Help! Upgraded CPU, now Win2k Pro won't boot

[Small Butts]

Hello. I have an Epox 8K7A motherboard which has been flawless for
over 2 years. Yesterday I upgraded the CPU. I went from a 1.2GHz
Athlon to an Athlon XP 2400+ (with new HS & fan). Before I did the
upgrade I flashed the BIOS to the latest version (May 2002). The
system was working fine, no problems whatsoever.

It took a few tries to get a POST but mainly because I had the wrong
clock speed set. After setting the jumpers to default, the system
recognized the new CPU at the right speed. Good so far.

Then Windows 2000 Pro starts. I get the first (black) screen with the
long progress bar the says underneath "For troubleshhoting hit
F8......". Then comes the Win 2K splash screen that has a smaller
progress bar and says "Starting Up" Copyright 1985-1999 MS Corp. Good
so far.

Then comes a blue screen that normally has small message boxes that
say "Windows is starting up" and "Applying security policy", etc...but
those messages never appear. The system just hung at the blank blue
screen. After rebooting it goes thru the first two startup screens I
just mentioned then up comes a black screen that says something like
"Disks need to be check for consistency" basically a chkdsk or a
scandisk. The second paragraph says "Hit any key if you wish to skip
the disk check" then it starts to countdown from 10 seconds. 9, 8, 7,
then it just hangs at 6 seconds....EVERY time at 6 seconds. Very odd.

Here's what I've tried:
* Tried skipping the disk check, system just hangs
* Tried Safe Mode, I get the black screen with the long progress bar,
when it gets to the end it hangs
* Booted from Win2K CD, after it loads a bunch of files you then can
hit "R" for the recover utility, hitting "R" gave me a "Please wait"
message and it just hangs
* Booted from Win2K CD, after it loads a bunch of files you then can
hit "Enter" to install Win 2K, hitting "Enter" gave me a "Please wait"
message and it just hangs
* Booted from a DOS floppy, ran a 3 hour scandisk, same results

Any suggestions???

From a DOS prompt I can see all of my files and directories on C:
drive. I'll reformat if I have to but I'd like to know if there's any
way I can backup important files before doing so. I have an old DOS
prgram called Fastwire which works ok, but all filesnames are cut down
to 8 characters and finding files like e-mail adress books, IE
favorites, etc is a real pain.

Any help would really be appreciated.

System specs:
Epox 8K7A with 5/29/02 BIOS
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
IBM Deskstar 60GB 7200
512MB Crucial DDR 2100
Pioneer A06 DVD writer
Floppy drive
ATI Radeon LE 32MB
300w PS
Windows 2000 Pro (not sure of service pack, maybe SP3?)

 

[Small Butts]

Windows 2000 was configured for the CPU that was in the

machine when you installed it. After changing the cpu the
system files don't work anymore. You can try doing
a 'repair' from the install menu but to date I have yet to
see that option work. Your best bet is to install a
different hard drive, re-install Windows 2000 to it then
slave your old drive and copy over any data files you need.

Thanks for the response.
Last night I tried what you suggested (installed a brand new hard
drive).
Formatted it, then started the Win 2000 install process.
It started going through the list of files it's preparing then you get
to the
screen which asks you to hit "Enter" for install; "R" for repair; "F3"
to exit.
I hit enter and in the bottom left corner I get "Examining disk
configuration", then it hangs. Damn frustrating. Maybe my mobo is
shot.