I’m working on a kiosk machine whose motherboard died. After replacing the board, Windows XP refuses to boot, unsuprisingly. It displays the splash screen for a brief moment, then reboots. Safe mode is also unbootable. Unfortunately, the only source for the kiosk software is a image restore CD, which restores the unbootable Windows configuration along with the kiosk software.
I’ve installed a second copy of XP along with the existing install, and that boots. Is there a way to fix the existing install so it uses a more generic configuration that will boot?
You won’t be able to boot when the motherboard changes. The core component drivers originally installed for the old motherboard will fail when it tries to apply them to the new one. (The exception is when the new motherboard uses the same chipset as the old)
Ordinarily a repair install should solve your problems. Repair install effectively “resets” your Windows installation by going through the entire hardware detection phase all over again and installing the relevant drivers, but without wiping your registry and all installed software. At what point does this fail? What happens when it does? Are there any other changes to the system configuration besides the motherboard? Are you doing an actual repair install rather than going into the recovery console? (These may be stupid questions, but I like to get the obvious out of the way first)
That isn’t always true although it probably won’t help the OP. I have built new computers and just translated the HD from much older ones and eventually gotten it to work. My current computer has the same Windows installation as I put on my old Pentium III several years ago. I just transplanted the hard drive and screwed with it until it semi-worked and then spent some more time as problems arose. It doesn’t always work but I have heard other posters hear that have the same experience.
Start in safe mode amd change the display adapter to a VGA driver. Remove any drives that are flaged as non functional or under the heading “other”. Close it down and try to start it again. The biggest problem is normaly the dispaly adapter that loads.
The required drive + apps image is what is going to be the trip up here, as there is no point at which the system can boot clean and bootstrap itself up if the image set is going to keep getting such a big heart attack it prevents safe booting. Interesting Catch-22.
I’d really see if the exact same board was available via eBay. Be less trouble in the long run.
Go into the MB BIOS and defeat (to the extent possible) all the printer/sound/com port etc IO options. Just keep what you need for the video and USB (if that is how the mouse& keyboard are attached). If USB is not needed for mouse or keyboard make sure you defeat that as well. This will clear up a lot f the hardware address potential hang up points that may initially be causing the failed boot. You van reactivate them after the system re-configures itself.
Also, when booting keep tapping the F-8 key - This will dump you into the the start-up menu option mode for safe mode booting.