Installing after a Mobo Upgrade

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This is an offshoot of a previous thread. I’m installing a new mobo, using the same CPU, and I’m trying to avoid a total reinstall of system, updates, and 96 programs, 9 years of tweaks, dozens of serial numbers, etc.

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RochelleP wrote:
What I meant was: if I have to use the UBCD+Win CD combo, and it then lets me into the Windows GUI, do I then just put in the mobo drivers CD, and that’s it? ALL DONE?
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Byron wrote:
Is the system partition IDE or SATA? If you are going to use SATA on the new mobo, you’ll need to set the controller to IDE emulation (hopefully there is a setting in the BIOS for that–not all mobos have it). Other than that, once the IDE controller in the XP system partition has been set to generic IDE with FixHDC, it should boot to the log in screen. If it gets that far then treat it as a new install that needs all the drivers and of course, start with all the mobo drivers.

If something doesn’t work right then you can try a repair install with the XP install disc or if there is still trouble with say SATA controllers then maybe only a full reinstall or using a product like Acronis with the restore plugin will suffice.

When everything was IDE it was a snap but now that SATA is used most of the time and XP is not innately aware of SATA, it can be tricky, or even impossible (without the BIOS setting to emulate IDE).

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The mobo is SATA. To anyone tuning in late, here’s the scenario:

XP SP3 and all updates
Using same CPU
new mobo
new identical HD
trying to keep my XP installatuion without a complete repair install or a reinstall.

There’s a complication Byron, that I didn’t mention. The HD, SATA 80 GB Seagate, was damaged in the accident too. Installation of C is an IMAGE on a 10 GB HD. Everything’s wired up, ready to go, but the image, made with EASEUS Todo Backup, has to go on that HD first. And I can’t do it on this comp, no SATA socket.

Data is not an issue, backed both up to this comp and on media.

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And I can’t do it on this comp, no SATA socket.

Possibilities: use a USB to SATA converter cable (~$20 from Sabrient and others) to get the image on the new drive; use an EaseUS recommended bootable disc (yes, another one)

If your system is crashed or Linux based bootable CD fails to restore the system, we recommend you to restore system with WinPE based bootable CD which is more powerful than Linux one: operate without installation, support Windows 7 and Hardware Raid, etc.

to restore the image once the drive is in place on the new board; or borrow someone’s computer that has a SATA port available to get that image in place.

I’ve used the first method, works great, not the second, and I have plenty of spare computers wtih SATA ports lying around.

Again though, the mobo has to support IDE mode, not just AHCI mode only on the controller or it won’t work anyway.

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Thanks. Have to put everything on hold because the mobo isn’t posting and the monitor is blank. I have to get a friend over here to test things.

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If you’re confident enough to try it, leave the mobo outside of the case, resting on the packing foam or cardboard. Make sure you’re grounding yourself all the time by touching case metal or wearing a static strip. That will give you a chance to check all connections again, jumper the CMOS reset and with the board battery out and the system unplugged hold the power button in for several seconds and then replace the battery and plug it back in and if it fires up it was either the BIOS needed a kick in the pants or the board is shorting out in the case. If it doesn’t fire up, yeah then its testarama/component substitution time.

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Before I do this: – post beeps, which I need to hear.

The mobo manual refers to a front speaker wire to attach, which will also give me the beeps. I have no such wire in my case, yet the old mobo beeped just fine. The only sound wire from the front is attached to front mike-earphone connectors, no speaker. But the wire doesn’t fit those pins anyway, it fits the green connector below the onboard sound, with 8 pins arranged in 2 rows, one being blank. Where should my post beeps come from? I hear nothing.

Here’s the mobo:

http://www.newegg.co…N82E16813128388

The case never had a manual.
http://www.buy.com/r…tingid=74807918

I reset the CMOS both ways. There are other issues here. I know the front power switch is defective. I’m on my 3rd Thermaltake PSU under warranty, don’t know if it’s good, but the juice keep going on and off. The board’s not shorting out in the case; I checked all the standoffs yesterday when assembling it.

I shorted the front power switch pins with a screwdriver to bypass the defective switch, but the power still keeps going on and off.

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should say front AUDIO wire

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Where should my post beeps come from? I hear nothing.

Used to be integtrated right on the mobo, the case sometimes has a little speaker mounted in the front somewhere and I’ve also seen a seperate little speaker assembly come with the mobo.

The pin out in the image is for the front audio jacks which won’t help for post beeps. The post beep pin outs will either be in with the front panel control assembly pin outs or somewhere nearby to that and it should be a 4 pin out straight line with one missing pin and labeled speaker.

I shorted the front power switch pins with a screwdriver to bypass the defective switch, but the power still keeps going on and off.

Throw the 115/230 switch back and forth a few times see if that helps. Does it just power off shortly after you try powering it on? Or does it actually keep powering on and off by itself? The first could be a bad power supply but also could be a safety shutdown, either the CPU fan isn’t spinning up or the CPU is overheating right away or the mobo is indeed shorting. I had to put the little nylon washers between the mobo and the standoffs once to get it to work but that was kind of an extreme case. If the PS is cycling up and down by itself then its probably a bad PS.

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I solved the on-off problem. The 4-pin next to the 20-pin wasn’t fitting in tightly.

I tried the mobo out of the case,check all wires, pulled RAM, and still no beeps or post..

As I said, the manual claims the beep comes from the 4 pins I’ve marked in red, but I’ve never had a matching wire. Never had a front speakers on this case or any case, and my old XFX mobo just had a built-in beeper. I thought case wiring was pretty standard. I’ve been all over the net trying to find my missing beeps. Maybe I should ring Gigabyte next week.

So it’s not posting or showing video, and is “beeping” silently, but we don’t know what it’s signaling. But if the mobo’s DOA, does it matter?

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You might have to get or try to find a little dongle speaker that just hangs from the wire or sits on the bottom of the case, but if you aren’t even getting a startup BIOS screen of any sort, post codes aren’t going to add much to the solution. You don’t have another graphics card you can try do you? Sounds like you got what I call a snarly one, its going to fight you all the way.

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Try POST with only graphics card (if necessary; not necessary if graphics is onboard) and RAM, no hard drive, no other addin cards. If all is right with the world, you’ll get a message on screen to the effect of “No boot device”. If it won’t POST with only graphics card and RAM installed, swap out the RAM for known good RAM. If that fails, swap out the graphics card for known good card.

If all that fails, you have a DOA new motherboard. If it POSTs bare, but won’t POST when the hard drive is attached, then you have a failed hard drive.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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bb-You missed the mobo specs at Newegg and my previous descriptions. You also missed that the HD is brand new, not even formatted yet.

And the RAM is fine, bec I was using it until the old mobo died. There is no posting or any other beeps bec of the reason I cited above, which you didn’t read. Everything is onboard, as I tried to keep the build as simple as possible.

Byron– I might have an old AGP graphics cards from this comp, but….

Yeah, it’s hard when you have no testing equipment and not enough old parts to swap out. If I had foreseen the past 2 years of nightmares with the thing, I never would have built it. Hindsight is 20/20.

I’m waiting for a my friend to email back if he wants to look at the mobo. He has testing equipment and parts, as he’s a retrired IT person who still works part-time..

I’m totally disgusted because I went througfh 3 Thermaltake PSU’s under warranty in 3 months, and Gigabyte is screwing me. TG they’re opening a MicroCenter near me soon, ending the long nightmare of packaging , shipping and RMA’s.

If they send me a good mobo, will I still need a dongle to produce post codes? Can you cite a dongle online, pref at Newegg? This is weird. I’ve had 6 computers, 8 mobos total, and never one that had no means of beeping.

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bb-You missed the mobo specs at Newegg and my previous descriptions. You also missed that the HD is brand new, not even formatted yet.

And the RAM is fine, bec I was using it until the old mobo died. There is no posting or any other beeps bec of the reason I cited above, which you didn’t read. Everything is onboard, as I tried to keep the build as simple as possible.

Did you try what I suggested? If not, you haven’t ruled anything out definitively. Try POST with RAM and Graphics only; no addin cards, no hard drive, no anything. If the PSU is good and if all is well with your motherboard, you will get a message to the effect, “No boot device”. If you don’t get that message, then you either have bad RAM or a DOA motherboard.

For these troubleshooting techniques, you don’t need to be able to hear beep codes, just look at the monitor.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Did you try what I suggested? If not, you haven’t ruled anything out definitively. Try POST with RAM and Graphics only; no addin cards, no hard drive, no anything. If the PSU is good and if all is well with your motherboard, you will get a message to the effect, “No boot device”. If you don’t get that message, then you either have bad RAM or a DOA motherboard.

For these troubleshooting techniques, you don’t need to be able to hear beep codes, just look at the monitor.

Graphics, sound, LAN are onboard. I had already told Byron somewhere above that I had tried it with minimal parts, then only 1 RAM stick, out of the case. There’s nothing on the monitor, and no post. And, yes, it’s a functioning monitor, thankgoddess they’re all interchangeable for testing. PSU and RAM are good.

Pardon me while I stick pins into a voodoo doll of Newegg. Are they supposed to be responsible for checking out parts before they send them? Or is that the responsibility of the mfer?

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My IT friend finally started testing today. The video connector on the mobo is a little loose, and one stick of RAM is either bad or disliked by this mobo. This particular mobo has a history of not “liking” certain RAM, but my friend has no mobo for DDR2 to test the stick.

Will start reassembling tomorrow and decide if the loose video conn. is worth the aggravation and postal expense of an RMA. And yes, I probably need that little plug-in front speaker to hear beeps. But sometimes there’s a BIOS setting to transfer the beeps to the onboard audio.

The other problem, of using UBDCDWin has been resolved, because the drive with my image has died also, so I have to redo everything from scratch: 86 programs, 9 years of XP tweaks, dozens of settings. But over the years I’ve learned to keep good notes, lists and program installers.

Thanks to you both for your help.

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the drive with my image has died also, so I have to redo everything from scratch: 86 programs, 9 years of XP tweaks, dozens of settings. But over the years I’ve learned to keep good notes, lists and program installers.

I feel your pain over the loss of your image. This is another illustration of why I use DVD drive images for backup, even though so many say it is a waste of time. There is a hard and fast rule rule regarding magnetic media; failure is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when. And even a working drive that has been disconnected, carefully packaged and stored, can turn up dead when it is most needed.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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I don’t have a DVD burner, never had any use for it, but even DVD burners die.

The smallest HD I’ve found on the web is about $38+shpg. I just hook my backup drive onto an existing SATA or IDE cable, then take it off. Don’t fuss with more hardware than necessary. KISS.

So you have your image, buy a new DVD player, but don’t they keep changing the DVD formats, with that built-in obsolescence principal that keeps the computer parts industry so lucrative?

My C drive image is about 7 GB. How do YOU handle the splitting problem?

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I don’t have a DVD burner, never had any use for it, but even DVD burners die.

The drive image is on the DVD’s, not the burner.

The smallest HD I’ve found on the web is about $38+shpg. I just hook my backup drive onto an existing SATA or IDE cable, then take it off. Don’t fuss with more hardware than necessary. KISS.

But we have this:

the drive with my image has died also, so I have to redo everything from scratch: 86 programs, 9 years of XP tweaks, dozens of settings. But over the years I’ve learned to keep good notes, lists and program installers.

That sounds like a little more fuss…

If my DVD burner dies, I can replace it for under $40, and my drive images are still on my DVD’s. There is considerabe difference between $40 and “9 years of…”

So you have your image, buy a new DVD player, but don’t they keep changing the DVD formats, with that built-in obsolescence principal that keeps the computer parts industry so lucrative?

It’s called backward compatibility. My newest burner will read my oldest DVD’s and CD’s.

My C drive image is about 7 GB. How do YOU handle the splitting problem?

It’s all taken care of by the imaging software; not a problem.

The old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” still holds true.

In order to have faith and trust in one’s backup system, one must test it under the most dire of circumstances. Always look for the weakest link. One-touch simplicity that fails utterly is not nearly as appealling as spending a little time now and again swapping out fresh DVD’s for a dependable backup that can be restored to a new rig if necessary.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Will look into buying a burner after I get my rent and health insurance money together. And your own imaging software is what? I have EASEUS Todo Backup and Seagate Backup, and both have done well by me so far, but not on DVD’s.

No need to worry about my spending “a little more time” in maintenance of DVD’s, or even pouring more money into yet more parts. If any car had as many components that broke down as often, or required as much maintenance as computers, we would all RMA our cars every few months, and we’d be walking everywhere. Or if I were told that I could no longer get parts for a 5-year old car. (Actually mine is 15, but hey, it’s aToyota.) “The medium has become the message,” to paraphrase McLuhan a little.

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Will look into buying a burner after I get my rent and health insurance money together. And your own imaging software is what?

I use BootIt Next Generation.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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