PC won't boot after new motherboard fitted

[Trevor]

My Medion 8383 wouldn't power up and the local computer shop diagnosed a
duff motherboard.

I took out my HD and put a blank brand new one in before I took it to the
shop.

They fitted the new MB and said it was booting fine.

I have now connected up the original HD, so just moved the power and data
cables over from the new HD to my original.

It won't boot up. I get a black screen offering to boot nortmally, safe
mode, last good configuration, all options return to this screen. I get the
black Wiundows screen with the couloured window as it boots up.

Apart from take it back to the shop, is there anything I could try?

 

[Gordon]

My Medion 8383 wouldn't power up and the local computer shop diagnosed a
duff motherboard.

I took out my HD and put a blank brand new one in before I took it to the
shop.

They fitted the new MB and said it was booting fine.

I have now connected up the original HD, so just moved the power and data
cables over from the new HD to my original.

It won't boot up. I get a black screen offering to boot nortmally, safe
mode, last good configuration, all options return to this screen. I get the
black Wiundows screen with the couloured window as it boots up.

Apart from take it back to the shop, is there anything I could try?

A new motherboard generally requires a repair install of XP....

 

[GT]

A new motherboard generally requires a repair install of XP....

If you get someone to do it who doesn't know how to change a few drivers in
safe mode!

 

[Trevor]

If you get someone to do it who doesn't know how to change a few drivers
in safe mode!

I don't follow?

 

[Gordon]

If you get someone to do it who doesn't know how to change a few drivers in
safe mode!

The OP says it won't boot AT ALL......not even in safe mode.

 

[GT]

The OP says it won't boot AT ALL......not even in safe mode.

I misread your reply - I read re-install, but you actually said repair
install. That will teach me to speed read!

 

[GT]

I don't follow?

A new motherboard doesn't necessarily require a new install of Windows,
which is what I thought Gordon meant. However I misread Gordon's reply, so
please ignore my last statement.

 

[Trevor]

I misread your reply - I read re-install, but you actually said repair
install. That will teach me to speed read!

Have tried booting from recovery CD but its not recognising either CD drive
and won't go into the bios.

 

[GT]

Have tried booting from recovery CD but its not recognising either CD
drive and won't go into the bios.

This last tiny bit of information suggests something immediately to me:
Perhaps the jumpers on your drives are wrong. Do you have the boot drive and
your CD drive on the same IDE cable (master and slave). Check the hard drive
is set to master and check the CD Rom is set to slave.

Not going into the bios could be because you have a USB keyboard? You need
to wait until the POST screen is nearly finished before you press del (or
f1). Or just plug in a PS/2 keyboard.

 

[Trevor]

This last tiny bit of information suggests something immediately to me:
Perhaps the jumpers on your drives are wrong. Do you have the boot drive
and your CD drive on the same IDE cable (master and slave). Check the hard
drive is set to master and check the CD Rom is set to slave.

Not going into the bios could be because you have a USB keyboard? You need
to wait until the POST screen is nearly finished before you press del (or
f1). Or just plug in a PS/2 keyboard.

Can now get into BIOS. CD is set as first boot device (but it doesn't
recognise it).

The 2 CD drives are on a wide ribbon cable going into the MB. The HD is a
thin red SATA cable connecting to the MB.

I thought you didn't have to worry about master and slave with XP?

How do I set them?

The original HD certainly hasn't been changed since the MB packed in and had
been that way for 3 years. With the original HD in I can get to the screen
that gives you boot options but it only shows HD and card reader.

At the moment I have a brand new HD in with no operating system on as I
gave it to the shop - they said it was booting and seeing this drive, but I
just get a message boot drive failure

 

[Trevor]

This last tiny bit of information suggests something immediately to me:
Perhaps the jumpers on your drives are wrong. Do you have the boot drive
and your CD drive on the same IDE cable (master and slave). Check the hard
drive is set to master and check the CD Rom is set to slave.

Not going into the bios could be because you have a USB keyboard? You need
to wait until the POST screen is nearly finished before you press del (or
f1). Or just plug in a PS/2 keyboard.

Can now get into BIOS. CD is set as first boot device (but it doesn't
recognise it).

The 2 CD drives are on a wide ribbon cable going into the MB. The HD is a
thin red SATA cable connecting to the MB.

I thought you didn't have to worry about master and slave with XP?

How do I set them?

The original HD certainly hasn't been changed since the MB packed in and had
been that way for 3 years. With the original HD in I can get to the screen
that gives you boot options but it only shows HD and card reader.

At the moment I have a brand new HD in with no operating system on as I
gave it to the shop - they said it was booting and seeing this drive, but I
just get a message boot drive failure

 

[DaveW]

WHENEVER you change the motherboard that has been used with a given
harddrive containing a previous install of Windows, then you MUST reformat
the harddrive and do a fresh install of the OS. Otherwise you get the kinds
of problems that you are describing. This is due to the hardware changes
between the two different motherboards.

 

[Trevor]

I'm taking the PC back to the shop today. If I give him a new blank HD and
the XP disks to install, will it recognise my original HD with data (and XP)
on it if I put it in when I get it home or will the 2 operating systems
confuse things? I am trying to find ways of not taking my original HD to the
shop.

Does your explanation cover why it won't boot from CD?

What would the shop do to get it booting from CD to allow them to reinstall
XP?

 

[Gordon]

I misread your reply - I read re-install, but you actually said repair
install. That will teach me to speed read!

ROTFL!

 

[GT]

If you get someone to do it who doesn't know how to change a few

Can now get into BIOS. CD is set as first boot device (but it doesn't
recognise it).

The 2 CD drives are on a wide ribbon cable going into the MB. The HD is a
thin red SATA cable connecting to the MB.

I thought you didn't have to worry about master and slave with XP?

The master/slave settings are a physical hardware setting and apply
regardless of operating system. If the CD and HD on the same cable are both
set to master or slave, then you will experience problems exactly like you
are seeing. SATA does not have master/slave as there is only 1 device per
channel.

How do I set them?

On the rear of the EIDE devices there should be a jumper with about 6 or so
pins. Next to the pins there should be writing on the circuit board, or a
picture on the drive lable. 'MS' is master, 'CS' is cable select and 'SL' is
slave. I would set the hard drive to master, the DVD to slave on the same
cable. Cable select means that the first device on the cable is the master
and the second device is the slave, but I would personally use MS and SL

The original HD certainly hasn't been changed since the MB packed in and
had been that way for 3 years. With the original HD in I can get to the
screen that gives you boot options but it only shows HD and card reader.

So perhaps the DVD is set to the same master/slave setting?

At the moment I have a brand new HD in with no operating system on as I
gave it to the shop - they said it was booting and seeing this drive, but
I just get a message boot drive failure

To be expected if you have no operating system on the drive!

 

[GT]

WHENEVER you change the motherboard that has been used with a given
harddrive containing a previous install of Windows, then you MUST reformat
the harddrive and do a fresh install of the OS. Otherwise you get the
kinds of problems that you are describing. This is due to the hardware
changes between the two different motherboards.

This is not true. There is no need to re-format the hard drive and
re-install the operating system for any hardware changes. The most complex
change as far as an OS goes is a change from single to dual processor - this
will require some work to get the APCI working properly, but a re-install of
the OS is a last resort.

Incidentally, Dave - you chopped off all the previous message with no quote
again, so anyone reading this who doesn't have the original message won't
have a clue what you are talking about and why you have posted this message.
The 'two dashes + space' at the end of your message is a marker indicating
that everything after that point is signatures and is cut off!

 

[kony]

This is not true. There is no need to re-format the hard drive and
re-install the operating system for any hardware changes.

DaveW's been told this too many times to count and still
mindlessly posts it, usually adding the phrase "nasty
registry errors".