Scope 4 and installed the latest drivers for WinXP/2000. After the required reboot I get the message...

"Hardware version 30 detected. This hardware requires a software update. Please consult the installation guide"

When I hit OK I get...

"Cannot start CreamWare Installer (error code 0004)."

I tried changing from ACPI to Standard PC and I also updated to the latest ASPI from the Adaptec site. It hasn't helped.

Everytime I reboot or startup the Scope 4 installer it gives me this message.

Has anyone seen this before?
Anyone have some suggestions?

If you need more info from me to assess this just let me know and I'll track down the specifics of my system.

Any help would be appreciated as I can no longer use my soundcards.

Post by **garyb** » Fri May 14, 2004 7:20 pm

reinstall the driver from the device manager is all i can think of. the xp driver certainly works. the symptoms you describe sound like your computer still has the 98se drivers installed.

caleb · Post by **caleb** » Fri May 14, 2004 9:50 pm

Thanks - Updated the drivers pointing to the drivers in the Scope 4 package under Win2K and everything copied across as expected.

However, after the reboot I still received the same errors.

Just some additional information - there are no hardward conflicts in the device manager and it tells me that the device is working properly and it's enabled.

Is this a BIOS issue do you think?
I've never really tinkered with the BIOS so if it is I wouldn't mind some expert advice.

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Fri May 14, 2004 11:44 pm

This is perhaps not the answer you want to hear, but it is the best: DO EVERYTHING AGAIN! I strongly recomend in such a case, to reformat your C drive installing XP directly, not as an upgrade. I have XP with XPlite and my system is faster than lighting... don't be desapointed, just do in from zero, please, follow this advice, you'll save many, many hours of wasted time and lots and lots of bad feelings...

caleb · Post by **caleb** » Sat May 15, 2004 12:39 am

Hmmm - starting again is indeed extremely painful.

However, I'd rather go through the pain than not have my sound cards operational.

I think I'll give it a try. Thanks Nestor.

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Sat May 15, 2004 5:45 am

Caleb, you did an upgrade and not a new install (format c: etc)? For something specialised like SFP, I recommend a new install. I have Scope4 running alongside SFP3.1c with a bare bones stripped down XP install over here. Running stable and smooth (no ACPI and "Standard PC" config).

caleb · Post by **caleb** » Sat May 15, 2004 7:01 am

Fresh install unfortunately did not solve my problem.

I couldn't even perform a format c:
I did a fresh install both on c drive and e drive neither of them working.

Same errors occurred.

There's always the option of removing the cards all together and then putting them back in again, but I think I'd just rather reinstall Win98SE and all my software and kiss WinXP and Sonar3 goodbye until I buy a new computer.

krizrox · Post by **krizrox** » Sat May 15, 2004 7:03 am

Yeah I agree. Wipe your OS partition clean first (format it) and then install XP into the clean partition. You shouldn't have to install 98 first - simply insert the XP disk and at some point it should ask you to insert the verifying product (98) into your CD drive. Then put the XP disk back in and continue. That will give you a nice clean install. I might also suggest you use Norton Ghost to backup your installation. Back it up right after the initial install and then again after all the tweaks (get the thing registered before you do that).

Good luck

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Sat May 15, 2004 7:32 am

On 2004-05-15 08:01, caleb wrote:

Fresh install unfortunately did not solve my problem.

I couldn't even perform a format c:......

Then you haven't performed a fresh install. A fresh install is when you completely wipe the C: drive. I wouldn't trust an XP install disk to do anything right! All you need is a 98 startup disk. Find someone with a 98 PC. Goto Start/Settings/Control Panel/Add Remove Programs/Startup Disk/Create Disk
And keep one handy no matter what OS you are going to install including WinXP/Win2000/NT4 etc. Boot up with that in A: and run the command "format c:".

valis · Post by **valis** » Sat May 15, 2004 8:34 am

If you boot from the XP cd you can delete that partition, rebuild it and then format it all from within the initial stages of setup (before you tell it what drive & path to install to). You should only need to repartition the OS/Apps drive.

Imo this is the easiest & best way. This also presumes you made backups of Everything Before The Upgrade (I usually forget something like my ftp database or my emails).

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: valis on 2004-05-15 09:36 ]</font>

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Sat May 15, 2004 11:27 am

This might sound like a daft point to make, so feel free to ignore it, but have you moved your computer in anyway since reinstalling?

Basically the two times I got this error where when the card wasn't quite in the slot properly , and the other time was when my Pulsar I breakout cable wasn't installed.

All I'm saying is just check.

Post by **garyb** » Sat May 15, 2004 12:34 pm

xp is good. don't give up.

zezappa · Post by **zezappa** » Sat May 15, 2004 7:32 pm

Can it be you forgot that Aspi layer thing that's needed with XP?

caleb · Post by **caleb** » Sun May 16, 2004 8:11 am

Thanks for sticking with me guys.

I installed the latest ASPI layer so it wasn't that.

When I said I couldn't format the C drive I meant that it allowed me to formate and then seemed to error right at the end - it was strange - it didn't give me a descriptive error message - just said that it failed.

Moving the computer would have been a great root cause as this error seems strangely hardware related. The drivers are installing properly and when I look them up in the device manager they say they are working correct.

However, when I go into the audio/multimedia panel no audio outputs appear for the volume control. It's like the cards don't exist anymore.

But - truth is, I didn't move the computer even a centimeter through this operation and I unplugged no chords or anything.

It might be worth a try to reinsert the cards and try again, but that's not actually simple and not something I look forward to.

I don't think it's a specific C drive problem because I installed WindowsXP on my other harddrive and got exactly the same errors on a new install (not fresh because I didn't format).

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Sun May 16, 2004 8:25 am

Re format your hard drives completely, after making sure you can boot from CD. Then install XP with no cards in the box. I had exactly this problem on XP upgrade at first. When you have successfully installed XP ( and tweaked for audio ) install your pulsar cards and drivers. Don't give up, XP is so much more stable.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Sun May 16, 2004 8:28 am

Take the cards out and format the drive again. If this works, you have an IRQ conflict.

Post by **garyb** » Sun May 16, 2004 2:33 pm

On 2004-05-16 09:11, caleb wrote:

Thanks for sticking with me guys.
When I said I couldn't format the C drive I meant that it allowed me to formate and then seemed to error right at the end - it was strange - it didn't give me a descriptive error message - just said that it failed.

you can't format C: while booted in windows. use the setup disc as suggested.

However, when I go into the audio/multimedia panel no audio outputs appear for the volume control. It's like the cards don't exist anymore.

i never knew that cw cards would show up there!

It might be worth a try to reinsert the cards and try again, but that's not actually simple and not something I look forward to.

that's not THAT hard!(probably not the problem but maybe worth checking....)

I don't think it's a specific C drive problem because I installed WindowsXP on my other harddrive and got exactly the same errors on a new install (not fresh because I didn't format).

when you installed xp on the other hd, did you install scope fresh there as well? or was the second version of xp reading off the same install as the first(the same driver location as well)

i still suspect that you have the wrong driver installed. second guess, the hardware is not firmly seated. i have done a number of xp installations and other than the warning about the driver not being digitally signed( so what! cwa didn't pay m$ to verify that the driver was written to spec. it works just the same!), there has never been a problem with xp and cw that i have seen. if anything, xp was quicker to get going than '98se in my experience.

caleb · Post by **caleb** » Sun May 16, 2004 5:47 pm

Ok guys.

Will boot from my other harddrive, format the C drive again, take the cards out, reinstall windows, put the cards back in, startup and install the drivers from Scope 4.

Hopefully, everything will work then.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Sun May 16, 2004 9:06 pm

Take the cards out before you format the drive.

caleb · Post by **caleb** » Sun May 16, 2004 11:15 pm

On 2004-05-16 22:06, braincell wrote:
Take the cards out before you format the drive.

OK