Upgraded hardware WinXP wont start

I installed a new motherboard, CPU, video card and RAM. All went well.
Went into the BIOS and set up everything, went well also.

I get to the startup screen for Windows XP and I get the: Windows sis not start successfully." screen with the choices: Boot to Safe mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode with Command Prompt, Last know good cinfog and Boot Normally.

No matter which I choose the computer reboots, goes through the post screens and right back to the Win screen I stated above.

Whats going on??

Stats:
Windows XP SP2
MSI motherdoard
P4 3.2 ghz
2 x 512MB PC3200 DDR400 SDRAM

HELP!!!

 

In this case my money is on a requirement for Windows Reinstall.

I am not sure a Format and start over is needed but at least a repair ( over existing ) install may be.

At least this is what worked for me when I took this HD with 98SE on it from another MB to this one. Now it has been upgraded to XP Pro.

I have taken several HDs from one MB to another but I did not let them boot to the HD the first time. I booted to the Floppy and did a re-install.


BillyBob

 

I didnt know that and I tried to boot to xp.
Can i do a repair now? or am i *******?
should i put the old MB back in?

what steps should i take to get the new system running?
I dont want to wipe out what i have on there, ie. programs and data.
Can I install XP over itself and not lose anything?

thanks!

 

You are doing things with an OS ( XP ) that I have not gotten into yet. 98SE is the latest attempt at moving HDs.

Wait for more knowledge help but I would think that you could boot to the CD an do a re-install.

BillyBob

 

Thanks BillyBob.

I have tried to boot to the XP CD, changed the boot sequence in the BIOS to look to the CD first but it still gives me the windows screen I said in the first post. It does not load the CD. The CD does not evne start spinning.

ANYONE ...... HELP ......
still

 

I do not like saying this but you need more help than I can provided.

You have a situation that I have not run into ( yet anyway ).

BillyBob

 

No problem BillyBob, thanks again.

Just to reiterate for anyone reading this thread for the first time.
I already tried to boot to XP after installing a new motherboard.
I know that was a big mistake, I should have done some research first.

 

When you start the machine, the CD LED should flash once or twice, if not the BIOS cannot communicate with it.

First check drive jumper settings. The boot HDD should be master on the primary IDE controller (it gets to menu selection so that should be OK). Any other drive on the primary contoller should be set as slave. Drives on the secondary controller (IDE cable) should be likewise set as master/slave.

If the jumper settings are correct, pull out the power and data cable connections (at both the drive and the motherboard) and reseat them.

Matt

 

I have the CD drive as the salve on the secondary controller and I have NO master on the secondary controller.

I have 2 hard drives on the primary controller set correctly.

The cd has always worked like that. Should I change the cd drive to master on the secondary controller?

Thanks

 

If it is an older CD drive it may "prefer" to be set as master. The motherboard may, possibly, prefer it set as master if it does not like the firmware of the drive.

If it is a newer CD drive, then the problem would more than likely be the cable connections.

If you have reseated the connections and it has not worked, then yes, jumper it as master, the BIOS may not load it correctly until you reset it that way (if the BIOS settings have a "Detect Hard Drives" menu, run that).

Matt

 

If all else fails (i.e., none of the above suggestions work for you), it is possible to build a set of install floppy disks for XP. I think it uses 6 or something but you can use the CD to build them assuming you have access to another machine that can read a CD drive. Other machine does not need to be running XP.

With that set of floppy drives doing the setup, I'd bet on your CD drive being available at some point and you could then use the CD to do a repair install.

As noted earlier, the repair install [FONT= "Comic Sans MS"][SIZE= "4"]should not[/SIZE][/FONT] destroy any of your data but if you have any critical stuff on there, it will be worth taking the extra precaution of putting the hard drive into another PC as a slave drive then making a copy of your critical stuff onto some other media.

 

thanks again to all for the help.

I finally got the repair from the cd to work. windows now opens and it installed some drivers for the new hardware.

BUT windows is extremely slow.

 

Glad to read that you are gaining.

It may just take time to get things adjusted.

BillyBob

 

I think th eprocessor may be running to hot.
any ideas on what to do for this situation?
Better heatsink and fan?
Now I'm using the heatsink and fan that came with my P4 1.7ghz. Maybe thats not good enough.

 

Did you remove the old thermal compound from the heatsink and replace it? This needs to be done every time the heatsink is removed from the processor.

Why?
http://www.thetechzone.com/reviews/roundup/thermal_compound/page2.shtml

Matt

 

Yes I cleaned the heatsink and applied new artic silver compound.

Any recomendations on a good heatsink and fan for my processor?

I have been searching around and there are so many choices and price ranges.
I dont overclock and I'm not a big gamer. I dont think I need a water coolered one.

Is something like this overkill?
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/directron/freezer4.html

 

Forgive me for inserting this but I believe that I have exactly the same problem as this from installing an image on a machine in which the equipment has been changed. Is the fix indicated here applicable to that situation as well?

 

I dont know exactly what you mean by a new image. A new image of a hard drive from a different machine?