got the black screen and then restart loop, so I f8, same thing for all options, did an f10 (hp 522n) and a microsoft windows restore, went into non-destructive install (or repair) loaded a bunch of files (like 20 minutes worth) then stops at 71%, says error extracting [xxxxxxxx.xxx] and has an ok button, click that, goes a few more files then does it again about a hundred more times(I got tired of writing down the filenames after about 20 of them), then finishes setup, restarts, gets to the "welcome to microsoft windows xp" thingy with this einstein looking dude who talks to you and tries to set up my internet connection, has me agree to 2 eula things, then goes to a black screen and prints "windows message: the system is not fully installed. please run setup again". hit a key and it all starts over again.
this is an hp machine that has a 2nd partition on the c drive with (I'm guessing) the xp cd files on it, which is where f10 takes me.

oh, this worked the first time, now I have to use the 6 floppy disks to get into recovery console because if I go through f10, it gives an error 14 hal.dll missing, please install another copy. or something to that effect. I don't remember, I'm on my kid's computer writing this now, cuz I can only get knoppix to work, and I can't get my wireless card to work with knoppix.
or the cd burner to copy files, so then I could format and start over.
any suggestions would be appreciated.

guess I should have looked first, but I just found this:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;320279

but it doesn't say anything about the error extracting file thingy.

I am going to try this and see if it helps, but will still welcome suggestions on the above post.

Is this the same machine as in the previous problem?
invalid boot.ini file-- keeps restarting

HP pavillion 522n
1.8ghz celeron
256mb ram
40 gig? hd
160gig hd
cd-rw
dvd-rw
onboard video
motorola wireless network pci card
pinnacle av/dv firewire card

What is the make of the hard drive with the hp on it?
Is it the 40gig?

well the microsoft bulletin didn't help any....

yes, same machine, but I just changed the processor to a p4 2.5ghz
and added another 512m of ram(suggestion from pinnacle support person). it worked fine for 2 weeks(except the pinnacle program) with all this stuff on it, now this. I was enjoying my new speed with the faster processor.

and yes, it is the small drive that came with the computer, and is partitioned in two, with the xp setup on part of it, factory installed.
I will go restart it and see what it is in the bios.
maxtor 4d060h3


I'm starting to suspect this pinnacle software, and how it gets along with sp2. I had no problems until I ran pinnacle just after installing sp2.
since then I have un installed and re installed pinnacle many times as per their instructions, and then the last time the system really crashed, I had to do a re install of windows through the HP recovery, and I only went up to sp1 this time. but the pinnacle program still crawled until I found a microsoft bulletin about KBD.EXE and how it uses up to 90% cpu time, I renamed the file to .old and voila-- everything worked awesome!
then 2 weeks later......
now I'm here.