New motherboard and XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peter Kirk
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Peter Kirk

Hi there

the mother board in my computer stopped working - no idea what is wrong -
but anyway I got another one, and set it up with my existing hard disk. But,
Windows XP won't boot up with the new motherboard. (There's just a blank
screen with a flashing cursor in the top left. Sometimes it comes up with a
"safe bootup" screen, where I can select various types of boot up, but still
I only get a blank screen).

Is it possible XP cannot recognise all the new hardware all at once? I seem
to remember hearing that XP somehow "registers" itself with the hardware it
is installed on, and can't be used with other hardware - can this be
horribly true?

Thanks for any advice,
Peter
 
Try a repair install. This is normal procedure with such a massive
change in hardware.
If u have an oem machine u might be out of luck, as they don't allow
such changes.

Good Luck.
 
Thanks for the answer - but please can you clarify some things...

izzy said:
Try a repair install. This is normal procedure with such a massive change
in hardware.
Click to expand...

How do I start a repair install?
If u have an oem machine u might be out of luck, as they don't allow such
changes.
Click to expand...

I have a put-together-myself machine, made up of what parts I had, and what
were cheapest at the time. I bought the Windows XP CD at the same time as I
bought a piece of hardware - can't remember if it was the motherboard or
harddisk. (It was a requirement of the XP license that it was purchased
together with osme hardware apparently).
Good Luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Looks like I might need it. Might just be easiest to copy all the
contents of the disk to another disk and then completely re-install XP? Is
that possible with XP?
 
Peter Kirk said:
the mother board in my computer stopped working - no idea
what is wrong - but anyway I got another one, and set it
up with my existing hard disk. But, Windows XP won't boot
up with the new motherboard. (There's just a blank screen
with a flashing cursor in the top left. Sometimes it comes
up with a "safe bootup" screen, where I can select various
types of boot up, but still I only get a blank screen).
Click to expand...

Been there. Done that. Twice in fact.

The first thing you need to do is try a repair installation.
Boot from the WinXP cd and select "Repair installation".

My experience is that there's about an even chance that
it'll work. If it does work, there's about an even chance
that your system will be unstable afterwards.

You might want to cut to the chase and just reformat the HD
and do a clean installation. That's what I did when my
wife's machine went south.

In another message in this thread I noticed you said you
built this machine yourself from parts and that you have an
OEM WinXP disk that you bought along with some hardware.
Ditto in my case. Twice.

No matter what anyone else tells you, that is not an issue
in your case. You are perfectly within your rights and
license to use that disk to restore your computer to life.
When activation time comes, it'll probably go off without
incident. (Did in the case of my wife's machine.) If you do
have to make the phone call, give only such information as
is *necessary and sufficient* for activation. Do not
elaborate or offer any details that aren't asked for.
 
Yes, ... like what ?


Peter Kirk said:
Thanks for the answer - but please can you clarify some things...



How do I start a repair install?


I have a put-together-myself machine, made up of what parts I had, and
what were cheapest at the time. I bought the Windows XP CD at the same
time as I bought a piece of hardware - can't remember if it was the
motherboard or harddisk. (It was a requirement of the XP license that
it was purchased together with osme hardware apparently).


Thanks. Looks like I might need it. Might just be easiest to copy all
the contents of the disk to another disk and then completely
re-install XP? Is that possible with XP?
Click to expand...
 
Yes, ... like what ?

I wrote my questions further down in my post (under what you had
written).... but another poster has basically answered what I wanted to
know. Thanks for the help.
 
The first thing you need to do is try a repair installation. Boot from the
WinXP cd and select "Repair installation".

My experience is that there's about an even chance that it'll work. If it
does work, there's about an even chance that your system will be unstable
afterwards.

You might want to cut to the chase and just reformat the HD and do a clean
installation. That's what I did when my wife's machine went south.
Click to expand...

<snip>

Thanks, I think I'll just save the disk contents (documents etc) to another
disk, and do a re-install - and hope that activation works again.
 
Thanks for the answer - but please can you clarify some things...



How do I start a repair install?
Click to expand...

Access your BIOS, change you Boot order to Boot from CD first, then
place XP CD in the tray and reboot. Do as prompted to boot from the
CD. DO NOT select the first repair option, instead tell it to
install. When the Install starts, it will find your previous XP
version, and from there you can choose to "repair" that installation.

Doing this should allow you to keep your existing customizations, user
accounts and data. There's always a chance you could lose data, but
I've done hundreds of repair installs with no problems.
I have a put-together-myself machine, made up of what parts I had, and what
were cheapest at the time. I bought the Windows XP CD at the same time as I
bought a piece of hardware - can't remember if it was the motherboard or
harddisk. (It was a requirement of the XP license that it was purchased
together with osme hardware apparently).
Click to expand...

Don't let anybody lie to you about this. Can you use that CD and key?
Yes. Can you lie to MS so that it can be activated? Yes. Is it
something you can do according to the rules you agreed to abide by
when you accpeted the End User Licensing Agreement? NO.
Thanks. Looks like I might need it. Might just be easiest to copy all the
contents of the disk to another disk and then completely re-install XP? Is
that possible with XP?
Click to expand...

Just do a repair install I described above. All your data should be
intact when you are done.
 
In
Peter Kirk said:
Hi there

the mother board in my computer stopped working - no idea what is
wrong - but anyway I got another one, and set it up with my existing
hard disk. But, Windows XP won't boot up with the new motherboard.
(There's just a blank screen with a flashing cursor in the top left.
Sometimes it comes up with a "safe bootup" screen, where I can select
various types of boot up, but still I only get a blank screen).

Is it possible XP cannot recognise all the new hardware all at once?
I seem to remember hearing that XP somehow "registers" itself with
the hardware it is installed on, and can't be used with other
hardware - can this be horribly true?

Thanks for any advice,
Peter
Click to expand...

Click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into the address box
if using the web based newsgroup.
Move XP to new hardware.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
 
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