New motherboard won't let XP start

[Ira Schonfeld]

I had to change a motherboard on an existing WinXP setup
(ASUS P4B266 to ASUS P4PE). Now WinXP will not start up.
It begins to boot, and goes right to a blue screen then
immediately reboots. The blue screen is flashes by very
quickly - if you didn't know to look for it you wouldn't
see it. This happens very early in the startup process,
before the Windows XP splash screen even comes up. I've
tried Safe mode, logged, VGA, etc. - none of these help.
On the logged start, I see AGP440 as the last item and
tried disabling it - no help either, probably what gets
loaded next. The system itself (hard drive) is completely
workable - I can take the hard drive out and install into
another machine with the original configuration and it
works well, but I need to get this system back up and
can't get an identical motherboard replacment.

Question: How can I get it to stop on the blue screen so I
can see the error?

Question: How can I get this resolved - the actual system
is heavily loaded and wiping the drive is not an option.

Note: I would have posted this to the Certified Partner
newsgroup, but it says it's not available.

Thanks.

 

[Chris Lanier]

You need to do a Windows XP Repair Install when adding/changing system
hardware.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Normally, unless the new motherboard is virtually identical to the
old one (same chipset, same IDE controllers, same BIOS version, etc.),
you'll need to perform a repair (a.k.a. in-place upgrade)
installation, at the very least:

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341

As always when undertaking such a significant change, back up any
important data before starting.

This may also require re-activation. If it's been more than 120
days since you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most
likely be able to activate via the internet without problem. If it's
been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone call.


Bruce Chambers

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[Hans-Georg Michna]

Ira,

the repair installation has already been mentioned, so I'll just
add one other possible way.

It could be the disk controller driver. If you remove that
before you swap the motherboard (now, of course, you would have
to move the disk to some other computer temporarily), you can
try to go into Device Manager, remove the IDE (ATA/ATAPI)
controller driver and replace it with the generic Microsoft
driver.

The offending driver could also be some chip set driver. You may
be able to remove or replace that too, but then the system would
no longer boot on the original motherboard. You would then have
to flee forward or resort to a repair installation anyway.

More details at http://www.michna.com/kb/WxMove.htm.

Hans-Georg