Computer Issues

[CraigSca]

Well, here's what I did...

my wife has an older PC with Windows XP SP2. We decided to change motherboards and CPUs (just like I did the previous week with my Windows 2000 PC). Last week, I had to reboot my PC a few times, but Windows 2000 slowly but surely trodded it's way through the device drivers and it was a surprisingly clean install.

Well....with my wife's XP SP2 PC, I can get into CMOS but Windows will continually say soemthing to the effect of "Sorry, I can't boot up - try booting up in safe mode or try the last configuration".

I've tried every single safe mode - safe mode regular, safe mode console and safe mode networking. It continually just reboots the PC and we start from scratch again.

Any ideas?

[flere-imsaho]

XP Home or XP Pro?

XP Home (at least, maybe Pro, but I don't think so), has this funky hardware registration where it's only licensed for so many different pieces of hardware. If you've changed the mobo & CPU it's probably freaking out about that.

No clue how to fix it at this point, though.

[ZXTT]

You have to perform a so-called "in-place upgrade", which involves installing XP over itself. That should cause the correct drivers/inf files for the motherboard to be installed.

Microsoft info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q315341

After that, if the motherboard is fairly new, you should download and install the Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility, located here:
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/Product_Filter.asp?ProductID=816

[CraigSca]

If I install XP over itself, does that wipe clean the hard drive? We have a lot of family pics on that puppy.

[CraigSca]

The PC we upgraded was from EMachines, so they only included a bastardized version of XP Home - a version you can only use to reinstall XP on THAT PC. So, I'm thinking I'm out at least the cost of Windows XP, as well as an additional hard drive (so I don't lose the original data that we had on her hard drive).

[CraigSca]

Dola...

PLEASE don't tell me I need to buy Windows XP Home for $199 and not the Upgrade. Anyone know what's the difference? Or, am I hosed?

[LionsFan10]

I just bought my girl Widows XP Home full edition for $92 the other day, it shouldn't be $199.

[CraigSca]

Hmm...I was just looking online at Circuit City...$92 I can deal with.

[ZXTT]

If I install XP over itself, does that wipe clean the hard drive? We have a lot of family pics on that puppy.

1. You should assume that your hard drive will fail unexpectedly. If you care about those pictures, back them up. DVD burners are dirt cheap now. There are no excuses.

2. Installing XP over itself should result in a system that looks just like it did before - all data should be there and all apps should still be installed.

[CraigSca]

Thanks much, ZXTT.

[Antmeister]

This is what I learned anytime you move your hard drive to a new computer (motherboard).

1. Boot the Windows XP disk from your CD-ROM drive.
2. There will be a screen asking to install Windows XP.
3. After selecting the screen, select an option to repair the disk.

I just did this 2 weeks ago and everything on my hard drive is fine. Try it out. You have to do this anytime you go to a new motherboard in the future as well.