Motherboard Swap out

No sooner get one problem solved and..........

My 9 year old daughter has a little Gateway LC computer with 500Mhz CPU, 6GB HD, 256MB SDRAM running Windows ME. Needless to say, she's running out of space.

I just finished rebuilding my own machine (for the umpteenth time) and have a lot of spare parts from this last and previous upgrades, including a mid tower atx case, Floppy Drive, CD and CDRW drives, memory sticks, graphics cards, cables, 17" CRT, fans, heatsinks, etc., almost a whole PC.

I just couldn't resist the temptation to build another machine.

I bought her a Shuttle AK32E MOBO, Athalon 1800+CPU & Segate 20GB HDD.

I'm going to stick all these parts together with old HDD as master and new drive as slave, plug it into the wall and turn it on.

My question is, assuming I put all the parts in the right places, what's going to happen when I hit that on switch?

Any suggestions or reccomendations of things to do while the original hard drive is running in the Gateway?

I haven't looked, but I assume the IDE cables will match up. I have all the original software from Gateway, including an ME recovery disk and the orignal MS programs. Never had to run the recovery disk, I'm wondering if there is some kind of proprietary lock that would prevent it from running on the new setup???

I think I remember that kind of a problem with 98SE, when my Aptiva machine got upgraded to the point where there was no resemblance to the original install. If I remember correctly, the IBM recovery disc said it would only install on the Aptiva it was sold with. I took it to a local shop and I think they installed a bootlegged copy. Anyhow, the tech refused to tell me how he got 98SE to run, he said "dont ask" and handed me a bill for $50.

The Shuttle board comes with a driver CD, my guess is to run it in the new setup, providing it boots, otherwise I don't know what to do.

I do have an ME start up diskette. Will it run in the new setup?? And, if it does, how to get the Shuttle drivers into ME while in DOS?

What other problems should I anticipate?

I will appreciate any and all help and advice.

TIA

Martin

 

You like challenges huh? OK, I'm going to need some help here and once again, I think reboot is the guy that can really shed some light on this based on a couple of his older posts. You may want to search the board in this regard.

First thing is download a program from jermar software called windrivers backup - it will create a folder on your daughters drive with copies of all existing drivers. Next item is to clean up her HDD and make sure the cabs are on there. Gateway usually installs OS's from the HDD or an image and you should find them in C:\Windows\Options\Cabs. Assuming this is all up to snuff. Go into the registry and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum - you ready? you sure? OK - Delete the ENUM key and shut down and remove the HDD or disconnect it until you have the Shuttle installed with the new processor. Fire the new configuration back up with the HDD attached and you should boot - you'll then have to reinstall (with some help from Windows detecting all of the hardware) drivers.

 

You like challenges huh? OK, I'm going to need some help here and once again, I think reboot is the guy that can really shed some light on this based on a couple of his older posts. You may want to search the board in this regard.

First thing is download a program from jermar software called windrivers backup - it will create a folder on your daughters drive with copies of all existing drivers. Next item is to clean up her HDD and make sure the cabs are on there. Gateway usually installs OS's from the HDD or an image and you should find them in C:\Windows\Options\Cabs. Assuming this is all up to snuff. Go into the registry and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum - you ready? you sure? OK - Delete the ENUM key and shut down and remove the HDD or disconnect it until you have the Shuttle installed with the new processor. Fire the new configuration back up with the HDD attached and you should boot - you'll then have to reinstall (with some help from Windows detecting all of the hardware) drivers.

 

I've moved several Windows 9x hard drives intact to new systems. The main issue is are all the .cab files present on the hard drive when you boot up? You have to be able to use your mouse to browse to the .cab files during bootup. Your CD ROM will be unavailable during this process. Trust me on that! You have to be able to point to the .cab files.

The problem is that I'm not informed enough to know about the Gateway proprietary installation as compared to an installation form a Windows disc.

But first get the freeware WinDrivers Backup from JerMar Software. Search for it. It'll make your life easier.

 

Thanks RayH & Rockster. Here is what I've done so far with her machine:

Installed WinDriverBackup, backed up drivers, saved to her "my documents" folder

Copied: Windows/Options/Cabs to her "my documents" folder.

Tomorrow: Delete: HKey_Local_ Machine\ENUM

Put components together, hit the "on" switch. Tell ME where to find drivers and cabs if asked.

Comments?

Thanks again.

Martin

PS: I searched the board for any posts by Reboot on the subject and came up empty.

 

No comments on my last post, this topic??

Thought this might get your attention RayH & Rockster.

Didn't do it yet, waiting for fans to arrive, forgot I needed them, none available locally, two shops, no fans.

 

Are you telling us you made a copy of the cabs file and put it in my documents? I'll assume affirmative but suggest you point to C:\Windows\Options\cabs as necessary. Also re: windrivers backup, I've always dumped these into a folder right off the C drive or whatever drive. Should work from my documents but I don't run much out of there other than docs.

 

Did it work?

 

Sorry for the delay, recovering from the latest crash. (my machine, not hers.)

Rockster, I'm sure that is good advice, but remember I said "a little Gateway ". One drive, no CD writer. I did'nt know where else to put them. Figured her My Docs a good a place as any.

Don't know how to get them off the machine in the first place or if I can get them off, how to point the new MOBO to them on boot.

RayH says cab files will not be available & I need to store them off of Windows OS, at least that is my understanding of what he posted.

Note to RayH. Not yet even started. Got fans yesterday, opened box this morning, one too small, orderd 80mm, got 60mm. Intended to do rebuild today, but pressed for time.

Rockster, let me know about those cab files, driver backups, where to store them for use on bootup.

I have a Sony CD R/RW drive sitting on the table waiting to be installed in the "new" machine. I could install it in the Gateway and copy the Cab & Driver files to CD, Use that for the install, what's your take, will they be accessable? I sure would be embarrased if I couldn't get her machine to boot, she loves her daddy, thinks I can do anything, wouldn't want to disillusion her.

 

Help!! My daughter's faith in me hangs in the balance!!

Did MOBO swap, all seemed to go ok, power up, MOBO (Shuttle AK32E) beeps, one long, two short, power Led on, HDD activity light on. No video, HDD light goes off. Thats it. No flopy drive support. (IE: system does not poll floppy drive) Tried to boot from floppy, No Go.

No beep codes in manual. No beep codes at Shuttle website.

Tried following:

Swap memory, swap cpu, swap monitor, reset CMOS, No Go.


Anybody????

Edit Update: Found error code on other website, said 1 long 2 short beeps indicate video card problem.

Swapped video card. Problem partly solved. POST one beep, Now I get BIOS screen all ok, floppy there, memory ok, except now:

System does not recognize hard drive. At least, not the hard drive with the ME OS on position one IDE cable. Get: "System boot disk failure" error.

Recognzies blank formatted drive attached to position two of IDE cable as master, even though jumper set to slave.

This master drive is a Quantum Fireball Lct15. Now supported by Maxtor. Their site has some upgrades for drive, but no way to try w/o drive being live.

Did drive fail by being moved from one MOBO to another?? I am at a loss here.

 

No, its doubtful that your drive failed. When you say slave is on position 2, what do you mean? I'd suggest putting master on the terminating end (last header) and slave on the middle header of your cable. I'd also set both drives to cable select and re-detect both drives in the bios. You may want to try starting with just the one drive connected for the time being but jumper this as CS regardless and make sure its on the terminating end of your cable.

 

Hey Rockster:

I've tried every possible cable position and jumper setting combo there is and the machine refuses to recognize the drive.

What I was trying to convey is that the blank formatted drive is detected as the master even when jumpered as slave and is on the cable's second position and the old drive is on the first position jumpered as master.

The old drive just is not recognized.

Refusing to believe that it is dead, I put it in my machine, removing one of my drives and cabling the old drive in my machine as a slave.

Not only would my machine not recognize it, after I removed it my machine refused to boot, going back to that old problem with the PCI IDE card. Had to take PDI IDE card out of my machine to get it to boot. But, that's another story.

At this point, as much as I don't want to, I got to believe the old drive with her programs and OS is dead. Maybe I shorted it out when I moved it, although, I did not do anything unusual.

 

Sorry to be slow in responding but actually responded last night and got some strange message when I tried to post it. Short version: Go to the HDD mfg website and get the specific geometry for your daughters HDD. Manually input it in the BIOS as opposed to any type of auto detect and see if that helps. Also, verify jumper settings when at HDD mfg site. Make sure you are looking at the exact drive, not a generic, all encompassing page.

 

Thanks, I'll try that. I saw those configuration/settings last time I was at the Maxtor website. I know how to set bios for manual configuration, I'm not sure on how to enter the settings, I'll give it a shot. Try anything not to lose that drive.

Thanks, when I get to the entering & if I can't figure it out, I'll post back for help.

Thanks again for all your help.

P.S. The same thing happened to me when I tried to post a couple of weeks ago. I had to star over, the second time it took.
No Idea what happened.

PPS: I had to reactivate XP on my machine after last re-install, the web program refused to install new ID# said I had reached my limit of activations, said if I wanted to I could call MSFT.

So, I called and the tech that answerd the call says, "How many machines do you have XP installed on?" So, I says "one" & he says: "why have you had to activate it so many times?" I says:
"because this stupid OS keeps crashing, I have to continually reinstall it just to keep it working." After that he just gave me a new number. I was really frosted by their attitude.

 

You may have had to work in a restaurant to understand this analogy. But most restaurants use industrial plates that can take a lot of abuse. Sometimes you can throw them across the kitchen or drop them on a hard floor without even chipping them. But sometimes, they'll break into several pieces just being placed down. Really.

Well, I think hard drives are a bit like that. You can abuse them. But sometimes if you don't move them right. They can break.

If that hard drive did die, now people may understand when I do an ENUM move, I ghost the old drive to CD first.

 

Also, check to see if you've bent any pins on the hard drive. I've done that many times.

 

Hi Ray: Well, that's good after-the-fact advice. I am using NTFS file system, Ghost tells me it can't ghost. As this was the only drive on the machine and no CD writer installed, I kind of took the easy way out. Woe is me.

I checked for bent pins, no such luck.

Martin