Power LED

[Bill]

I don't have a WinME Disk. This computer came with WinME already installed.
All I have is a recovery disk and a driver resource disk. My Cd Drive is
not working so I can't copy from the disks to my hard drive anyway. Will I
run into any trouble this way?
Bill

 

[kony]

I don't have a WinME Disk. This computer came with WinME already installed.
All I have is a recovery disk and a driver resource disk. My Cd Drive is
not working so I can't copy from the disks to my hard drive anyway. Will I
run into any trouble this way?
Bill

I advise you to get an optical drive. Sooner or later you'll need it,
might as well get that taken care of. I assume you mean the cd drive had
previously failed, is "broken". If I'm misunderstanding, that the drive
is simply not working because of the new motherboard, then hope that the
files are already on your hard drive. If they're not and you had a
regular OEM or retail WInME installation CD you could've booted to DOS
with a boot floppy or the CD and copied those files to the hard drive, but
with most OEM restoreable images they're in a password protected
compressed format that's not user restorable except using the OEM's
complete reinstall process, not what you want to do as you'll end up right
where you are now, needing to convert it to the new motherboard.

Search your hard drive for *.cab files.... the WinME installation CD
would've had a "win9x" folder on it with the installation files. It's
quite likely the majority if not all of those files are already on your
hard drive, perhaps in a WINDOWS/OPTIONS folder. A search for files named
"*.cab" might find them. If the system prompts for the windows CD during
the process of plug-n-playing the new hardware, you would need to point
(browse in the wizard) to that folder with the CAB files in it. It's
likely windows already has a record (in the registry) of where these files
are, but it would be preferred to know for sure beforehand, if it is
necessary to point the add hardware wizard to their location.

 

[Bill]

The CD and DVD drives are not working because of the mother board. Both hard
drives, my CD drive and my DVD drive show up in Bios but not in Device
Manager. I don't understand that. The on board USBs, Parallel Port and PCI
slots are not working. I don't understand that. I thought everything built
into the mother board would initialize. I know I do have some CAB files on
my hard disk so I'll see if I can find Win 9x.. Thanks.
Bill

 

[kony]

The CD and DVD drives are not working because of the mother board. Both hard
drives, my CD drive and my DVD drive show up in Bios but not in Device
Manager. I don't understand that. The on board USBs, Parallel Port and PCI
slots are not working. I don't understand that. I thought everything built
into the mother board would initialize. I know I do have some CAB files on
my hard disk so I'll see if I can find Win 9x.. Thanks.
Bill

You may not have a folder named "win9x" but still all (or at least the
files needed) of the files that are in it. When the OEM restoration image
is used, generally they do copy the setup files to the drive because quite
often when basic system configuration changes are made those files will be
accessed... perhaps transparently to the user since there is no
intervention needed for it to happen.

It is expected that you won't have access to optical drives or other misc.
motherboard features until you get the old motherboard's registry entries
removed and reboot a time or two (or three). That's not a sign of a
problem but rather typical.

The odds are that all you need to do is as I first mentioned, deleting
that registry subkey and then later if sound doesn't work, merging the
registry file I linked. After deleting that it's just a matter of
rebooting. If you can't boot the system to regular mode to accomplish
this then boot it to safe mode. With Win98 you can hit <F8> key right
after the BIOS enumeration screen to get to a boot menu when safe mode can
be chosen... I don't recall for certain but think the procedure is the
same for WinME. However that (booting to safe mode) is only needed that
first time prior to deleting the registry subkey, should not be necessary
afterwards.

If you like you can make a backup of that key just prior to deleting it...
with it highlighted just use the menu command "file"->"Export..." and name
it, save it wherever you want. Then it's simple enough to later merge
that file back if necessary.

 

[Zilog Jones]

I don't have a WinME Disk. This computer came with WinME already installed.
All I have is a recovery disk and a driver resource disk. My Cd Drive is
not working so I can't copy from the disks to my hard drive anyway. Will I
run into any trouble this way?
Bill

I know this sounds like one of those unhelpful-annoying-bastard
replies, but seriously, WinME is a hideous mess of an opertaing system
and it's probably better that you don't have the CD. Though saying
that my experience with Win98 was not great either. I would *HIGHLY*
recommend trying getting hold of Windows 2000 (and service pack 4, or
at least 3) - I got it last year and haven't once had a problem with
it (outside of Win95 programs not working, buggy freeware and my
idiocy) - I can barely remember what a BSOD looks like!

 

[Bill]

OK Kony do you mean to delete this whole line HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM or
just ENUM?
Bill

 

[CBFalconer]

I know this sounds like one of those unhelpful-annoying-bastard
replies, but seriously, WinME is a hideous mess of an opertaing
system and it's probably better that you don't have the CD.
Though saying that my experience with Win98 was not great either.
I would *HIGHLY* recommend trying getting hold of Windows 2000
(and service pack 4, or at least 3) - I got it last year and
haven't once had a problem with it (outside of Win95 programs not
working, buggy freeware and my idiocy) - I can barely remember
what a BSOD looks like!

I believe that once he gets the service pack he has to accept the
unholy EULA, which allows Micro$loth to invade his privacy,
destroy his system, insist on future upgrades and concomicant
payments (to Micro$loth, of course), etc. One way to avoid all
this is to stick with what he has, or any available earlier than
2000 versions. Another is to switch to some variety of Linux.

 

[kony]

OK Kony do you mean to delete this whole line HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM or
just ENUM?
Bill

Just ENUM. Highlight "ENUM" then delete it.

 

[Bill]

OK. I deleted NUM key. When I restarted my computer went to safe mode.
Message came up that video adapter needed to be installed. Wizard starded
and then locked up so I put Old NUM back in reg. I have an ATI Rage Fury
video card in the AGP slot. Could this give me trouble? There might be some
questions you might want to ask me to be sure I telling you every thing you
need to know about my system.
Bill

 

[kony]

OK. I deleted NUM key. When I restarted my computer went to safe mode.
Message came up that video adapter needed to be installed. Wizard starded
and then locked up so I put Old NUM back in reg. I have an ATI Rage Fury
video card in the AGP slot. Could this give me trouble? There might be some
questions you might want to ask me to be sure I telling you every thing you
need to know about my system.

You deleted the ENUM key, right?

You then did not choose to boot to safe mode, the system did so anyway? I
mean, did a popup box tell you it was in safe mode, are your sure it was
safe mode or were you assuming it was because the video was at low
resolution and color depth? It is suppose to be at that low res after
deleting the ENUM key, because you'd wiped out the prior hardware config.

When the messages come up, just ignore them if it won't work any other
way. If the system locks at some point you just reset it... but you don't
restore that registry key, just keep following the wizards and rebooting.

It's possible you didn't uninstall hardware drivers as I mentioned in one
of the first posts? ATI video card drivers are a PITA to begin with, if
you get stuck and need to choose a driver for it just choose "display a
list of devices", "show all hardware" and the top choice in the scrolling
menu is "[Standard display device], choose "standard VGA" (whichever is
the first choice).

I suspect that the only problem was your trying to "force" things. If the
system stops responding or whatever, you do not merge the reg file or
deviate from what I instructed, just reset and keep letting windows
redected hardware. Wait until you have all motherboard hardware detected
and install chipset driver before installing the video to anything other
than standard VGA.

Now you need to delete the ENUM key and start again.

 

[kony]

Now you need to delete the ENUM key and start again.

Also I either mentioned (think I did) or meant to mention, that after a
few reboots you'll need to go into device manager and for all duplicate
entries (multiple entries for same type of device) where one of them has
an exclaimation mark, delete those entries, then reboot. It's common for
the video, keyboard, and one or two other items to need their entries
deleted towards the end. What happens is that windows fist detects the
device as a generic one then later can't initialize the more specific
driver, so when you delete them that will happen on the next reboot. You
don't need to do that until after almost all other items have been
detected, not after each reboot.

 

[Bill]

OK Kony. I deleted The NUM Key, restarted computer, message box came up with
" Your display adapter is not configured properly. To correct this problem
click ok to start the hardware installation wizard". Low resolution screen
came up not safe mode{ you were right ). I did that and the wizard installed
5 or 6 things. After a box came up telling me to restart my computer for the
changes to take effect I rebooted. Same message came up " Your display
adapter is not configured properly To correct this problem click ok to
start the hardware installation wizard". I tried to let windows search for
driver and when I pushed next the wizard froze. I went back and deleted NUM
Key again. went throught same process only this time I tried to install the
Standard Display Driver but another message came up " You are using other
hardware that conflicts with the hardware you are trying to install. The
hardware will not work properly until you resolve the conflict". Then a box
came up " Rundll32 has caused an error in setupx.dll". I hope I got the
sequence of events right.
I did find in Add/Remove Programs [ ATI Display Driver, ATI Multimedia
Center, Sound Blaster Audio PCI ( my sound is not working ), Uninstall DSI
V.90 Modem ( my modem is not working ) and Win 9x Promise Ultra 133 Tx2
( tm ) IDE Controller]. Should I remove any of these? Keep in mind I have no
way of reinstalling the Win 9x one. Thanks a lot for your time.
Bill

 

[kony]

OK Kony. I deleted The NUM Key, restarted computer, message box came up with
" Your display adapter is not configured properly. To correct this problem
click ok to start the hardware installation wizard". Low resolution screen
came up not safe mode{ you were right ). I did that and the wizard installed
5 or 6 things. After a box came up telling me to restart my computer for the
changes to take effect I rebooted. Same message came up " Your display
adapter is not configured properly To correct this problem click ok to
start the hardware installation wizard". I tried to let windows search for
driver and when I pushed next the wizard froze. I went back and deleted NUM
Key again.

Only delete the ENUM key ONE time, the first time. After that first time,
do not delete it again, and do not merge the backup. Remember this
because it's wasting all your efforts so far, causing the whole process to
start over from the beginning.

If the system hangs, reset it. When the system reboots then let it
detect hardware again. Do NOT think that you need to correct the display,
do NOT try to, just finish up the hardware detection. It doesn't matter
that the display isn't correct, yet. If after a certain point you need to
cancel a video display wizard, not the main plug-n-play wizard, do cancel
it, or manually choose the standard vga driver. Either way, do not delete
the ENUM key or merge the backup.

went throught same process only this time I tried to install the
Standard Display Driver but another message came up " You are using other
hardware that conflicts with the hardware you are trying to install. The
hardware will not work properly until you resolve the conflict". Then a box
came up " Rundll32 has caused an error in setupx.dll". I hope I got the
sequence of events right.

I did find in Add/Remove Programs [ ATI Display Driver, ATI Multimedia
Center, Sound Blaster Audio PCI ( my sound is not working ), Uninstall DSI
V.90 Modem ( my modem is not working ) and Win 9x Promise Ultra 133 Tx2
( tm ) IDE Controller]. Should I remove any of these? Keep in mind I have no
way of reinstalling the Win 9x one. Thanks a lot for your time.

I already told you to remove those.
You have no way of reinstalling what "win 9x one"?

You should already have your drivers, available.

Let's start from the beginning again because the only reason I can see
that it's not working is that you are not following directions:

1) Have the drivers available
2) Remove drivers from add/remove hardware
3) Delete the ENUM key
4) Reboot again and again while windows redetects hardware
5) If it freezes, NOTHING HAS CHANGED. In other words, you do not
"react" in any way that deviates from what I wrote, except to reset the
machine. NO matter what windows prompts, if there is a cancel button you
are not forced to do anything with any particular device at any particular
time... just get the motherboard working and then you'll have optical
drive support and be able to install the modem driver if windows doesn't
do so automatically. It does not yet matter if any particular device
works or not. At the "end" of all this anything that doesn't work can be
handled by itself, installing the driver or deleting that from device
manager and having it redected.

6) If you get the chance to install the standard VGA driver now, do so,
but you should've already uninstalled the ati driver in add/remove
programs so it was in standard vga mode to begin with.

7) Forget about what works and doesn't. You are not trying to get things
to "work" at this point.... you are instead trying to finish detecting all
hardware, period. Forget about what works and just keep rebooting and if
it can't find a driver for something, you supply the driver. If you can't
supply the driver, skip it and move on. Later you'd be able to supply the
driver by deleting the item from Device Manager or in the Device Manager
properties for that device there's a driver update or change option.

8) After a certain point you will reboot and no new hardware will be
detected. At that point go into device manager and delete any device
types that have BOTH 1) multiple entries and 2) with one of those
entries having an exclaimation mark. Then when you reboot afterwards
those will be redetected.


It's really simpler than it sounds.
Basically all you're doing is removing the traces of the hardware. That
means drivers in add/remove programs and the ENUM reg key. After you do
both of those, you're in the same situation you'd be in if installing the
OS clean, that it's plug-n-playing everything. If something doesn't work
or hangs, move on and get back to that again later.

 

[Bill]

Removed ATI Video Driver. Deleted ENUM Key. Rebooted gray screen came up,
all my Icons and Add New Hardware Wizard. Pushed next for windows to search
for new PNP devices. Wizard didn't find any so automatically went to search
for non PNP devices. Wizard found some of those and installed them and told
me to restart my computer. I then reset and gray screen came up with box
saying " Your Display adapter is not configured properly. To correct this
problem click OK to start the hardware installation Wizard. This is where I
run into trouble because I only have two choices ( OK or Cancel ). I click
OK then Add New Hardware Wizard comes up and then my Icons. I click next and
wizard says windows will search for PNP devices. I push next and wizard
locks. I reset three time leaving it with the hour glass mouse pointer on
for a good while and the same thing happens. I thought I'd stop here for
further instructions. Something doesn't seem to be able to find or detect
any PNP devices. Thanks.
Bill

OK Kony. I deleted The NUM Key, restarted computer, message box came up with
" Your display adapter is not configured properly. To correct this problem
click ok to start the hardware installation wizard". Low resolution screen
came up not safe mode{ you were right ). I did that and the wizard installed
5 or 6 things. After a box came up telling me to restart my computer for the
changes to take effect I rebooted. Same message came up " Your display
adapter is not configured properly To correct this problem click ok to
start the hardware installation wizard". I tried to let windows search for
driver and when I pushed next the wizard froze. I went back and deleted NUM
Key again.

Only delete the ENUM key ONE time, the first time. After that first time,
do not delete it again, and do not merge the backup. Remember this
because it's wasting all your efforts so far, causing the whole process to
start over from the beginning.

If the system hangs, reset it. When the system reboots then let it
detect hardware again. Do NOT think that you need to correct the display,
do NOT try to, just finish up the hardware detection. It doesn't matter
that the display isn't correct, yet. If after a certain point you need to
cancel a video display wizard, not the main plug-n-play wizard, do cancel
it, or manually choose the standard vga driver. Either way, do not delete
the ENUM key or merge the backup.

went throught same process only this time I tried to install the
Standard Display Driver but another message came up " You are using other
hardware that conflicts with the hardware you are trying to install. The
hardware will not work properly until you resolve the conflict". Then a box
came up " Rundll32 has caused an error in setupx.dll". I hope I got the
sequence of events right.

I did find in Add/Remove Programs [ ATI Display Driver, ATI Multimedia
Center, Sound Blaster Audio PCI ( my sound is not working ), Uninstall DSI
V.90 Modem ( my modem is not working ) and Win 9x Promise Ultra 133 Tx2
( tm ) IDE Controller]. Should I remove any of these? Keep in mind I have no
way of reinstalling the Win 9x one. Thanks a lot for your time.

I already told you to remove those.
You have no way of reinstalling what "win 9x one"?

You should already have your drivers, available.

Let's start from the beginning again because the only reason I can see
that it's not working is that you are not following directions:

1) Have the drivers available
2) Remove drivers from add/remove hardware
3) Delete the ENUM key
4) Reboot again and again while windows redetects hardware
5) If it freezes, NOTHING HAS CHANGED. In other words, you do not
"react" in any way that deviates from what I wrote, except to reset the
machine. NO matter what windows prompts, if there is a cancel button you
are not forced to do anything with any particular device at any particular
time... just get the motherboard working and then you'll have optical
drive support and be able to install the modem driver if windows doesn't
do so automatically. It does not yet matter if any particular device
works or not. At the "end" of all this anything that doesn't work can be
handled by itself, installing the driver or deleting that from device
manager and having it redected.

6) If you get the chance to install the standard VGA driver now, do so,
but you should've already uninstalled the ati driver in add/remove
programs so it was in standard vga mode to begin with.

7) Forget about what works and doesn't. You are not trying to get things
to "work" at this point.... you are instead trying to finish detecting all
hardware, period. Forget about what works and just keep rebooting and if
it can't find a driver for something, you supply the driver. If you can't
supply the driver, skip it and move on. Later you'd be able to supply the
driver by deleting the item from Device Manager or in the Device Manager
properties for that device there's a driver update or change option.

8) After a certain point you will reboot and no new hardware will be
detected. At that point go into device manager and delete any device
types that have BOTH 1) multiple entries and 2) with one of those
entries having an exclaimation mark. Then when you reboot afterwards
those will be redetected.


It's really simpler than it sounds.
Basically all you're doing is removing the traces of the hardware. That
means drivers in add/remove programs and the ENUM reg key. After you do
both of those, you're in the same situation you'd be in if installing the
OS clean, that it's plug-n-playing everything. If something doesn't work
or hangs, move on and get back to that again later.

 

[kony]

Removed ATI Video Driver. Deleted ENUM Key. Rebooted gray screen came up,
all my Icons and Add New Hardware Wizard. Pushed next for windows to search
for new PNP devices. Wizard didn't find any so automatically went to search
for non PNP devices. Wizard found some of those and installed them and told
me to restart my computer. I then reset and gray screen came up with box
saying " Your Display adapter is not configured properly. To correct this
problem click OK to start the hardware installation Wizard. This is where I
run into trouble because I only have two choices ( OK or Cancel ).

You run into trouble with either choice, or do you run into trouble
choosing "OK" but you keep choosing "OK"? That might be a hint. If
choosing "OK" means it crashes, then cancel it. Do not feel "forced" to
do something, anything can be cancelled and retried later.

Windows should've found quite a few PNP devices that first time. What
motherboard make/model is this?

I click
OK then Add New Hardware Wizard comes up and then my Icons. I click next and
wizard says windows will search for PNP devices. I push next and wizard
locks.

Are you sure this system is stable? I mean, new motherboard having never
ran an OS... you may be getting lockups because the system is crashing.
Is the power supply a decent name-brand, and what's it's wattage? Have
you checked the memory for several hours with http://www.memtest86.com ?
Memtest86 will make a floppy, it doesn't need windows to run. Stability
may not be the problem, but plug-n-playing new devices doesn't generally
crash over and over again.

I reset three time leaving it with the hour glass mouse pointer on
for a good while and the same thing happens.

What's a "good while"? After the first couple times I'd leave it sitting
for at least a couple minutes.

I thought I'd stop here for
further instructions. Something doesn't seem to be able to find or detect
any PNP devices. Thanks.
Bill

If all else fails, pull out any cards and disable any motherboard features
(by jumper or bios setting) that are nonessential.

I'm at a loss as to why what is usually easy has become so problematic...
It is common for the display adapter to be unrecognized after the boot,
but I'm wondering if you're not handling that correctly, perhaps you're
still trying to set the display adapter when you shouldn't be. Do not try
to get the display changed, either cancel that wizard or manually choose
the standard VGA, do not let it autodetect that it's an ATI card and
install a driver yet. If you had another video card you might temporarily
install it.

Have you disabled everything else that was loading at boot? Nothing
showing in MSCONFIG startup tab?

An alternative way of doing this which is "usually" more difficult but
perhaps not in this case, is to NOT delete the ENUM registry key (which in
this case would mean restoring that backup you made) then when the system
boots and finds overlap in detected devices, you'd delete each pair of
conflicting devices in Device Manager. That is usually more time
consuming but worth trying if not of the above seems to help.

 

[Bill]

Hey Kony
First let me say I really value yor help. I'm no where near an expert on
computers so please don't get too discusted with me when I don't do exactly
what you say. It's because I not sure what to do when my computer does not
react correctly. You are right I have , in another machine some years ago,
deleted the NUM key and everything was redetected with no trouble so I don't
know what's wrong with this machine. I agree that my first priorty is to get
the Mother Board working. I haven't been trying to anything with the
graphics card, in fact the change tab is grayed out so I can't use it. I
belive the system is stable because I can access and open my programs. When
the Add New Hardware application hangs, all I have to do is push
Alt-Control-Delete and End applacation and I do not have to reboot. I am
running the memory test application you suggested as I am writing this
email. I also remove all my PCI cards except the ATI video card ( I don't
have another one to try ). I unpluged my slave Hard Drive, my DVD and my
CDRW. I put the CDRW on the same IDE cable as my primary Hard Drive and the
system cannot read from the Hard Drive. The CDRW shows up in BIOS and also
in the Post Screen. When I unplug the CDRW from primary IDE and connect It
to the secondary IDE the computer boots ok but CDRW does not work. I went to
Safe Mode and Device Manager and every device I have was still there but
with duplicates so I deleted all but one of each. However I still can't use
any of my I/O devices. I did learn that even though my printer will not work
under windows it will work under dos. At least, if I am correct, the mother
board did inialize the port in dos. Is this sugnificant? If you have any
other suggestion that I can use in Safe Mode or in reduced resolution mode
please feel free. I also did go to start up and check all items so nothing
in there would be in boot up. Still no change so I rechecked them all. the
reason I put everything back like it was each time, I'm concerned I might
forget what I've done. I'll let you know about the mem. test results. Thanks
again.
Bill

 

[kony]

Hey Kony
First let me say I really value yor help. I'm no where near an expert on
computers so please don't get too discusted with me when I don't do exactly
what you say. It's because I not sure what to do when my computer does not
react correctly. You are right I have , in another machine some years ago,
deleted the NUM key and everything was redetected with no trouble so I don't
know what's wrong with this machine. I agree that my first priorty is to get
the Mother Board working. I haven't been trying to anything with the
graphics card, in fact the change tab is grayed out so I can't use it. I
belive the system is stable because I can access and open my programs. When
the Add New Hardware application hangs, all I have to do is push
Alt-Control-Delete and End applacation and I do not have to reboot. I am
running the memory test application you suggested as I am writing this
email. I also remove all my PCI cards except the ATI video card ( I don't
have another one to try ). I unpluged my slave Hard Drive, my DVD and my
CDRW. I put the CDRW on the same IDE cable as my primary Hard Drive and the
system cannot read from the Hard Drive. The CDRW shows up in BIOS and also
in the Post Screen. When I unplug the CDRW from primary IDE and connect It
to the secondary IDE the computer boots ok but CDRW does not work. I went to
Safe Mode and Device Manager and every device I have was still there but
with duplicates so I deleted all but one of each. However I still can't use
any of my I/O devices. I did learn that even though my printer will not work
under windows it will work under dos. At least, if I am correct, the mother
board did inialize the port in dos. Is this sugnificant? If you have any
other suggestion that I can use in Safe Mode or in reduced resolution mode
please feel free. I also did go to start up and check all items so nothing
in there would be in boot up. Still no change so I rechecked them all. the
reason I put everything back like it was each time, I'm concerned I might
forget what I've done. I'll let you know about the mem. test results. Thanks
again.
Bill

Bill, did you ever mention what motherboard make/model this is? Perhaps
you did and I missed it. Some boards are quite reliant on the drivers,
would only have a basic level of generic support until the chipset drivers
are installed, like nForce boards.

If you have duplicates of devices, you can't simply delete one so only
(the other) one is remaining... if you knew for sure which entry was valid
you could delete only the other one but without konwing this you'll need
to delete both of the duplicate entries and then the system should
redetect at least one of them, though of course some entries should have
valid duplicates like entries under the "system" section, USB, perhaps a
couple of com ports.

It's not significant that you can print in dos, that merely means you
have the bios setting for the LPT port enabled, working in general. Well
I suppose it is significant to the extent that it may mean that Windows
was locking up in the Hardware Detection phase before it even detected the
basic ports on the board, which is usually the first go-round or at least
after a reboot.

At this point I'm stumped. if the machine were in front of me I'd likely
be able to resolve this but it's a bit different trying to do it via
usenet. After you'd deleted the ENUM key you might see what's remaining
in Device Manager... there should be little to nothing left in Device
Manager once that ENUM key is deleted.

Another alternative is that instead of deleting the whole ENUM registry
entry, you could go into Device Manager and manually delete each entry,
though some are tied to common items, for example if you deleted the
PCI Bus entry under the System category it would remove all devices
attached to that bus also, if I remember correctly.

How much memory do you have installed? If it's 512MB or more, you may
need to add a line into your SYSTEM.INI file. If there's any question
about the stability of the system you might also (temporarily) try
reducing the clock speed, underclocking it via the BIOS or jumper
settings. The information regarding 512MB of memory and the system.ini
entry you'd want to add is here:
http://www.plasma-online.de/index.h...ne.de/english/help/solutions/win9x_512mb.html

Another alternative, if you could find someone else running WinME on that
board, is to have them export their registry ENUM key as you did, then you
could merge it... would have a few items different but the more important
bits would be correct.

I'm sure there's something I'm overlooking as to why your system keeps
hanging but at the moment I'm not sure why. You might google search that,
not necessarily pertaining to a new motherboard but simply the issue of a
hanging during the add hardware wizard.

 

[Bill]

I ment to tell you the Mother Board Brand on my last post but I forgot. It's
a SYNTAX SV266AD with VIA KT266A + VT8235 chipset. I got a cheap one because
this is the first time I installed a Mother Board and I figuered If I
trashed it I wouldn't loose much. I bought 256mb ddr ram with it and used my
same 1ghz processor off my bad board. I did a 8hr memory test and it said It
passed 24 tries I guess with 0 errors. I don't know much about BIOS but I
did notice a parameter ( PNP OS Installed NO, default, or Yes ) I reset it
to yes. Also should I reset any parameters that allows BIOS to make the
decessions, to a setting that allows windows to make the dicessions, such as
IRQ, Dim, etc. from auto to manual? I might be wrong but to me it seemed a
lot simpler when I used dos to set everything because I did it myself. I do
know it is a little unfair to you trying to explain and sometimes read
between the lines in trying to help someone this way. Like I said I value
your suggestions. In this system I have a 160GB hard drive slave which I
copied my entire c drive to so I could always go back and replace any files.
There is a phone number I can call for tech. assistance, do think it would
be worth a long distance call? In the past I've had more luck with these
news groups.
Bill

 

[kony]

I ment to tell you the Mother Board Brand on my last post but I forgot. It's
a SYNTAX SV266AD with VIA KT266A + VT8235 chipset. I got a cheap one because
this is the first time I installed a Mother Board and I figuered If I
trashed it I wouldn't loose much. I bought 256mb ddr ram with it and used my
same 1ghz processor off my bad board. I did a 8hr memory test and it said It
passed 24 tries I guess with 0 errors. I don't know much about BIOS but I
did notice a parameter ( PNP OS Installed NO, default, or Yes ) I reset it
to yes.

Usually the PNP OS Installed option can be set either way, it doesn't
prevent windows from running the Add Hardware Wizard.

Also should I reset any parameters that allows BIOS to make the
decessions, to a setting that allows windows to make the dicessions, such as
IRQ, Dim, etc. from auto to manual?

WIndows doesn't make those "decisions", it's either a value the bios
chooses or one you manully select. Now that you've tested the memory,
leave it and the related FSB, Memory Bus, and timing parameters alone.
IRQ set to auto should also be fine, it should've been set that way by
default. Actually the entire board should've been set to the bios
defaults originally, if it isn't now you might temporarily clear the CMOS
and keep all settings at the defaults (perhaps set the time/date, boot
drive, only these types of very basic settings), then later if/when you
get the OS up and running stabily you can reexplore the bios.

I might be wrong but to me it seemed a
lot simpler when I used dos to set everything because I did it myself.

It is usally quite simply to do this now, it typically takes less than 10
minutes if the drivers and OS installation files are on the hard drive...
you just ran into a snag.

I do
know it is a little unfair to you trying to explain and sometimes read
between the lines in trying to help someone this way. Like I said I value
your suggestions. In this system I have a 160GB hard drive slave which I
copied my entire c drive to so I could always go back and replace any files.

Does this board's bios support 160GB drives?

There is a phone number I can call for tech. assistance, do think it would
be worth a long distance call? In the past I've had more luck with these
news groups.
Bill

I seriously doubt they're going to be able to help at all with this, it's
almost certain they'd tell you to format the drive and reinstall fresh.
Which, right about now doesn't seem like such a bad idea except that
you're starting out with an OEM OS image (restoration disc) , not the full
Windows Installation CD, correct?

I'm still thinking the issue to focus on is WHY the Add Hardware wizard is
hanging... that seems obvious enough but it might not really have anything
to do with this being a migration of the existing OS installation.

Microsoft's website or other general Goggle searchs may find some answers,
there are a few links I'll post but I could only make poor guesses about
some of them without the system in front of me.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;264395
Above link refers to older parts, but might still apply, simply they
didn't test it with newer parts as they hit the market... same situation
applies to other links. However, I do recall getting at least Win98SE to
do what you're trying to with a KT266A chipset and an ATI video card,
though it was a while back, I don't recall particulars, nothing seemed
memorable/eventful, it did work.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;281967
http://search.microsoft.com/search/results.aspx?st=b&na=80&qu=ME+hardware+detection+hang&View=en-us


_IF_ you have all the windows setup files on your drive it may still be
possible to reinstall WinME, overtop of the existing installation or by
copying them to the other drive then formatting and starting over. If you
have all the cabs but are only missing something like the setup executable
and/or configuration files you might be able to find them with a Google
search.

 

[Bill]

Hi Kony
I forgot to tell you what my power supply is. I have an ANTEC 350 watt
ATX12V. I have an ATA card that came with the 160 ghz hard drive installed.
Both hard drives work. I will do some searches using google and MS and also
the links you gave. After my 1ghz computer went bad I had to go back to my
old 586 and it's so slow it drives me crazy. Is there a site that explains
the Register in detail? Thanks for the help and suggestions.
Bill