Help replacing motherboard

[george123]

Ok,

I would like to thank anyone ahead of time who answers this thread to help me out.

I have an compaq presario sr 1620nx and the motherboard is out of commission due to a power surge. I took it to circut city and that is what they told me.

I have pictures on this computer and would also like to have it up and running to use.

I ordered the motherboard and have it here.

So I think my problem now is I need an xp disc when I fix this thing or what should I do. I do not want to have to buy an xp disc. If I do will the pictures still be on it.

My other option is to make the hard drive an external one for my laptop and put the pictures on that and start saving for another desktop.

p. s. This will be my first attempt at working on computer hardware ever.

 

[SNGX1275]

You are going to need an XP disk, there really isn't a way around that unless the motherboard you ordered is identical, or very close to what died. If that IS the case, just slap the new board in the case, hook everything up, and hope for the best.

Now, if you could get an XP disk, you can do a repair install, and there are even more advanced methods to increase the chances of this working well. I really don't recommend doing any sort of repair, just a clean install, others on this board though have done it successfully many times, so if you can get an XP cd it might be worth listening to them on how to do it.

I think your best bet is to get an external enclosure if you need the pictures immediately.

I don't see much of a way you can get a working XP with a new motherboard without an XP disk.

If you go the external enclosure route you can get all your documents and pictures and stuff off of the drive, then a clean install of XP whenever you get a disk. An alternative is to pick up another internal drive and install XP to that, then hook up your old disk. It is probably going to be cheaper to do it with an external enclosure.

 

[george123]

I installed the new motherboard and nothing. The computer runs you can hear the fan running but you cannot hear the hardrive or anything else running really. The monitor is plugged into it and it says it is getting no signal. Anyone know why the monitor would say it is not even getting a signal. So the computer stays running and the only way to turn it off is to unplug it. Anyone have any idea what is going on? It does not sound like it is loading up or anything, all you can hear is the fan running. The disc drive won't even open.

 

[tkr3alm3r]

seems like u may have something plugged in incorrectly/missing
if possible, please link a picture of the motherboard setup and where u have the monitor plugged in
the bios should at least boot

 

[george123]

Ok. I will work on borrowing a digital camera and getting a picture uploaded. In the mean time I have three questions that may lead me to my end result.

Now my understanding of the names of components may be flawed for the time being, I am continually doing research and moving my understanding forward.

One, What I understand is the CPU socket was different on my new motherboard than on my old one. On my old one it was glued directly to the motherboard. On the new one there was a piece of plastic there with a small piece of metal that would fold up or down.

Two, On both motherboards mind you the power connector slot has more holes than the power connector plug. I did not realize this until I connected the new one. I connected the plug all the way to the side that the cpu socket is on so that the open holes are on the side that the PCI slots are on.

Three, There were plugs from the harddrive that were not connected to anything and there were the same plugs from the cd/dvd drive that were not connected to anything.

 

[tkr3alm3r]

the power connector is nothing to worry about, it has more availble holes if the PSU supports it (only there to draw more power if required)
and the plug is designed to only fit in one way, ur setup of the atx 4 pin plug is correct

with the cables that are not plugged into anything, i need a better description of the cables
there are a few different ones
Sata power/data cable
IDE cable
molex 4pin power connector
audio jumper (this is where the digital camera comes in handy)\

now the most important one
need to determine ur current CPU and new motherboard
only certain chipsets and sockets will work with certain CPU's
this could be the reason why the pc does not boot to BIOS
as there is nothing for the BIOS to load

 

[george123]

Compaq Presario SR1620NX
Motherboard Manufacturer: MSI
Motherboard Name: MS-7184
Hp/Company motherboard name: AmethystM-GL6E

 

[tkr3alm3r]

what is the CPU?

 

[george123]

I got the pictures I cannot figure out how to post them yet. The CPU is a 3400 AMD Sempron.

The processor is 3400 amd sempron

http://s588.photobucket.com/albums/ss321/lemorancan/?newest=1

 

[tkr3alm3r]

hmp, everything you have there is compatible according to MSI
although looking at the pictures, and the motherboard manual
the VGA port is optional and I cannot see that there is a graphics card in you PCIe slot...?
Could be behind no signal on the monitor

try this link: http://217.110.237.67/Manuals/7184-engl v1.x.pdf
there is a manual on where all parts/plugs go

 

[george123]

thank you , I will look into it

Ok, so I found the problem. I left the cpu on the old motherboard, lol

So now I get a screen that says hp invent, and at the bottom it says
esc-boot menu f1-set up f10 system recovery

Now i have now windows disc or backup disk and there are pictures on the hardrive I want, What should I do?

Also the computer makes a steady clicking sound, like one click ever second

See what happened was that it did that before (would make the clicking sound) and would not even load to a screen, So we took it to circuit city and they said the motherboard was blow out from a power surge

I did not prepare this computer for the motherboard, it broke on me that is why I had to replace it.

 

[mailpup]

Assuming you have installed all the hardware correctly, when you change the motherboard, you must do a Windows repair or reinstall. Changing motherboards usually isn't just plug and play. A repair shouldn't destroy your data but a reinstall will. Sometimes a repair doesn't work so you would have to reinstall Windows.

That said, it sounds like the diagnosis of a bad motherboard was faulty since you still hear this clicking sound. That sounds like a problem with the hard drive to me. You could try putting the hard drive into a USB (or firewire) enclosure and hook it up to another PC to try to save you data. If you do place it into an enclosure and can't get it recognized or working, then the hard drive has probably failed.

As a last resort you might try the freezer trick to get the hard drive going long enough to rescue your data.

 

[george123]

Why is it sometimes you can plug and play, sometimes you have to do a repair install and sometimes you have to reinstall?

What else could the clicking be?

What is the hp screen I see?

 

[mailpup]

It depends on the motherboard and how similar it is to the original. I don't know all of the factors involved.

I suppose the clicking could also be bad fan bearings but then a bad fan wouldn't cause Windows not to load. A bad hard drive would. If you can take off the side panel of the PC, perhaps you can identify where the clicking noise is coming from. From where I'm sitting on the other side of the internet, I'm at a disadvantage since I can't hear the sound.

The HP screen you get is the motherboard/PC logo screen where if you press F1 (setup), you can enter the BIOS. If you press the other keys listed, you go to where it says. If you've never noticed it before, it must go by too fast for you to have seen what it was.

 

[george123]

Thank you for your reply it is very helpful. I am absolutely ignorant in this field so even things that are common sense to most people are very helpful to me. Any quality links on the subject would prove helpful. From what I researched and can tell by looking at these motherboards they are the same.

Should windows have loaded on its own if it was going to? Should I try pressing F1? I mean is that what most people do?

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

A word of caution, although it is unlikely, keep your hards off the hardware while there is still power running through, even though there is generally a low chance of electrical shock.

Should windows have loaded on its own if it was going to? Should I try pressing F1? I mean is that what most people do?

Windows should have loaded, and I assume HP sent a similar motherboard, besides with the clicking and stuff, I would look more for a hardware issue. It is also possible the power surge might have killed stuff other than the motherboard.

Pressing F1 or whatever key it should be would bring you into the BIOS, where you can configure, or just look over what is going on according to the motherboard. Use the enter and escape buttons to go in and out of categories, while selecting them with the arrow keys. There should be a legend at the bottom of the screen explaining the keys. I would recommend against saving anything if you don't know what you are doing. Maybe just take a poke around there, especially concerning the hdd section.

 

[mailpup]

Yes, Windows should have loaded on its own if it was going to. That's why SNGX1275 suggested the repair or reinstall. However, this clicking you hear could be a bad hard drive, although from where I sit, I can't say for certain. If it is, you would have to replace the hard drive and perform a clean install of Windows.

You only need to press F1 if you want to go into the BIOS. You will want to do this to change the boot order when repairing or installing Windows from the Windows CD or you can press "Esc" to go to the boot menu to change the boot order temporarily.

When repairing or installing Windows, you set the CD/DVD drive first in the boot order. While in the BIOS or boot menu you can put in your Windows CD and when you Exit and Save from the BIOS the PC will boot from the CD and you hopefully can proceed with the repair or installation.

If you end up reinstalling Windows instead of just repairing, everything on the hard drive will be erased. A repair should not erase your data. When you reinstall Windows, you will have to reinstall all motherboard drivers and all device drivers (such as video and sound drivers) so have them ready in advance.

One more added wrinkle. If the hard drive you have is a SATA hard drive and your operating system is Windows XP, you will need to install SATA/RAID controller drivers at the beginning of Windows Setup by pressing F6. You will need a floppy disk for this. I won't go into detail at this time because I may be getting ahead of myself at this point.

Edit: hellokitty posted while I was still slooowly composing my post.

 

[george123]

So I took off the case and listened and it sounded like the noise was coming from the hard drive. After about 3 minutes the noise stopped. I pressed f1 and and in the bottom left hand corner it said "loading setup" or something like that. Then nothing else happened, no noise no nothing. So I turned it off. I guess I will try an external enclosure for the hard drive next.