Windows and New Motherboards

[BobtheCkroach]

Hey, a friend of mine just got a new mobo and CPU. We got it all together, but when we turn it on, windows will not boot. It does the "safe mode, safe mode w/ networking, safe mode w/ command prompt, last known config, or start normal" screen...but no matter what we select, it resets. I'm learning to really hate hardware!!! Can anybody help? Does windows usually have problems recognizing new mobos and/or cpus?

[Morpheus]

Check to see if the fan on the CPU is mounted and blowing air onto the CPU properly. Most mobos have a thing where it resets if the temp onboard gets too high. As for the safe mode, i think that's just when Windows reboots improperly, so if it's the fan, just get it working and then load safe mode. Once you're in dafe mode, reboot.


:wave: Morph

[BobtheCkroach]

Morph, thank you, but I'm thinking it's not that...we let it run as long as we want and it reports a solid 27 Celcius...

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

It sounds like you're using a hardrive that came from another PC. You can't do that.
You need to use a new hardrive.

[OUTLAWS Behind You?]

No, No, No...Unlike Windows 98, Windows 2000 and all Windows XP releases do not reinstall the various mobo specific chipset drivers. You have to boot from your XP CDRom and re-install XP over your existing Windows installation. You will not lose any 3rd party applications you have installed. You will, however, lose all Windows XP updates, such as SP1 if your CDRom is the base XP release.

[EXEcution]

Originally posted by OUTLAWS Behind You?@May 20 2004, 10:36 PM
No, No, No...Unlike Windows 98, Windows 2000 and all Windows XP releases do not reinstall the various mobo specific chipset drivers.  You have to boot from your XP CDRom and re-install XP over your existing Windows installation.  You will not lose any 3rd party applications you have installed.  You will, however, lose all Windows XP updates, such as SP1 if your CDRom is the base XP release.
:thumbs: You registry will be wiped clean too i think, but u wont lose music or movies when u reinstall XP.

[SALvation]

For every new motherboard I have installed with XP, I have had to do a complete format and reinstall. Even though you can just reinstall over the current version, I always had problems until I reformatted.

[BobtheCkroach]

Ok...so here's the sucky question...my friend is transferring from an HP machine. HP has this really silly policy of not distributing CDs, but rather putting the Install for windows on a partition on the HDD...since we can't get anything to work, how can we get to that? Thank you, though, guys, this is already really helpful! :thumbs:

[JIMINATOR]

in theory you could boot from a boot disk and start the install, but the
version is probably specific to the old hardware. methinks you will
need a new install disk...

[Frag Junky]

Originally posted by BobtheCkroach@May 21 2004, 04:23 AM
Ok...so here's the sucky question...my friend is transferring from an HP machine. HP has this really silly policy of not distributing CDs, but rather putting the Install for windows on a partition on the HDD...since we can't get anything to work, how can we get to that? Thank you, though, guys, this is already really helpful! :thumbs:
This partition is what holds the interface you see when you hit the F10 key and go into Setup. There is nothing in there you have to reset or get at.

Compaq and HP both now known as HP :wacko: use the image from the CD to create a recover setup. Using this you will loose all there is on the harddrive, but it will work. I'm with Behind You on this one. I work with HP and Compaq everyday as a Net Admin. I just went through this with an upgrade on 30 workstations last week.

Back up any files you have on your drive, then wipe it clean and do a fresh install. In the end you will be much happier as it will run smoother and faster.

When your done, I might suggest you do a Ghost image of the setup as you can take this image and use it again and again. This is the same process as HP uses with it's recovery CD, only with Norton Ghost, you control the image. I use Ghost once a week and do a complete backup of my BadgerCub.com Server. Should it ever go down or a bad harddrive, I can have it up and running with a new harddrive in 30 minutes.

[JIMINATOR]

ummm, what he is trying to do is similar to putting an old drive in a new
machine. obviously you have more experience with this, but I would
think that the drivers and programs installed would be specific to the old
machine....

[chaotic42]

Any time you change motherboards, you need to reinstall Windows. Before you actually change them, back up all of your files, then when the new board is in, wipe your Windows partition (always put the Windows system on its own partition, seperate from your data, games, etc.).

I've changed boards plenty of times, and trying to get Windows to work after you've upgraded is a huge, huge pain.

The machine is an HP?

I don't know if your Windows license will carry over to a new motherboard. Do you have a regular Windows disk anywhere?

The last time I bought a prepackaged computer, it just came with Windows 3.1 on disk. ;)

[Hammertime]

It sounds like you are running into a problem with the Windows Product Activation. This checks to see if the hardware is changed significantly on a system, the idea is to prevent piracy. Here are a couple of links that explain it and how to possibly work around the problem. You may need to reinstall the old hardware and make a boot disk.

Upgrading hardware running XP (http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html#2)

Windows Product Activation (http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm)


I ran into this problem when I upgraded my MB, video card and CPU. I had an XP disk but no key, the repair option worked for me.

[BobtheCkroach]

Hey, thank you all for the information - it has been helpful, to be sure. In the end, my friend went the easy way out - he bought a new copy of windows and is gonna just kill everything currently on the HDD. I feel kinda bad...I'd never done a mobo before, but I knew hardware was generally easy to swap...so I told him "no, windows will be just fine when you swap"...oops :bandhead:

Thank you again, and on the upside, when I do MY mobo switch in a few months, I guess I'll know better! :P :thumbs: