Re: New motherboard..XP won't boot!

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance



KT wrote:
I installed a new motherboard, a new cpu, and new memory, kept all the same drives, and now XP SP2 won't boot, safe or normal,saying due to hardware change; it just keeps rebooting after that screen. Bios sees all the drives properly, and I went over all the settings in the new bios, and I can access the C: drive and read files from it. I can pull out the C: drive and put it in another computer that I built using the old motherboard,cpu and memory in and it boots fine! I really don't want to format and reinstall windows if I can avoid it! Any ideas?




Normally, and assuming a retail license (many factory-installed OEM installations are BIOS-locked to a specific chipset and therefore *not* transferable to a new motherboard - check yours before starting), unless the new motherboard is virtually identical (same chipset, same IDE controllers, same BIOS version, etc.) to the one on which the WinXP installation was originally performed, you'll need to perform a repair (a.k.a. in-place upgrade) installation, at the very least:

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341

Changing a Motherboard or Moving a Hard Drive with WinXP Installed
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

The "why" is quite simple, really, and has nothing to do with licensing issues, per se; it's a purely technical matter, at this point. You've pulled the proverbial hardware rug out from under the OS. (If you don't like -- or get -- the rug analogy, think of it as picking up a Cape Cod style home and then setting it down onto a Ranch style foundation. It just isn't going to fit.) WinXP, like Win2K before it, is not nearly as "promiscuous" as Win9x when it comes to accepting any old hardware configuration you throw at it. On installation it "tailors" itself to the specific hardware found. This is one of the reasons that the entire WinNT/2K/XP OS family is so much more stable than the Win9x group.

As always when undertaking such a significant change, back up any important data before starting.

This will also probably require re-activation, unless you have a Volume Licensed version of WinXP Pro installed. If it's been more than 120 days since you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most likely be able to activate via the Internet without problem. If it's been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone call.


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Bruce Chambers

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