WebJunction

Hi-

I just answered almost this same question in another thread, so hear is the same answer:

Your mistake was reinstalling XP and the apps from those CD's. What you should have done was use the 5 Software Upgrade DVD's that should be in that same Software Upgrade binder.

Basically, you boot to the first DVd and follow the instructions to continue with the upgrade. The 5 DVD's take aout 3 hours total to run. When they are done the drive is completely imaged, with Windows, the apps, the profiles and the CG drivers. You shouldn't touch any of the other disks at all - definitely not the Windows XP disk. It doesn't matter what is on the hard drive before hand since it is getting completely copied over.

When you reboot to the hard drive the first time, log in using exec as the user name and exec as the password. From there you need to set up the network and do Windows updates.

Post again if you have any problems doing this.

OK then, the specific thing you are seeing isn't really ringing a bell, but I have a few more questions:

First, which Gateway model is this?
As it boots, before the screen with the 9's, do you see Windows start to load at all?
When you ran the DVD's, did each of them take about 35 - 45 minutes to run?

Another thought, is that although it seems like it's the hard drive, it would be a decent idea to swap the hard drives between the 2 Gates computers, just to make sure this one will boot to a known good drive.

If it's a Gateway e3600, then it isn't really a Gates granted computer, and the restoration disks aren't going to work. All granted computers in IL were E4600's. And that makes sense if you got that same error after trying to use both the XP Upgrade and the original Win2K.

And if it isn't the original granted computer, it isn't technically legal to use that image on it either. If the original died or was given away, you can use the applications, but the OS licensing goes with the original hardware.

Yes, definitely. IL was all E4600's (except for servers of course). I was on the Foundation help desk for the entire time they were under support.

There are certainly ways, though rare, that something could have happened where Gateway replaced the pc under warranty and just gave them the closest thing they had. Does it have the Centurion Guard installed?

And it is possible that if you had a non-E4600 where the hardware was close enough, that the image might boot, but i haven't actually seen or heard of that (though I mostly only hear about the ones that don't work anyway).

I looked the computer up on Gateway's site using the SN. It is listed as a E4600 SE. I found the invoices of the computers when they originally shipped and both computer SN's match the invoice SN's. However, the back of the one computer does have E3600 listed. I am trying to track down whether or not this computer was replaced by Gateway at any point.

I do not see any difference between the two Gates computers. I am not at the library in question, so I cannot see if the model number on the back of the other PC is 3600 or 4600. The cases are identical though.

The hard drive I am using to replace the faulty drive is a 100 GB drive; orignal drives 80 GB.

I did load Windows XP on the replacement hard drive and was able to use the computer with just XP with no problem. So I think the issue is the original hard drive is the problem.

I went ahead deleted the parition and and zeroed the replacement hard drive. I am in the process of reloading now with the DVD's. Although, this is a long shot, it is worth a shot at this point. After all, why would Windows load but not the software with the restoration DVD's? I just figured the DVD's might be a bit touchy, and it was worth a shot.

I'll try swaping hard drives next-

After zeroring the hard drive I was able to successfully reload the software using the back-up DVD's. Not sure why this worked, as it was a new hard drive, but something on the hard drive must have prevented the DVD's from successfully loading.

Say, I was wondering if I could ask you a few more questions about the Gates computers?

Is there a reason I shouldn't join the Gates computers to a Windows domain? Will I be able to schedule a WOL and automatic shutdown with the Centurion guard enabled? Could I install Deep Freeze on the computers and disable the Centurion guard?

Thanks.

Peter

Are you talking about the NCLM from Centurion? If so, I am not sure this will let me remotely schedule the computer to turn on/off. Also, it looks like it requires additional licensing. Really what I am after is a way to schedule a WOL and shutdown event. I can get the shutdown event to work, no problem, as I use XP's shutdown command. However, I cannot seem to find why the WOL isn't working. The 3COM card does have WOL capabilities. I have enabled the WOL in the BIOS, and yet, the computer still will not start up. My only thought is that the MOBO does not support WOL PCI events, but according to Gateway, it should. I've tried different NIC's as well to see if the 3COM was the problem. None of the other NIC's work either (or in other PCI slots). Any ideas?

As for the domain, as long as I configure the computers to login as "child" to the local machine and do not use a domain login, do you see any reason why this would effect the local policies that you have built in place? I really only need to join the computer to the domain to successfully schedule a remote shutdown. I setup a task using a domain admin account- if a computer is not on the domain, it will not allow me to shut off the computer as the domain admin account is not recognized. I supposed I could setup a different script to shut off the Gates computers using the exec command, but it just is easier to use one account to run all the tasks.

Thanks again.

There isn't a wire between the NIC and the MOBO. I have looked for a spot on the MOBO to connect a wire, but I cannot find one. All the information on Gateway's site indicates the computer should have WOL capabilities without the wire. I have set the BIOS to turn the computer on when it receives WOL packets as well. Not sure where else to look or what else to troubleshoot. Any ideas? Could the Centurion guard be stopping this? I have tried using WOL with the Centurion guard disabled, and the computer still has not turned on. Not sure if the Centurion guard has to be physically removed for this to work.