New Motherboard and WinXP wont boot

Can anyone help. Replaced grahics card and had to replace Motherboard because the old one would not support AGP8. On start up we arrive at a screen which says "We are sorry for any inconvenience.....but Windows did not start properly....which may be due to new hardware etc" and options which include safe mode and last known good ...... we try any of them but after a minute or two a blue screen flashes for a nano-second and then goes back to the start-up sequence in a never ending loop. Tried putting in the Windows CD but the process arrests at the "looking at hardware configuration" page and locks up. Motherboard MSI 845GM with FX5900XT graphics card and "old" P4 2 GHz processor which all tested compatible in the shop. BIOS "sees" the HD and CD. Any thoughts?

 

I gather you are trying to use the same HD with the original windows load from the previous Motherboard/system?

Here lies your problem, as all the software settings are set for the old board. Usually you won't boot unless the boards are fairly similar. You could TRY booting into Safe Mode (F8 or F5) during BIOS boot and get into the device manager and delete/uninstall as much from the hardware as you can, particularly IDE, USB controllers, leaving the mouse and keyboard so you can navigate around. Reboot and let windows detect and install hardware/MB drivers. This may or may not work. But best to reformat and load from fresh, as even with a success you could have stability issues.

 

Paul is being polite about it - you're about as close to being in a hopeless situation as it gets. Now, if you want to put the "old machine" back together, I can send you a routine to go through before you take it back apart and rebuild with the new, but even that can be "iffy ".

 

Did you try to boot with the XP CD and select "Repair Install "?

 

Thanks for the replies. I thought that might be the situation. Can't use the old motherboard because no VGA output (the reason to change in the first place) and after I have tried to boot using the WinXP CD the setup freezes at a screen which says "Windows is detecting your hardware configuration" or something like that. Would a new HD solve the problem?

 

I am not sure about XP as I have not done it. ( YET )

I have one HD that has Win98 SE on it that has been in three different
machines. But when it went from one to the other IT NEVER was allowed to boot to the HD first I booted to the Startup floppy and reinstalled SE over itself.

Also before removing I set the Video back to Standard 640x480 VGA.

BillyBob

 

In XP if you boot from the CD and go through all the various screens just like your going to do a clean install.
Finaly Windows will discover there is already a XP install and will give you the Option of installing a new windows or press "R" for repair. This process will wipe out all of the .cab files so any trashed up driver files will be removed.
All of your Data and installed applications will remain intact.

Once again this is Not the "Repair Console" this is beyond that screen.

 

Probably yes, if you remove the old one.
You'd get the same effect with fdisk (or it's equivalent) and format applied to the present one if you don't mind losing all the info on it. Called a clean install.

 

ssmith10pn's advice is solid - absolutely your best chance to salvage this thing without trashing everything on your drive.

 

Thanks everybody for help and advice . Part of the problem lay with the Win XP installation disc and when another was borrowed it allowed us to do another install over the top. Haven't lost too much stuff - but where did everything in "My Documents" go?

 

No backup?

Hopefully it's on your backup CD or floppy.

 

Yes - hopefully - - it is now!!