Installing Windows 2000 Pro - ASUS MOTHERBOARD WOES

[Jim]

I have a very fine install of W2000 Pro, and have all the latest
updates and upgrades, and use it for video work, absolutely
no problems. I decided to upgrade motherboard, processor to something
quite a bit faster, and made the mistake of choosing ASUS motherboard.
I did the install, and ALMOST everything went well, but the built-in
LAN would not work correctly, it would transmit packets but not
receive any.

I went to ASUS web site, did all their troubleshooting, and it would
not pass the last test, pinging the gateway successfully under DOS (of
course, as it would not receive packets).

I then called a rude person at ASUS tech support, and as soon as I
mentioned the problem he told me I had to do a "new install of
Windows" to make the network work properly. I was aghast, as the
purpose of the motherboard BIOS is to keep things like this from
happening. I later also tried installing another PCI Network card,
and apparently ASUS board would not let this work correctly either.

The tech guy at ASUS told me it would be a waste of time trying to
remove all the old drivers, as ONLY A FRESH INSTALL OF WINDOWS WILL
FIX THE LAN PROBLEM. He told me that programs were written to remove
ALL the lan drivers and that would still not correct the problem, ONLY
A FRESH INSTALL. I asked him why this is not mentioned in the
advertising for the board and he said "it's common knowledge that ASUS
boards require this", but I never heard of this before. Needless to
say I knew he was BS'ing me and he expected me to believe it.

So, my question is, is it possible to do a "fresh install" of W2000
Pro without losing all my many video programs and other stuff already
installed? I have installed many motherboards as upgrades in the past
(including the EPOCH one I am using now with W2000 Pro) and never
encountered this problem, and don't even have an idea of why an old
install of Windows would prevent the LAN from working correctly if you
had the correct drivers. Surely this must be a big boo boo by ASUS
design folks.

Anyway, is there any way to re-install Windows 2000 Pro over the
existing install without losing everything, or would I have to wipe
the drive and start from scratch. If I do a fresh install would I
have to redo all the service packs and hundreds of security upgrades
again? How do you do a "fresh install of Windows"?

I'll probably send the board back (It was only marginally better
performance wise), but am curious about what could be done.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[Dave Patrick]

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=292175

What an In-Place Windows 2000 Upgrade Changes and What It Does Not Change
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=306952

Be sure to apply SP4 and these two below to your repair install before
connecting to any network. Internet included. (sasser, msblast)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/6/A/E6A04295-D2A8-40D0-A0C5-241BFECD095E/W2KSP4_EN.EXE
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.mspx

Then

Rollup 1 for Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...CF-8850-4531-B52B-BF28B324C662&displaylang=en



--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[DL]

If you change the mobo win2k/winxp is most unlikely to work without
problems, if it works at all, unless you do a repair installation

 

[Jim]

I ended up putting the Epox board back in, and it worked perfectly
except for the audio drivers, and after they were installed it worked
perfectly.

Thank you for all the assistance and will do the upgrades/updates to
2000 then try
it again.

Just what is a "repair installation", is that an option on the W2000
install CD? I'll do a search on it and see what I come up with.

Jim

 

[Jim]

Actually on this same computer, I started with a Spacewalker
motherboard w/pentium. I upgraded to MSI motherboard w/faster AMD
processor/memory, faster than the one before, had absolutely no
problems, just had to install new drivers, same install of windows
2000 Pro. Then I upgraded to this Epox motherboard and faster AMD
processor and memory, absolutely no problems, just had to install the
new drivers. It was only when I tried upgrading to the ASUS
motherboard that I had the network problem, and the tech at ASUS said
I had to do a "fresh" install and would lose all my installed programs
which is unacceptable. I just cannot see why not installing the new
LAN drivers (btw, it is the exact same RHINE drivers as far as I can
tell, because when I went back to the EPOX board everything worked
except the audio, which worked fine after reinstalling the Realtek 97
drivers.)

I always thought the purpose of the BIOS was to make the MB
transparent to the OS, no matter which MB you put in there the BIOS is
supposed to make it work with the OS. I guess it doesn't work that
way every time.

I called the vendor and he said to send it back they would give me
credit.

 

[DL]

You cannot move a win2k/winxp to a new mobo without doing a repair
installation. (at least it wont function correctly if at all)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
Once done you would need to either install chipset and other drivers from
your new mobo cd or from mobo web site
Do NOT use win update for drivers

If this is the same PC in which your usb drive is undetected/invisible then
likely once the above is done it will be fine

 

[Jim]

Forgot to mention something else strange about the ASUS motherboard.
After talking with their tech people, I went into BIOS and disabled
the on board LAN completely. So, wanting to keep the motherboard
after all the effort swapping things out, I installed a Linksys
ethernet card in one of the PCI slots. Guess what? It would not work
either. This makes me really wonder just what the heck is going on.

Jim

 

[Dave Patrick]

If the in-place upgrade failed then you're left with doing a clean install
which is always recommended in this case.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect