Bizarre mobo behavior, please help!

[shigure07]

Hey all,
Bit of a problem with hardware. Recently, my motherboard began dying, not posting ("beeping") every time when I powered the machine up. So today I went out and bought a new mobo. Solved the problem of getting to BIOS, but now there is a problem loading windows. I go through the entire mem check, etc etc, and get to the screen, asking if I want to start in safe mode or normal, etc. No matter what option I choose though, as soon as windows begins loading the entire computer restarts. Figured it was a hardware issue, just not sure where it could be. Any help would be greatly apperciated.

Hardware profile
OS: Win XP Home
HD: 80 GB Seagate
Mem: 1 GB DDR
Vid Card: ATI 9600
CPU: AMD Athlon 1800+
Mobo: 1st Mainboards AM37 (new) Elite K7S5A (one that was replaced)

 

[Tmagic650]

Maybe a bad power supply?

 

[shigure07]

Hey,
First off, thanks for replying. Second, Ive been reading around some other /b/ and it seemed like that could be the problem. Could it be my new psu is just too weak with the new mobo? Doesnt seem like it should make such a diff anyway. Been using the same 230v (output, says combined is 190v, forgive ignorance of proper psu measurement) that came with the case for about 3 years. Always seemed low, but worked just fine.

Thanks again

 

[sghiznaneck]

Since you replaced a major piece of hardware, did you reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows??

 

[shigure07]

I was going to try to avoid reformat/reinstall. I have the drivers disk and was hoping to get into safe mode to use it.

 

[Spleenharvester]

Could it be a RAM (possibly a slot) issue? When I had a (DDR) RAM slot issue it did exactly the same thing. If you have one stick, move it to the other slot and then try it. If you have two sticks, take one out, try it, if it does not work then move it across one slot. If it still does not work swap the sticks and try it in each slot again. That is what I did, anyway. I am a noob, so I'm probably wrong and you should probably wait for more replies before doing this.

Regards,
Spleenharvester

 

[Fragrant Coit]

A dodgy Hard Drive will do that too.

Go to Seagate, and download the Diagnostic (makes a bootable Floppy, or burn the CD Image). Set the BIOS to boot from Floppy, or CD, run the Test & you'll know if it's the HDD or not.

 

[shigure07]

Thanks man, I will try that tonight. I really hope its not the HD, but itll be nice to know.

 

[shigure07]

Spleen,
I tried some variations on that, but not as thorough as all that. Will give it a shot though. Thanks

 

[Spleenharvester]

Good luck. Oh, and here's my specs:
ECS 755-A2 Socket 754
2x512mb sticks DDR ram (I now have 1x1gb stick)
Hiper 3S350 PSU
1x20gb hd and 1x40gb hd
Athlon mobile 2800+
hope these help.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Did you try resetting the CMOS? Take out the CMOS battery for a minute or so and replace it. See if it helps.

 

[N3051M]

installing another mobo, as sghiznaneck said, is a major change in hardware that windows recognises (unless its an exact same brand/model/etc). Drivers for your old mobo won't work with your new one (or rarely). If you don't want to reformat, then have a read on how to do a Windows Repair

 

[shigure07]

A dodgy Hard Drive will do that too.

Go to Seagate, and download the Diagnostic (makes a bootable Floppy, or burn the CD Image). Set the BIOS to boot from Floppy, or CD, run the Test & you'll know if it's the HDD or not.

Well I just ran Seagate Tools both short and long test, and no errors. Ill do mem check next.

 

[zackdelabrocha]

Format your hard drive & reinstall windows.. it's the only solution to your problem.

 

[shigure07]

OK well last night was able to boot from Windows XP disk. Would a repair install help? Would it lead to reauth with MS? As my hardware is changed Id like to avoid it.

 

[nickc]

a repair of Windows will probably work.

 

[shigure07]

Will a repair install require me to reauthorize xp? Since my hardware has changed it could be a problem.

 

[N3051M]

maybe, maybe not. it depends on how many hardware changes you've made in a period..

It shouldn't be a problem for you anyways, and you can always call MS if your key isn't being accepted anymore.

If you don't know your key, its usually either a) on the back of the cd case that came with your windows xp cd, or on a sticker located on your PC tower somewhere. Otherwise, you can try using software to find your cd key, like SIW for example. But how accurate this is, i can't garuntee it.

 

[Spleenharvester]

Any Progress?