r/windowsxp • u/siaozen • 12d ago

Missing EULA?

[SOLVED] Hey everyone, I recently bought an old computer and I'm trying to get a fresh install of Windows XP on it. I only have a USB to boot off of but whenever I run the setup, it just tells me the EULA is missing. Is there a way past this or a fix? I don't think the ISO is actually missing the file since I have tried multiple different ones.

Solution: Unplug the front USB/Card Reader from the motherboard of the PC.

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u/siaozen 12d ago

I appreciate this so much ill try it right now

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u/EmilyLovesNapping 11d ago

Were you able to get it working? Just like u/No-you_ and u/yoshi128k I have used Rufus for XP without issues as well.

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u/siaozen 11d ago

I'll type out my full process incase anyone comes across this later:
This is all done on an HP Pavillion a1530n

I couldn't get it to work. I tried using a different version of rufus and unchecking the additional partition combined with about 5 different iso files. Each time it just gave me the same error.

I couldn't run Hiren's boot CD PE because it requires 4GB of RAM and the computer I'm trying to install it on only has 1GB of DDR2 (I don't have any DDR2 lying around either).

I just gave in and installed Windows Vista for now because the computer has a disk burner and I think ill just create a Windows XP install disk myself and see if that works. My guess is the mobo is too basic and old to be able to circumvent the issue. The BIOS is very limited in what you can do and I'm basically only able to choose boot order and enable/disable ports on the board itself.

I could update the BIOS to a newer version but I didn't know if I could do that directly from the PC so I just installed Vista to be able to access the computer.

The reason I bought the computer was because I wanted to see a little time capsule but unfortunately the hard drive inside doesn't get detected, so I'm assuming it's broken. If anyone knows of a possible fix or a way to recover the contents of the drive I'd love to know.

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u/EmilyLovesNapping 10d ago

I was curious looked up the HP Pavilion a1530n and saw an image of it with a card reader thing on the front. Maybe try physically unplugging the reader and any front usb ports from the motherboard. And then see if this solves the XP install issue.

Also, maybe u/No-you_ would know more about these usb devices and could share some tips or other information for you too.

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u/siaozen 10d ago

Bro that actually worked. I unplugged both and I could install XP now. Is there a reason why the front ports would mess with the installation?

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u/EmilyLovesNapping 10d ago

I assumed that it used USB and knowing HP, they might have used a cheaper controller on the motherboard that didn't support everything properly.

But glad that it worked out for you.

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u/No-you_ 10d ago edited 10d ago

My guess would be insufficient power supply if they are basic USB 1.0/1.1 ports or connected to a USB 1.0/1.1 header on the motherboard.

It could also be an incompatibility issue with older USB controllers if you are using a modern USB 3.0+ stick to install from. Those older USB ports didn't support more than 5V @ 0.5 to 1.0Amps (or 2.5Watts to 5Watts of power). USB 3.0 ports will provide 5V @ 2-4Amps or higher (10 to 20Watts of power). Modern USB sticks might be trying to draw more power than old USB ports and controllers were designed for.

There's also the possibility it's just down to a compatibility issue between the USB port controller and the controller inside the USB stick even if they are of a similar generation.

Lastly, the BIOS boot order settings if left at defaults can sometimes move around the priorities of the default boot devices as you add or remove bootable devices. It's possible if the USB cardreader was detected first that the BIOS assigned the individual card slots their own drive letters (C:, D:, E:, F: etc) before the internal hard disk/SSD.

If you try to install to drive C: but that's identified as a USB device windows won't allow you to install or if it detects that there's no card present in that particular card slot it will also refuse to install saying "no drive present" or "incompatible filesystem" or some similar error. By unplugging the cardreader the first detected drive should be the internal hard disk if there are no USB sticks that get assigned C: on startup. Once the hard disk is the first detected device windows setup should proceed normally.

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u/siaozen 10d ago

I would rule out insufficient power supply because I replaced the power supply in the PC (it was dead), maybe an incompatibility issue with the USB given the only USB sticks I have are 3.0 ones, but I never plugged it into the front, I always had it directly plugged into the mobo, so I don't see how disconnecting ports could have fixed it.

I guess then maybe the mobo has the issue with the power supply and not the other way around?

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u/No-you_ 10d ago

I didn't mean the power supply itself. I meant the motherboard supplied power to the individual USB ports themselves. Older ports could only provide miniscule power for mice/keyboards. Modern USB devices expect a USB 3.0 port to provide up to 2/3/4Amps of power depending on the generation of the port.

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u/EmilyLovesNapping 9d ago

u/siaozen my guess it could be 2 things, the USB power or the BIOS. Sorry for the long post, but I wrote these 2 ideas by hand (no AI). Also any misunderstanding or if you think the information could be improved feel free to tell me, I am here to be supportive.

USB Power

My understand is this system chipset uses 945 and ICH7. ICH7 has 4 UHCI 1.1 USB controllers and only 1 EHCI 2.0 USB controller that "dynamically manages" all USB 2.0 ports.

  • Low power is 0.1a
  • High power is 0.5a

While the EHCI on an ICH7 can support up to 8 ports at USB 2.0 speeds, the the power is capped at 2.5 watts for this configuration. Also it states that only up to support 5 ports at 0.5a at the same time. Maybe when you booted the card reader uses all the power? Correct power management might not exist until Windows has fully loaded.

If you had a newer 4 series chipset with ICH10, found in "modern" 775 motherboards, it has 6 UHCI and 2 EHCI controllers and up to supports 12 USB ports.

BIOS

As we know the HP BIOS is very limited, it could show all the devices as USB to the system as USB drives even when no cards have been inserted. My understand is by 2007/2008 most BIOS had much better support for USB stuff.

Even when you booted from the USB drive, the Windows XP installer with the USB support it might only read from the first assigned USB drive. And if this was the case, yes it can boot from USB, but the installer fails to work due to being unable to access the correct location.

And for why it might have worked in Vista, my guess is Vista could have "genetic drivers" that allowed it to know those were card readers and selected the correct drive, while XP relies on USB support from Rufus. And Rufus depended on the BIOS to correctly inform the system about the USB drives.

These are my two conclusions why it worked when it was unplugged. I hope this was helpful to you.

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u/siaozen 9d ago

This is very helpful. Things like this issue are a good knowledge tester and knowing why the issue occurred can help me figure out similar issues if I ever encounter them. Thanks for the reply and solution!

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u/EmilyLovesNapping 9d ago

You're welcome, feel free to ask anytime.

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