Is this a new motherboard Catch-22 or is Windows XP being too clever?

Factual Questions
1

I buy a shiny new Biostar motherboard and AMD processor. I scoop out the old innards of my computer and excitedly turn on the computer to experience the thrill of a much faster processor and extra memory.

But these things never go as you’d like them to.

Before Windows gets far enough to display graphics, I get a blue screen–not the “blue screen of death”, but one just as deadly but with a different font.

It says

Ug.

I reconnect the old motherboard (just the wires, rest hanging outside the computer) and it works. I’ve caused no lasting damage to the HD.

I reconnect the new MB, thinking this will eliminate any possible errors from things like not putting cables in firmly or putting the IDE cables in the wrong places.

Still no dice.

The MB did come with some drivers on a CD, so I try to install them. I obviously can’t get into Windows to install them, so I go to the setup screen and change the settings to boot from CD first, second, and third, (simultaneously - I was getting frustrated) but the bastard wouldn’t boot from CD. I booted to my WinXP startup disk, but it doesn’t have any of the CD drivers, so I can’t look at the CD, and since the HD is formatted with NTFS, I can’t even c: over to it!

I try a different method to install the drivers. I plug the old motherboard back in and restart, and try to install the drivers, thinking they’ll take effect when I restart with the new MB. The “readme.txt” file is about 12 characters long and says “Run install.exe which will install drivers and display manual.” I run install.exe and get an error saying “Equipment not recognized.” Damn. It won’t install if the MB isn’t in.

So I feel like I’m stuck. Is Windows not letting itself start because it doesn’t recogize the new motherboard and it’s trying to protect me? If so how can I get around this? I can’t install the drivers early. I can’t force Windows to just start anyway. The CD doesn’t appear to be bootable. The instructions and help file aren’t much help on this.

Or is there something actually wrong with the MB? How can I test this?

Any ideas on how to proceed with troubleshooting?

2

This is pretty common when you get a new mobo–at least, it happened to me, too. If I remember correctly, what you do is install your new mobo and everything, then boot from the XP install CD. Once it copies the setup files it needs and all that stuff, you’ll get to a list of your partitions and Windows installs. Pick the partition that has XP installed and press ‘R’ to repair it. Go through whatever dialogs is prompts you with, and once it’s finished repairing, it should boot fine.

At least, I think that’s how it goes. I know you have to use ‘R’ to repair the installation at some point. If you try a Google search on something like “xp stop 0000007B”, you should find more info.

3

Thanks, that’s very good information. It ticks me off that I have to go the the SDMB to get it; it’d be nice if Biostar would have let me know that little detail.

I’m going to try it out. I’ll post again with the results. How did you figure that out, Hauky, by trial-and-error, or was that included with the instructions?

I did this once with 98, and it just did a little PnP stuff w/o requiring the startup disk.

Here’s a question for you, I did a “repair” once and it wiped out the registry, or something like it, so although programs like “Word” still resided on the HD, WinXP couldn’t run them. I had to reinstall everything. Did you run into that?

4

This particular error is due to an incorrect IDE controller driver being loaded. It’s of little help now, but had you switched the IDE controller to use the generic “Standard IDE” driver before removing the old motherboard, you wouldn’t have gotten the error. You could have then switched the driver to the correct one after getting back into Windows. If you can still reconnect the old motherboard and get into it long enough to change the driver, that could be your best solution. You might be able to resolve the problem by booting off the Windows XP disk and selecting the option to repair the existig installation. You might need to do a reinstall of Windows XP and tell it to keep the existing settings.

The Microsoft web site has more info on the error in the knowledge base if you need it.

5

Your best first resource for errors like this is the Microsoft KB.

Searching for the stop error 0x0000007B hits these usefull KB articles:

“STOP 0x0000007B” Error Message When You Restart Your Windows XP-Based Computer
You Receive a Stop 0x0000007B Error After You Move the Windows XP System Disk to Another Computer

To summarize the issue: XP, as with all members of the NT OS family, loads a HAL & drivers that allow upper level software (Word, IE, Games etc.) to access the hardware without needing to know what that hardware actually is. Some of the drivers in this HAL (Which stands for Hardware Extraction Layer) include those for the PCI controller, the IDE controller, etc. To conserve memory, not all possible drivers are installed, what this boils down to is that XP has no idea how to access the hard drive (mass storage).

The first article listed recommends a variation of the method ** Hauky ** uses. The only real difference is it uses “In-Place Upgrade” as opposed to “Repair”

6

Nitpick: HAL stands for Hardware Abstraction Layer.

Carry on.

7

The computer loads HAL?!

Is that a good idea? I hope there’s no airlocks nearby…

8

I love tpyo’s…:smack:

And of course it loads HAL. Why else would it ask you if you are sure you want to do that…

:smiley:

9

In general, Windows cannot survive a move to a different computer or a change to a motherboard of a different type. The drivers and hardware configuration are too different. Even if you can install drivers in safe mode and get it working, I would strongly advise you to do a complete format and clean install of windows in order to get the most speed and stability from your system.

Also, don’t use the drivers Biostar includes. The drivers are for components that Biostar does not make nor have a hand in making, and at best they will be outdated. If the motherboard uses a Via chipset, go to viaarena.com and download the drivers straight from the source.

10

Here is a decent FAQ with some information about changing Mobo’s on an existing Windows install:

A lot of the info there has already been mentioned here. I have done the XP “repair install” trick and it worked fine, but, as FDISK says, a complete fresh install is always the best bet if you can manage it.

Not that I actually DO that, you understand, just that it would be best… :slight_smile:

-jack

what ELSE would a user with a name like “FDISK” advise???

11

Funny, I just bought a Biostar MB (M7VIP) for my computer too. Moving from a Slot A Athlon 500 to a KT333 powered Athlon XP 2100+ is night and day. Anyway, I did what FDISK suggested and reformatted first. Actually I put in a HD I wasn’t using. I went from XP back to win 2k as well. Its so much cleaner.
Reformat first, it will save you lots of headaches.

12

That’s applicable to most if not all mobos

13

Of course your best solution is to use Linux.

d&r like hell :stuck_out_tongue:

14

Aw CRAP! I hate reinstalling Windows and all of the software. I especially hate trying to restore Outlook, which with each generation seems to become more difficult to back up and restore.

I think what I’ll do is try some of the non-reformatting options first, and if I get poor performance, then reformat and reinstall. With my luck it probably won’t be long before another HD crash will force me to anyway (I did it 4 times last year :frowning: ).

World: funny you should mention it, I was thinking of using the old mobo for linux, actually. Just gotta get another case.

15

I’m afraid I’m with cstamets on this. In the past I’ve removed system devices before removing the old motherboard and then shutting down. After installing the new mobo I would then install new devices/drivers. In retrospect it may be that changing the IDE controller may have been enough. I’ve never used XP though I’ve upgraded mobo’s in 95, 95C, 98SE and 2K PRO.

good luck

16

Good job TUNABREATH - welcome to the boards!

17

thanks for the welcome!

I just found some advice from Dr. Science on PC troubleshooting.

If it has ever emitted smoke try the following:

“You’ve got to find some way to get the smoke back inside. Chances are you didn’t act quickly enough, and the smoke dissipated. If this is the case, you must procure fresh smoke. A soldering iron can often manufacture smoke, if you can’t buy the necessary smoke direct from the manufacturer. Ask your Radio Shack sales associate for advice. And be sure to keep a bucket under the computer, in case extra bits fall out while you’re moving things around. Often the redistribution of electrons can cause data over-run, which can damage even the most heavily varnished floor.”

or you may have a coffee maker:

“Chances are you’re not looking at a home computer sitting idle in the corner, but a coffee maker. Today’s modern coffee makers do bear a strong resemblance to computers, and you’re probably not the first confused user to mistake one for the other. A good experiment to establish the identity of the appliance in the corner involves filling the basket just under the top with coffee grounds, then pouring cold water into the grill on top. If the fuses blow and you end up with a floppy disc covered with coffee grounds, you’re on the wrong track. But if, moments later, you find yourself enjoying a fresh brewed cup of coffee, well then, my hunch was correct. Good luck!”

I suppose if you see smoke try the first answer and start all over. Incidentally the first bit of advice was about a hard drive installation.

Remember, this advice was from
The Vault of Knowledge: Dr. Science Archives
… He knows more than you do!

not me.

18

I just performed basically the same operation as glilly did this weekend with the addition of a video card + MB. Windows worked fine. Just a few reboots to get all of the drivers installed. Sadly linux does not work and I have to screw around with configuring Xwindows again for use with the new video card. Configuring Xfree86 is just a huge pain in the ass.

19

Man, some people have it so easy.

I’m writing from the new mobo! Thanks so much for all the help.

I tried first to delete all the IDE schtuff from the hardware profile as cstamets recommended. Same error. I think from looking at the link that jkirkman posted that I had to do that and edit the registry to really drop the old IDE info.

Never having edited the registry before, I thought I’d go with option 2, the Windows repair first suggested by Hauky, which worked like a charm and didn’t (as had happened to me before) wipe out the entire Win registry and make me reinstall everything.

I’ll do option 3 (format, reinstall) the next time my HD crashes–which should be about a week from now.

Interestingly, when I opened Outlook, it recognized the new hardware and made me put my Office XP disk in to verify that I was actually the licensee.

20

Not to be a stickler, but I said to change the IDE to the generic Standard IDE controller. I’m only pointing this out in case someone else needs to try it sometime. I guess I should have mentioned that just deleting the driver doesn’t work. I’m sorry I wasn’t more specific. I’ve never tried deleting the driver and editing the registry, mainly because switching to the generic driver has been working for me. It’s something I’ve had to do a few times at work because of motherboard replacements and such. If the two motherboards have the same chipset, you can usually avoid the problem altogether.

Congratulations on getting the system up and running. A big jump in processor speed is always fun. I usually end up dragging things out I hadn’t used in a long time just to see how they do.