New Motherboard! Why? Error Message. Please help.

[Tony Turtle]

I have just installed a new motherboard and processor but
cannot get the pC to boot up. I'm getting a message
saying "Primary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable
installed" message and have no idea what this means.

 

[Bob Harris]

If the main (possible only) hard drive is rated ATA/100 or 133, XP demands
that it be conected to the motherboard via an 80-pin cable, not a 40-pin
cable. Such a cable often comes with a new disk, or can be purchased at
most major PC stores. An older PC probably has a 40-pin cable, especially
it its disks were rated ATA/66 or less. Note that win98 would not have
complained about this, but then it also does not do as much hardware
checking as does XP.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Did you remember to connect the cable from the motherbaord to the hard
drive? You may need to change settings in the BIOS. Also, if you had
XP installed previously on the hard drive you are connecting, you will
need to perform a repair install. Post a follow up with more info and
after you have checked the above

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Excellent point and the 80-pin cable should have come with the new
motherboard. I would like to know if he got this message before or
after loading into Windows.

 

[Tony Turtle]

Well thanks for the prompt response!

The PC I am having problems with is my secondary PC on a
direct Network link to the one I'm using now. I upgraded
the motherboard on the "main" PC no problem.

I am running XP (on both machines) and have retained all
the old hardware DVD Rom, CD Rom, Floppy, and HDD with
the "old" original installation of XP on it.
I think I also used the old IDE cabling as the new one
wasn't long enough, but.. is there a way of telling which
was the new IDE cable?

New motherboard that is giving me the problem is a
PCCHIPS A7V8-X SKT A KT400 8x AGP DDR Sound/LAN/USB2
board.

Tony

 

[Guest]

Sorry,
I can get into the BIOS ok, but get the option to boot
into safe mode, safe mode with networking, Load Windows
Normally, etc but the PC re-boots after that. Only by
disconnecting the Floppy Drive could I get the PC
to "freeze" and let me read the error message.

Tony

 

[Tony Turtle]

In my haste to upgrade two PC's I omitted to get a new
graphics card (old one had integrated graphics. (D'Oh!)
Will re-boot with the 80 pin cable and be back soon (I
hope)

Tony

 

[Tony Turtle]

OK. 80 pin cable installed (I found it) but after getting
to the "Start Windows Normally" stage and pressing enter,
PC Reboots on its own still. I cannot get past that
stage. A blue screen of death appears briefly but not for
long enough for me to note down the error message.

Will a repair install of XP overcome this or is there
another hardware problem?

As I said, I can get into BIOS so repair of XP shouldn't
be a problem.

 

[Thomas Wendell]

There are answers to that 80-conductor cable in this thread. But after
swapping motherboard and processor, you have to do a repair install to get
XP to properly recognize installed hardware, as the new mobo is acompletly
different animal, chipset and other stuff on it.

Boot from XP CD (hope yours has SP1 (or SP2) slipstreamed), select install
on first screen where it asks, and repair on second asking screen

--
Tumppi
Reply to group
=================================================
Most learned on nntp://news.mircosoft.com
Helsinki, Finland (remove _NOSPAM)
(translations from FI/SE not always accurate)
=================================================

 

[Tony]

I got the 80 Core cable problem sorted. However, when I
try to do a Repair, it gets to "Which sector do you want
to repair? 1. C:\WINDOWS - Press enter to exit" !!
If I press "1" it does nothing, If I do nothing,
er..nothing happens, If I press Enter, it re-boots. It
doesn't want to work.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I have just installed a new motherboard and processor but
cannot get the pC to boot up. I'm getting a message
saying "Primary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable
installed" message and have no idea what this means.

The error message is clearly telling you that you don't have the
correct IDE ribbon cable connecting the hard drive to the motherboard
for optimum performance.

Normally, and assuming a retail license (many OEM installations
and licenses are not transferable to a new motherboard - check yours
before starting), unless the new motherboard is virtually identical
(same chipset, same IDE controllers, same BIOS version, etc.) to the
one on which the WinXP installation was originally performed, 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 also require re-activation, unless you have a Volume
Licensed version of WinXP Pro installed. 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

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever
count on having both at once. - RAH

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Oooh, not the Recovery Console. Boot off the XP CD, choose to INSTALL,
then it will find the existing OS and offer to repair it, then press R
to repair.