WINxp will not start in any mode

[Andrew Bestfrenn]

I am cobbling together a system consisting of an 8 gig hd formatted with winxp,
a 750 K6 processor, asus a7 motherboard, 128 meg RAM

When I turn it on I get the following message:

--
We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start
successfully. A recent hardware or software change might
have caused this.
If startup was interrupted due to power failure, or because the power
or reset button was pressed, or if you are not sure what caused the
problem, choose Start Windows Normally (from the list below):

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt
Last Known Good Configuration
Start Windows Normally

---

None of the above listed options will work.
All thre Safe Mode options take me into a dead list of files and nothing happens.
Last Known Good Configuration takes me to a blank black screen and nothing
happens.
Start Windows Normally just freezes the screen in place and nothing happens.

If anyone has any idea what is going on, please post it

later,

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

From your description, it sounds as if WinXP had been installed on
the hard drive while the hard drive was part of another computer. If
this is the case, what you're seeing is perfectly normal.

Normally, assuming a retail license, 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 will probably 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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