A7N8X Deluxe rev. 2 - MAJOR WOES, can't install Win XP Pro

[Mortimer Schnurd]

I just got my new board delivered and set to work installing it on
Saturday morning. Here is the system configuration I started with:
MB = A7N8X Deluxe rev. 2 BIOS 1006
CPU = Athlon +2400 XP (tbred)
Memory = 2 sticks of Corsair PC3200 512MB (CMX512-3200C2) Slots 1 & 3
PSU = Antec 400W
Graphics = ATI Radeon 9500 Pro AGP 8X
IDE1 = Western Digital 120
IDE2 Master = TDK Velocd 5200B
IDE2 Slave = Aopen 12X DVD Player

After installing the board, I booted up normally using the default
bios settings. I decided to see if Win XP could start and recognize
the new hardware without doing a "Repair". Well, that was
unsuccessful. WinXP immediately complained and would not boot.

I now booted with my XP CD in the TDK device and attempted a "Repair"
installation. After the install found my existing installation I
pressed the "R" to do a repair. Everything seemed to be going ok but
then the install stopped and complained about not being able to copy a
file. I hit the "retry" button which worked and the file was copied.
Installation continued but encountered yet another "read" problem.
Several hits on "retry" finally worked. On the third time, I decided I
would pull the CD and give it a quick cleaning. The CD was in good
shape with no noticeable scratches or smudges ( I had used this CD
several times for installations with no problems). After ire-inserting
and pressing "retry" the installation continued.

The installl finally made it to the "Starting Windows" screen. The
machine re-booted fine and went back to installing Windows. But then
it started getting the read errors again. At one point the "retry"
would not work and I had to abort the install.

This process continued for several iterations. By this time I was also
getting blue screens too. I then resorted to doing a "Fresh" install,
formatting the drive. The same problems again occurred. OK, now I
figure something is definitely wrong with the CD so I use another that
I have. Several iterations of the same errors followed. I then decided
to try another CROM only to have the "read" errors again. Notice, I
earlier mentioned these read errors are RANDOM, and do not occur for
the same files. I then tried swapping out my round cable for a ribbon.
This too failed.

Because it was now late afternoon on Sunday and I had made NO
progress, I had to resort to putting my old MB back. The old MB went
back in with the same memory,cpu, and peripherals used in the ASUS. I
restored my disk from a backup but had problems booting. Windows
complained about the "hive". So I did a "Repair" install and had no
problems whatsoever. Not a single "read" error was found.

Does anybody have a clue as to what I could try next, other then
sending this board back? I have installed many other MB's before and
never had this problem. I just have to believe there is something
wrong with the chipset for this board. Oh and BTW, I also upgraded the
BIOS to 1007.


--
Regards,
John Wood a.k.a Mortimer Schnerd

Get an additional 500M with a Giganews 5 day trial for a total of 1.5G
http://www.giganews.com/customer/gn82834

 

[rstlne]

Set memory in sync and dont let it go by SPD. Memory errors or even the
memory running out of sync (ie ram at 200/400 and fsb at 166/333) dont seem
to work too well sometimes, I changed my memory to run in sync on day2 and
it cured all of my problems

 

[Beemer Biker]

looks like you are attempting to boot an old disk with XP on it from
previous install. Read up on swapping out motherboards:
http://tinyurl.com/t0g6 and http://tinyurl.com/zbz5

I just got my new board delivered and set to work installing it on
Saturday morning. Here is the system configuration I started with:
MB = A7N8X Deluxe rev. 2 BIOS 1006
CPU = Athlon +2400 XP (tbred)
Memory = 2 sticks of Corsair PC3200 512MB (CMX512-3200C2) Slots 1 & 3
PSU = Antec 400W
Graphics = ATI Radeon 9500 Pro AGP 8X
IDE1 = Western Digital 120
IDE2 Master = TDK Velocd 5200B
IDE2 Slave = Aopen 12X DVD Player

After installing the board, I booted up normally using the default
bios settings. I decided to see if Win XP could start and recognize
the new hardware without doing a "Repair". Well, that was
unsuccessful. WinXP immediately complained and would not boot.

I now booted with my XP CD in the TDK device and attempted a "Repair"
installation. After the install found my existing installation I
pressed the "R" to do a repair. Everything seemed to be going ok but
then the install stopped and complained about not being able to copy a
file. I hit the "retry" button which worked and the file was copied.

if you burned a copy of xp stuff onto a cdr it might have got marked
readonly. check the path to the file on the hard drive and verify using
"attrib" that is is writable. ie: your first attempt to install left a
writeonly file on the target drive and 2nd attempts give "unable to copy"
filemessage. if indeed you are working from a cdr or cdrw suggest you use
the same cdr or cdrw device that wrote your copy to do the read.

Installation continued but encountered yet another "read" problem.
Several hits on "retry" finally worked. On the third time, I decided I
would pull the CD and give it a quick cleaning. The CD was in good
shape with no noticeable scratches or smudges ( I had used this CD
several times for installations with no problems). After ire-inserting

you might want to post your problem to any of the
microsoft.public.windowxp.* but leave off the fact you have installed XP
several times previously using the same cd. Those netcop MVP's there will
not be very considerate.

and pressing "retry" the installation continued.

The installl finally made it to the "Starting Windows" screen. The
machine re-booted fine and went back to installing Windows. But then
it started getting the read errors again. At one point the "retry"
would not work and I had to abort the install.

This process continued for several iterations. By this time I was also
getting blue screens too. I then resorted to doing a "Fresh" install,
formatting the drive. The same problems again occurred. OK, now I
figure something is definitely wrong with the CD so I use another that
I have. Several iterations of the same errors followed. I then decided
to try another CROM only to have the "read" errors again. Notice, I
earlier mentioned these read errors are RANDOM, and do not occur for
the same files. I then tried swapping out my round cable for a ribbon.
This too failed.

hope you made a backup of your 120gb first. if not too late, get acronis
true image.

 

[Mortimer Schnurd]

Set memory in sync and dont let it go by SPD. Memory errors or even the
memory running out of sync (ie ram at 200/400 and fsb at 166/333) dont seem
to work too well sometimes, I changed my memory to run in sync on day2 and
it cured all of my problems

I tried it both ways... SPD and SYNCH
--
Regards,
John Wood a.k.a Mortimer Schnerd

Get an additional 500M with a Giganews 5 day trial for a total of 1.5G
http://www.giganews.com/customer/gn82834

 

[Ben Pope]

I just got my new board delivered and set to work installing it on
Saturday morning. Here is the system configuration I started with:
MB = A7N8X Deluxe rev. 2 BIOS 1006
CPU = Athlon +2400 XP (tbred)
Memory = 2 sticks of Corsair PC3200 512MB (CMX512-3200C2) Slots 1 & 3
PSU = Antec 400W
Graphics = ATI Radeon 9500 Pro AGP 8X
IDE1 = Western Digital 120
IDE2 Master = TDK Velocd 5200B
IDE2 Slave = Aopen 12X DVD Player

After installing the board, I booted up normally using the default
bios settings. I decided to see if Win XP could start and recognize
the new hardware without doing a "Repair". Well, that was
unsuccessful. WinXP immediately complained and would not boot.

I've heard that you should not try repair the first time, but the second
time... so you install it as if it were fresh, into the same directory and
it then finds the installation and asks to repair, whereupon you say yes.

However, since you are in a state to do the following, I suggest it:
Change your IDE drivers to default MS ones... the simpler the better, then
try again.

I think the instructions in another reply should go through this precedure.

In my opinion, changing the motherboard is just about the best excuse to
start again with a clean install of Windows. Slipstream your installation
media with SP1 and just start over.

Ben

 

[Mortimer Schnurd]

looks like you are attempting to boot an old disk with XP on it from
previous install. Read up on swapping out motherboards:
http://tinyurl.com/t0g6 and http://tinyurl.com/zbz5

Yes, I believe I mentioned that. The "Repair" fails to complete as
well as a "New" install to a formatted drive. I've done MB changes
before and never hit this problem.

if you burned a copy of xp stuff onto a cdr it might have got marked
readonly. check the path to the file on the hard drive and verify using
"attrib" that is is writable. ie: your first attempt to install left a
writeonly file on the target drive and 2nd attempts give "unable to copy"
filemessage. if indeed you are working from a cdr or cdrw suggest you use
the same cdr or cdrw device that wrote your copy to do the read.

Nope, this is a corporate version OS installation CD.

you might want to post your problem to any of the
microsoft.public.windowxp.* but leave off the fact you have installed XP
several times previously using the same cd. Those netcop MVP's there will
not be very considerate.

Why? I've changed MB's several times as well as hard drives. I've
posted a problem with http://helpdesk.asus.com/ but I'll take your
advice and post to MS also.

hope you made a backup of your 120gb first. if not too late, get acronis
true image.

Made a Ghost backup! Even restored it several times to try the
"Repair" with different BIOS settings and/or peripherals



--
Regards,
John Wood a.k.a Mortimer Schnerd

Get an additional 500M with a Giganews 5 day trial for a total of 1.5G
http://www.giganews.com/customer/gn82834

 

[Mortimer Schnurd]

I've heard that you should not try repair the first time, but the second
time... so you install it as if it were fresh, into the same directory and
it then finds the installation and asks to repair, whereupon you say yes.

You're close but actually the "repair" we're looking for is beyond the
first screen not part of a "second" install. This can be a little
confusing because the first screen has...
--
To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.
--

At this stage you must choose ENTER. You then get the EULA and after
hitting F8, Windows finds any existing installation and asks you to
press "R" if you want to REPAIR it. Pressing "R" then start the
repair process. The "repair" using Recovery Console on the first
screen is a totally different animal then you would expect, one you
want to avoid for this purpose.

However, since you are in a state to do the following, I suggest it:
Change your IDE drivers to default MS ones... the simpler the better, then
try again.

I think the instructions in another reply should go through this precedure.

I wasn't able to find that reference. How can I change to MS IDE
drivers if I don't have an operational OS?

In my opinion, changing the motherboard is just about the best excuse to
start again with a clean install of Windows. Slipstream your installation
media with SP1 and just start over.

How do you "slipstream" the media with SP1? I'll have to be doing this
once again and it would be nice to have that as part of the process.

--John

 

[Ben Pope]

You're close but actually the "repair" we're looking for is beyond the
first screen not part of a "second" install. This can be a little
confusing because the first screen has...
--
To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.
--

At this stage you must choose ENTER. You then get the EULA and after
hitting F8, Windows finds any existing installation and asks you to
press "R" if you want to REPAIR it. Pressing "R" then start the
repair process. The "repair" using Recovery Console on the first
screen is a totally different animal then you would expect, one you
want to avoid for this purpose.

Sounds like what I meant, I didn;t explainit very well. Not having done it,
I'm not entirely sure of the process.

I wasn't able to find that reference. How can I change to MS IDE
drivers if I don't have an operational OS?

I thought you had it working with your old motherboard?

How do you "slipstream" the media with SP1? I'll have to be doing this
once again and it would be nice to have that as part of the process.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=slipstream+service+pack+installation+media

Don't have specific article to hand, but it's not that tricky. MS have an
article on it too, I believe.

Ben

 

[Mortimer Schnurd]

I thought you had it working with your old motherboard?

Ok, let me see if I have this right... you are suggesting I change the
IDE drivers on my NOW working old MB to the MS drivers and then
install the new MB using a "Repair" installation in the hopes that the
MS drivers will facilitate the process?
I may be wrong but I think that the installation has to rely on its
own IDE drivers anyway. Regardless, it fails on a repair or a new
install. I would assume it is using MS drivers during the new instal
as there are no others available at that time.

One of my colleagues also suggested switching the IDE leads in the
event that the IDE2 (CDROM is on it) connector is faulty. But, even If
I complete an install, it only shows that the connector is bad but it
is still bad AFTER the install. I really believe there is a hardware
issue which I may not be able to overcome. I'm beginning to think it
is RMA time.

--John

 

[Ben Pope]

Ok, let me see if I have this right... you are suggesting I change the
IDE drivers on my NOW working old MB to the MS drivers and then
install the new MB using a "Repair" installation in the hopes that the
MS drivers will facilitate the process?
Yep.

I may be wrong but I think that the installation has to rely on its
own IDE drivers anyway. Regardless, it fails on a repair or a new
install.

Installing over the top is not a clean install. I'm not entirely sure of
the process involved, but it seems that the old IDE drivers will be used,
and will likely cause problems.

I would assume it is using MS drivers during the new instal
as there are no others available at that time.

Seriously. Just do a clean install, or try the MS IDE driver thing.

http://groups.google.co.uk/[email protected]&rnum=1

There are loads of examples out there, sounds like the driver you were using
was pretty close to working on the new system than most, but not close
enough. You think the IDE read errors are coincidental?

Ben

 

[Mortimer Schnurd]

Installing over the top is not a clean install. I'm not entirely sure of
the process involved, but it seems that the old IDE drivers will be used,
and will likely cause problems.


Seriously. Just do a clean install, or try the MS IDE driver thing.

Ben, somewhere along the way, you missed the point that my problems
occurs while attempting a repair or a NEW install. This was pointed
out in my first and recent post (quoted above). To be more specific,
the NEW install was attempted in several variations: with the exiting
OS in place and overwriting it, with a Quick and non-quick formatted
partition, and with a quick and a non-quick formatted Drive. Each
variation had the problem of READ errors and could not finish. Also,
the read errors were random across each iteration.

Please don't mis-understand my intent: I am not adamantly pushing to
complete a REPAIR install, I would just like to be able to do any
install that works. I am determined to replace my MB and I believe the
A7N8X is the board I want.

Because of all the issues regarding a REPAIR, my next attempt, once
I've received a new board, will be a NEW install. My plan is :
1) clone my present system to a spare HDD I have.
2) move the present MB with existing memory and graphics card to
another case I have
3) install an old, spare Duron CPU
4) fire up the moved MB with the cloned HDD. At this point the only
differences are the HDD, CPU, and a CDROM drive (which is in the spare
case)
5) borrow a stick of memory from the moved hardware (each system now
has a stick of 512)
6)Install the new MB in the now empty case
7) attach a spare AGP graphics card I have
8) Boot up and install a NEW Windows XP
9) Once install completes and is stable do some critical software
installs (Quicken, Office, Norton, etc)
10) use the transfer settings wizard to copy settings from the old PC
to the NEW pc
11) I should now have a clean OS installed and most of all my
programs, and settings on the system with a new MB.

http://groups.google.co.uk/[email protected]&rnum=1

There are loads of examples out there, sounds like the driver you were using
was pretty close to working on the new system than most, but not close
enough. You think the IDE read errors are coincidental?

I really think it is faulty hardware or firmware.on the MB With a NEW
install on a formatted drive (which I did try), Windows would most
certainly have to use its own drivers.

 

[Ben Pope]

Ben, somewhere along the way, you missed the point that my problems
occurs while attempting a repair or a NEW install. This was pointed
out in my first and recent post (quoted above). To be more specific,
the NEW install was attempted in several variations: with the exiting
OS in place and overwriting it, with a Quick and non-quick formatted
partition, and with a quick and a non-quick formatted Drive. Each
variation had the problem of READ errors and could not finish. Also,
the read errors were random across each iteration.

Yeah, sorry, I did miss that.

Ben

 

[mr_buggerlugs]

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 13:58:17 -0500, Mortimer Schnurd


John, why don't u just format the main drive properly and get plug
your other harddisk containing the data u want to keep in as IDE2?

Then again theres these useful devices called cdrw's and dvdr's
available nowadays for that type of stuff u know?

Forgive my lack of enthusiasm in your methods but knowing computers as
I do, (and more appropriately windows in all its incarnations) I'd
seriously recommend a proper "clean" install of your OS when putting a
new motherboard in your pc.

Just my two penneth.

 

[mr_buggerlugs]

sorry...John.

appologies Ben.

 

[rstlne]

John, why don't u just format the main drive properly and get plug

your other harddisk containing the data u want to keep in as IDE2?

Then again theres these useful devices called cdrw's and dvdr's
available nowadays for that type of stuff u know?

Forgive my lack of enthusiasm in your methods but knowing computers as
I do, (and more appropriately windows in all its incarnations) I'd
seriously recommend a proper "clean" install of your OS when putting a
new motherboard in your pc.

Just my two penneth.

I dont think this works well in winxp as when you plug in the other drive
winxp will detect that there is a operating copy on one of the drives then
refuse to start (or some other type of BS along those lines)..
That would be the thing to do for say win98 but the drives&files are ment to
be secure now (to stop someone booting with a floppy and getting
everything)..

 

[Mortimer Schnurd]

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 13:58:17 -0500, Mortimer Schnurd


John, why don't u just format the main drive properly and get plug
your other harddisk containing the data u want to keep in as IDE2?

Maybe because IDE2 is already in use.

Preserving "DATA", although desirable, is not the issue at hand. Data
files area easily stored elsewhere or in a backup of some form. What
is important for me is to preserve all the "SETTINGS". This is not
easily done with file backups. There are numerous registry settings
involved as well a INI files scattered about.

Because I will eventually be doing another XP install after, I resolve
my installation problem, I don't want to have to spend an enormous
amount of time, AGAIN, re-installing software and re-establishing all
of the settings for the several people that use this machine! I have
used the transfer wizard in the past and it had exceeded my
expectations enormously. It was not without some issues but it greatly
reduced my efforts in re-establishing the programs and settings for
the people in my household who use the machine.

 

[Rob]

John,
I haven't a guess about your install problems but this link may help you
set up a slipstreamed install CD for future use. It worked well for me.
http://www.duspinnst.com/bootcd.htm

Rob

 

[Dr Teeth]

I can reproduce this on my PC anytime I like.

Undo any overclocking that you have done, even inadvertently. In my
BIOS, there is an option to accelerate system performance (or words to
that effect). It overclocks *very* mildly indeed, however, activating
it produces exactly the same problems that you are having.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Guy

"If you want to find out what is wrong
with democracy, spend five minutes with
the average voter." - Winston Churchill

 

[Mortimer Schnurd]

I can reproduce this on my PC anytime I like.

Undo any overclocking that you have done, even inadvertently. In my
BIOS, there is an option to accelerate system performance (or words to
that effect). It overclocks *very* mildly indeed, however, activating
it produces exactly the same problems that you are having.

Not an issue here. As stated earlier, I reset the BIOS and used the
defaults (Optimal settings). No changes were made to "optimize" any of
the settings. I also tried resetting, then setting the CPU FSB and
multiplier to correctly report my XP +2400 (the defaults reported it
as an +1800).

I did get some advice from the
microsoft.puplic.windowsxp.help_and_support group to try the install
with only one stick of ram
I have heard of this being a problem on some boards.

 

[Mortimer Schnurd]

Update:
Over the holidays I finally had some time to tackle this problem once
more. I decided to fire up this board in another case with and
additionally purchased CPU and another stick of 512 PC3200 memory. If
I was successful, I would then move it over to my existing case.

I couldn't believe it but the board fired up fine (with a 250W PSU no
less) and I installed XP with nary a problem. I then used XP to do a
Files & Settings Transfer from the old PC. Once I had the system
running with all my programs and with all the user settings, I moved
it to my other case. I kept the CPU that was now on it (XP 2500+). I
removed the Crucial stick and put in my two Corsair sticks.
Guess what! I had trouble booting then could not install software I
had installed many times before. I got read errors again!.

I figured it had to be the memory. I then removed 1 of the sticks and
could not boot at all because of numerous memory errors. I then
replaced that stick with the other Corsair and I booted up with no
problems. I installed several other software programs with no problems
and the machine continued to work fine.

Ok, what really chaps my hide is,
1) this memory was a recent replacement for another stick that went
bad
2) I ran memtest86 exhaustively on this stick (twice) and it never
reported an error
3) I ran with this stick in my other machine for a couple months and
had no errors

After all this, I decided to try to run just this one stick on my old
board in the extra case. NADA, I could not get XP to install while
using that stick. Oh well, guess I'm going to have to have Corsair
replace it yet again. But why can't memtest86 find a problem?

Oh yeah, the new board is in and running fine except there is no
sound. Sheeesh! The sound worked while in the other case. I guess I'll
open another thread for this one.

Damn, this shit gets frustrating some times.