Calling all members about mobo swap trouble..........

[Dooin' it]

OK, here's yet another scenario......(why couldn't I have picked a hobby like soap-box racing?)

I sell a guy an Athlon XP 2400+ w/ ECS K7VTA3 combo. (Work great, I've set up tons myself w/ no probs.)

This guy swaps out an old ECS K7ama ("ALI" chipset) for the K7VTA3 ("VIA" chipset) and wonders why he can't even boot to Windows........(he's using WinXP home). I told him there are *DEFINitELY* driver issues between the 2 boards & that it would seriously take fresh install to make things work........BUT......

A LONG TIME AGO.........IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY.......JP ONCE SAID......

swapping out mobo..with windows xp...when you get the new one in..go straight to the bios and do whatever needs to be done there..then dont even try to boot into windows cuz itll blue screen....instead boot to the cd and do a "repair" install....just act like you are doing a regular install and it'll search for and find your current install then it'll have an option to "repair" that install....that USUALLY works.

By booting to the CD, you mean set it up in the BIOS for the boot sequence to start with the CD and then it'll show the "repair" install option???????

[MitaDC]

tell him to put the cd in the cd-rom drive and make sure the bios is set to boot from cd and there ya go. I think that is what u r asking about but that sounds too easy, is it more complicated than that?

[Dooin' it]

Ya, thanks Mita, if you look again, you'll see I edited what I said. (I didn't *really* ask that question, did I???......LOL!!!) Oh well, can't see the forest for the trees sometimes.....har har!!

Anyway, thanks for the quick feedback and I think the answer is obvious that the "repair" install will show somewhere on a screen.......(forgive me as I don't have a *real* XPhome cd myself except for a dell version which is "dell-specific" and I haven't had to use it anyway, thus my ignorance)

And, obviously my next question will follow, when JP says this *usually* works does that mean "more often than not" or "less often than yes"???? The guy I sold the mobo/cpu to obviously does not want to do a fresh install so hopefully (truly) this is the answer for him.

[MitaDC]

ok what will happen is you will go to install windows (don't go to the repair console) it will I believe ask for you to agree to everything (F8) and then it should show like clean install and repair (this is all from memory so it may be a little off). It will then repair it and voila

[MitaDC]

Also you may have to select the partition (I am trying hard to remember the sequence) and then it will bring up the screen to repair or format etc.

[Dooin' it]

quote.....(don't go to the repair console). <-----just to be sure, I wanna make sure this is correct?? Just sounds kinda' confusing. So, instead look for "clean install and repair"?? (or worded something like that?)

Thanks for your quick replies, Mita.

P.S. I also think he's only using 1 partition, so would he still have to select that partition?? Are they (or in this case "it") listed to he can select it?

[MitaDC]

Ok I am gonna try to remember this as well as I can:

Insert CD; boot; boot from cd; after all the files are transfered there should be a window that comes up that says something like repair console or repair, you don't want the first one; continue to something like install windows; I believe after that a screen should come up with the license info; hit F8; new screen that says something about delete partition, clean install, or repair should come up (I may be missing a screen, if I am it is a screen like install windows on this partition or something, sorry I can't remember it all) select repair and it should load the files and that's it. I actually will insert my cd now and go through it and see what the exact steps are. Will post again in about 5 min.

[MitaDC]

ok here it is:

Insert CD; Boot: Boot from cd; Loads files; setup winxp - press enter; licensing - press F8; Repair - press R

That should do it

[John Prophet]

ok, I was going to say never press R...but actually I think it is "DONT press the FIRST R"....the first "R" takes you into the actual repair console....which means you are sitting there looking at a dos looking screen.....not what you want.

so dont press the FIRST "R"..instead just go thru the motions as if you are going to do a fresh install....it will search the hard drive and find the windows install that is already there...then its just a matter of choosing to "repair" the current install as opposed to formatting.

Basically if you just go past and ignore the repair console..the rest will be self explanatory.

JP

[MitaDC]

yah the repair console is soooo confusing lol I can never figure it out.