I broke my wife's computer! Help me, please...she'll be home soon!

[T'krau]

OK, hear's the deal - I put my old processor, RAM and 'board into my wife's system, using her hard drive, optical drive, power supply, etc. I went thru the BIOS and all that. The system boots fine, passes POST tests, and then I get a "We're sorry, but Windows won't boot" screen. It won't boot into Safe Mode, I can't get a command line prompt, won't boot from a rescue disc, nothing - it just cycles thru POST and the "won't boot" screen. I think the issue is that it's not finding the H/D, but someone on Overclocker's Forum (thanks, spyware!) had a similar-sounding problem and was told to re-install XP, which makes little sense to me (something about XP being 'confused' after a hardware change).

Anyone got any ideas?

[BloodBuster]

What has happened is that the installation of XP on the hard drive is expecting the original hardware to be in place. But - I would have thought that Windows would have detected the different hardware and loaded the drivers for it.

However, you mention you have a 'rescue' disk. Rescue disks are, I think, usually very specific versions of Windows intended for a specific hardware configuration. The rescue disk is expecting the original hardware and is trying to load the drivers for it which it cannot do, because the base hardware has changed.

Have you tried reinserting the original hardware? Will it boot after that?

Also, rescue disks are not particularly brilliant. It you 'restore' or 'rescue' your copy of Windows with a rescue disk, it will often try to reformat and then reinstall Windows - the rescue disk simply contains an 'image' of Windows and will attempt to load that. Make sure any data on your wife's HD is backed up before attempting to use the rescue disk again after reinserting the original hardware.

Maybe someone else has come across this before and has a better answer?

[Bjossi]

Why did you do that in the first place T´krau? It always gets you in trouble to mess with your wife´s stuff. :p

But I´d think this is because the computer is expecting the original components of the computer. Put them back in and it´ll probably be fine.

[T'krau]

What I don't understand is why, after doing essentially the same operation to my own system (proc/mobo swap), mine lit right up and hers won't.

She also wants another H/D installed - I guess I can just format the new one and use it to get inside the system. I don't want to un-build if I don't have to (that thought did occur to me, as a last resort). Mind you, it's not the end of the world (not yet, anyway....), that hers didn't run, but it's annoying.

And yeah, the rescue disc idea was a long-shot, but I thought I'd try it.

I'm gonna work on it this afternoon - I'll let you know what happens...



Why did you do that in the first place T´krau?
She did know what I was doing - actually, she's been bugging me to do this since I got my new stuff.

Thanks, guys!

[fleabay]

Personally, I would never change motherboards and keep my old Windows.

The problem you describe sounds like a SATA drive problem.

Maybe you can go into the BIOS and set everything to default or failsafe mode.

What the heck is MK?

[T'krau]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...after installing the new H/D, her system's up and running fine.


Personally, I would never change motherboards and keep my old Windows.
I've done it before, and never had an issue until this one. She is planning on reformatting the old drive after moving a bunch of her music off it, and using the new, freshly-XP'd drive as a boot, tho.


The problem you describe sounds like a SATA drive problem.
Both are W/D eide drives.


Maybe you can go into the BIOS and set everything to default or failsafe mode.
Tried it. Didn't work.


What the heck is MK?
http://darkscorner.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=14&Itemid=132


Thanks for your help, people!

[T'krau]

... her system's up and running fine.
Spoke too soon - after a week of messing with it, I just finished re-building back to her old spec, and NOW it runs again.

Here's the issue(s) - this whole thing started when she got terminal crap-ware onto her old H/D (Frag's gonna love this one - never use Kazaa!). After swapping the 'board, processor, video card, and RAM (and resetting the BIOS), the only way to access the old drive was by installing a new H/D (configured as a boot drive) and XP, which got me/her into the old drive - sorta. She was unable to transfer anything from drive to drive, access anything on the old one, etc. I tried rearranging the drive jumpers to get the old one to boot, and even stuck a Promise IDE controller card in (hoping to end-run the issue). Nothing worked.

Now, the questions - why would a 'bad' drive work on one 'board (apparently just fine), but not on a new one? BIOS recognised both drives, BTW. As I said above, I've done this same swap-around to other systems, including my own, and never had an issue 'til now. Obviously, we could just wipe the old drive, but there's stuff she wants to try to save on it.

Also, does anyone know how to activate on-board audio on an Intel D865PERL? It's enabled in the BIOS, but nothing happens. I've got a driver update for it (when I was using this 'board, I had a sound card, and never paid attention to the on-board at all), but don't know where/how to install it. I've been thru Intel's site, plus a few forums, looking for the answer, with zero results.

Any ideas?

[BloodBuster]

When you say you cannot access the old hard-drive do you mean you get 'access denied' messages? Also, does the drive show up in Computer Management? And - are the jumpers on the drive set correctly to ensure it is configured as a slave?

[T'krau]

When you say you cannot access the old hard-drive do you mean you get 'access denied' messages?
It's like it decided it was a read-only drive...we could 'see' the stuff, we just couldn't get it to do anything. Now that the machine is back in it's original config, stuff works fine. Weird.


Also, does the drive show up in Computer Management?
Yes.


And - are the jumpers on the drive set correctly to ensure it is configured as a slave?
Yes.