Unable to install drivers.
 

Evenin'

quick back story before the issue, so you can follow what the issue is.

My stepdad bought a BenQ Joybook R43 whilst he worked in Qatar, it had Vista installed, and ran slowly, and eventually crashed and was unable to boot.

I wiped the HDD, formatted it and installed XP onto it, and downloaded the XP drivers for it, from the BenQ Middle East website.
All was fine and has been working with no issues for over a year.

Its crashed again, and unable to boot.
First we tried to repair windows with the disk. It froze at 33 minutes, no progress for 7 hours.
Then we opted for a clean install, wiped and formatted the HDD, and installed windows, it froze at 33 minutes again.
The disk was removed, then put it back in, it continued to install.


Now, here's the issue.

Downloaded the drivers again from the BenQ Middle East website for XP.

None of them will install, they either fail, or freeze.
XP also runs ridiculously slow and becomes un-responsive from time to time.

So,
Does anyone have an tips for me to get the machine working?
Or is it on its way out?

sounds like you need a new hard drive

It did cross my mind.
However I cant hear it skipping, or notice anything else other than the un-responsiveness that signals a potential HDD failure.

Find a SMART utility and see what it says. But as Milo says, it sounds like the drive is on its way out. And they're so cheap, it's hardly worth faffing around.

Unless the Computer Village Elders, like Milo etc. advise otherwise, whilst fitting a new hard drive I would upgrade the RAM to the maximum it will take, if it is not already there. www.crucial.com have always worked for me, the take a look in your computer and tell 1. What you have, 2.Maximum you can fit 3. Suggested packages, depending on what is already fitted, slots available etc. Have not heard of any security isues with Crucial.

Cheers guys :)

I'll see what he says about a new HDD.
More RAM is a must also, it only has 1GB. Depends if he thinks its worth fixing it, or if its better to get a new one.

A quick Google around gives the impression that it is a "cheap 'n cheerful" item.

Won't take more than 2GB RAM

Either uprate to 2GB and install something like Puppy Linux or bin it.

Don't spend too much time or money on it!

Mac

:ouch:

6 Lightweight Linux Distributions To Give Your Old PC A New Lease of Life

Why are you telling him to put Linux on it?
2GB RAM is enough to run Vista or Win7
1GB RAM is enough to run XP

the memory isn't an issue unless he wants to revert to Vista
The problem would appear to be with the hard drive: the first thing to do is to download the correct diagnostic test CD for the correct hard drive manufacturer and check the drive
what make / model of drive does it have?

Ill open it up and see what HDD it has. Ill let you know in a few mins.

Ignore what was previously here.

Bit of brute force did it.

Its a Fujitsu N124

correct diagnostic tool for that drive should be the second download on this page
Software Utilities

the one labelled DOS Diagnostic Tool Ver. 7.0
(For IDE/ATA/SATA Hard Drives
Download the zip file, should give you an ISO which you can burn to a bootable CD
Don't worry about it being labelled as Toshiba: Tosh are now in charge of the Fujitsu hard drive range

Before spending money on it, try re-seating the memory. That is one source of freezes and unresponsiveness. Cleaning the memory contacts can sometimes help.

Using a non abrasive clean eraser (the white ones used for erasing Mylar drafting sheets), rub the memory board contacts gently a few times to remove any oxidization.

Cheers :)

How do i load it to a bootable disk?

I can burn it to a disk, dunno how to make it a bootable one...

Oops
I have to admit to having given you bad advice there.....In the past that file created a self-extracting CD image.
Looking at the current version, and all it gives you is the actual diagnostic test program......doh

two options
One is to download the creation files for VistaPE (you would need a Vista installation DVD), make a VistaPE disk and incorporate it
VistaPE — Downloads

I'll assume you don't really want to try that, the other option is to download another diagnostic disk known as the UBCD
This comes preloaded with a load of diagnostic tools, including the Fujitsu test software Ultimate Boot CD - Overview
Its a DOS based disk, so hone up on your command line skills

2GB RAM is enough to run Vista or Win7
1GB RAM is enough to run XP

Sure, but lots of swapfile churn...

Mac

:(

More often than not, swapfile churn is caused by the virtual memory being set too HIGH, not too low. The default windows settings (especially in XP) tend to force everything through the swap file, when I reality it would be better to allow direct memory access.
Tis usually best to change the swap file settings to "auto / allow windows to manage...."
The problem with setting it too high is that everything gets forced through it, even at low workloads, slowing the machine