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Windows Will Not Load At All

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by lex-uk, 2006/03/17.

  1. 2006/03/17
    lex-uk

    lex-uk Inactive Thread Starter

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    I have recently upgraded my motherboard to the Gigabyte GA-8N-SLi Royal and after installing windows running the Nvidia SATA driver successful, booting fine to windows, system driver installed, reboot was fine, updated windows at least 35 critical updates also other nforce4 drivers, restarted after installation complete but windows will not boot at all, after the "verify DMI Pool Data" message there is a black screen, if i press F8 to bring up those option, and choose any of them, it goes to which OS i want to start and after hitting enter it freezes. if i try to boot from the Windows CD it freezes on the "Setup up is inspecting your computers hardware configuration "

    System:
    Gigabyte Ga-8N-Sli Royal, Bios Version F5
    P4 3.6
    DDR2 667 2GB
    250 SATAII
    ATI x850XT 256mb

    Any help would be grately appreciated.

    thanks
    Lex
     
    lex-uk,
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  2. 2006/03/17
    Blackheart

    Blackheart Inactive

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    Blackheart,
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  4. 2006/03/17
    lex-uk

    lex-uk Inactive Thread Starter

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    thanks for the reply, i should have said, all raid options in the bios are disabled but before i installed on a new HDD with all raid disabled windows still tried to install a raid controller. so i am not sure whether there is a conflict somewhere between windows and the motherboard, i used the latest nvidia sata driver for the mobo when i installed windows.
     
    lex-uk,
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  5. 2006/03/17
    rsinfo

    rsinfo SuperGeek Alumni

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    Did you update nForce drivers from Windows Update?
     
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  6. 2006/03/18
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Some motherboards require the RAID drivers to be installed during setup of the operating system (on XP hit F6 at the very beginning and insert a floppy with the drivers) for XP to recognize SATA hard disks. Even if RAID is disabled, that is a requirement.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  7. 2006/03/18
    lex-uk

    lex-uk Inactive Thread Starter

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    i only installed critical updates, and i used the nvidia drivers when i installed windows.
     
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  8. 2006/03/18
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Did you do all that without rebooting inbetween the updates and the "other nForce drivers "?

    I have installed a few computers on Gigabyte motherboards. I don't remember the exact models but one didn't recognize the SATAs until I disabled RAID in BIOS. After that, they were recognized and the installation went well. I installed the chipset drivers from the CD after installation was complete but no specific SATA drivers.

    Your problem may be that you added the SATA drivers after the installation was complete and not during the initial stages of the setup of the OS.

    On a different Gigabyte motherboard, disabling SATA was not enough, I had to do the F6 thing to install RAID drivers for the SATAs to be recognized.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  9. 2006/03/18
    lex-uk

    lex-uk Inactive Thread Starter

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    i had to use the sata driver to install windows, i have got it working but after a few updates it restarted fine but then suddenly didnt again and it takes a few attempts of changing a ouple of things in he bios about raid to get it going again, is it worth repairing windows? i have it working again but i am not sure if it will give up anytime i reboot or turn my machine on.
     
    lex-uk,
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  10. 2006/03/18
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    I'm not sure about repair installs and how well it works long term. I have done only a few but most of the systems were reinstalled shortly afterwards. If you're not to far into the installation of applications and such, run it as it is to verify that the BIOS settings work well. When you think that you've got it right, reinstall. That's what I would do.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  11. 2006/03/18
    lex-uk

    lex-uk Inactive Thread Starter

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    Since the last little hitch i have restarted a couple of times and it appeas to boot well i am not going to put all my programs on yet, will just test it for now, thanks for your help. Also i have noticed when i installed windows it gave the bootable HDD the letter F but the storage HDD was given C, i changed the Storage to G so that it comes after the bootable. is it still a problem it being F instead of C?
     
    lex-uk,
    #10
  12. 2006/03/18
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    I don't think that XP cares what letter it is on. Programs usually default to C: ... :confused: ... and may resist. Something went wrong during the installation.

    What devices were connected when installing? I disconnect everything external and also all internal hard disks other than the one onto which XP goes.

    When you reinstall, start by deleting all partitions and recreate C: only, format and install XP.

    When done, XP must be on C: (no other alternative) and the opticals will be D: and E: (depending on how many are connected).

    When XP is up and running, go to Disk Manager and change the drive letters for the opticals from D: and E: to X: and Y: respectively. Now, they will be out of the way for other partitions and hard disks. Restart the computer to free D: and E: for reuse. When creating partitions and adding hard disks, the drive letters should be assigned in sequence, in the order of creation.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #11

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