Pain in my ASRock (4CoreDual)

[GJSNeptune]

Just got this board, as well as a Pentium D 820. I swap out my old motherboard and install my new goodies. Of course, trouble ensues.

I turn it on and enter BIOS to fix the time and set boot devices. I first try to boot from my existing Windows installation, which is on my WD 160GB SATA drive. I get to the Windows boot screen, but the system reboots after that. Okay. Maybe I need to reinstall Windows. Fine.

I pop in my Windows CD to see if maybe I can repair my installation. I enter Windows setup and I don't have any repair options. Ugh. I do it again and have Windows install on my 40GB IDE drive. At least I'd get a temporary install to prepare one of my SATA drives. It seems to be successful. I reboot. I get through BIOS, then the Windows underscore appears on the screen.

Press any keep to boot from the CD.....a disk read error has occured.

Damnet!

What now? If I power on with no hard drives installed, Windows will boot fine and check for hardware settings, etc. But when a hard drive is connected, I get a disk read error.

I've tried everything I can think of. Different hard drive. Different optical drive. Hard drive as IDE master and optical drives as slaves. Is it because there's no FDD installed? Is there a BIOS setting I need to change? I just don't know what the problem is. I had a much easier time with a much older Abit NF7-S v2. I thought technology was supposed to make things easier.

Anyway, I know the IDE hard drive is fine. I used GParted LiveCD to reformat it (NTFS), and it doesn't appear to be a hard drive problem anyway. Anyone have any ideas? I bought this board used, so it won't be replaced, and my Pentium D is a waste without a board to put it in. Please tell me there's hope.

[pbmaster]

That's odd...when I swapped mobo's I had no problems whatsoever..no reinstalls..nothing. I'm not sure what could be wrong...before I got my new mobo I had several HDD problems and completely resetting my BIOS was the only way I could get it to work.

[GJSNeptune]

What did you swap from?

I didn't think I'd have a problem either. I swapped my dad's old computer to my old one and his Windows install booted right up. That was even a Celeron to an AthlonXP.

[pbmaster]

I swapped from a ASUS A8N SLI-Deluxe to what I have now(in my profile). I think the main thing that prevented me from having any problems was because it was the same chipset, but because of all what you've done, something should have worked by now.

[GJSNeptune]

Does anyone know possible reasons for a system to reboot after the Windows boot screen?

Do I need a boot disk or CD to repair the startup? I don't know much about the software part of this process.

[tkpenalty]

If its SATA, you can but... not for IDE. You HAVE to reinstall for IDE.

[GJSNeptune]

My current install is on a SATA, but the system reboots a couple seconds after the Windows boot screen appears. It seems that getting it to not reboot is my only hope. I just have no idea why it does it.

[GJSNeptune]

Anyone?

[GJSNeptune]

Anyone have any ideas?

[JousteR]

I've always done a fresh install of O/S..Did u put in your chipset driver disk..?
it may be running old chipset drivers..?

[Dippyskoodlez]

Originally Posted by GJSNeptune

Anyone have any ideas?

You could try booting in safe mode, if that doesn't work, you'll have to back everything up and format, because its not worth the hassle fixing it by hand. You'll likely encounter stability issues and performance losses.

[erocker]

It could be the chipset/IDE drivers screwing things up. Have you flashed the bios?

[Steevo]

Possibly a board problem. Or a PCI other clock lock problem, if you are OC'ing it don't as of yet.


But to be honest unless you had the same drive controller onthe SATA port or you were running in IDE native mode on the other board it will not be able to access the drive after the motherboard hands over control to windows. I can prove this as the new machine I built can run in IDE native mode, but with AHCI (Advanced host controler interface) turned on I get BSOD'd and have to reboot. So unless if I insert the SATA driver to allow windows to interface with the AHCI then it is a no go. Many boards do not have the option to turn it off and use native interfaces with windows, nessacatating the installation of a kernel mode driver for hard drive access. Same as RAID drivers.

[Grings]

have you still got your old motherboard and chip, and if so will it still boot from that?, if it does then boot into windows, remove the nvidia motherboard drivers, and shut down instead of restart, then swap back over to the new motherboard

if your old board was using microsoft drivers instead of nvidia ones, add the nvidia ones first then remove them again (its a pain in the ass removing microsoft drivers, and when nvidia ones are removed, all (motherboard) hardware is detected as if newly installed)

[Dippyskoodlez]

Originally Posted by erocker

It could be the chipset/IDE drivers screwing things up. Have you flashed the bios?

It is.


This is the same reason windows doesn't boot to USB. It initialized the driver when booting, if its the wrong one... well... BSOD! The wrong drive would probably promptly cause a GPF.

(in the case of USB, it loses drive access)

[GJSNeptune]

Yes, my old board and chip work fine. I reinstalled them after my first attempt, and my existing Windows drive booted right up.

I've tried booting into Safe mode and the system reboots again.

Aside from getting the new board to run my existing Windows intallation, why won't the Windows CD boot and install on my formatted IDE 40GB drive?

I've only flashed a BIOS from Windows. How do I do it otherwise?

[GJSNeptune]

So according to Grings, if I clean the NVIDIA drivers from my existing Windows installation, it'll boot with the new board?

I'm fine with that plan, but I'd rather not reinstall my old board again. If I could get Windows to boot from the CD and install on my IDE drive, could I wipe drivers from a Windows install that isn't the one running at the moment?

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by GJSNeptune

Does anyone know possible reasons for a system to reboot after the Windows boot screen?

Do I need a boot disk or CD to repair the startup? I don't know much about the software part of this process.

The force is telling me to run memtest, and check your ram for faultiness!

Perhaps raise teh voltages on the mobo?

[Dippyskoodlez]

Originally Posted by GJSNeptune

So according to Grings, if I clean the NVIDIA drivers from my existing Windows installation, it'll boot with the new board?

I'm fine with that plan, but I'd rather not reinstall my old board again. If I could get Windows to boot from the CD and install on my IDE drive, could I wipe drivers from a Windows install that isn't the one running at the moment?

not unless you have some haxxor driver swapping skills with the command prompt.

It actually sounds like you're using a 40 pin IDE cable. (why the cd wont boot).

Windows just wont boot because its designed not to.

[GJSNeptune]

Originally Posted by Dippyskoodlez

It actually sounds like you're using a 40 pin IDE cable. (why the cd wont boot).

Windows just wont boot because its designed not to.

What? Explain please?

[JrRacinFan]

Older IDE cables are 40 conductor, the newer ones are 80 conductor. Are you using the one that came with either mobo, aka newer cable?

[GJSNeptune]

Ha. I didn't even know there's an 80. I'll try the ones that came with the board, but why would it matter? I've seen Windows boot from the CD, and I've seen Windows try to boot from my SATA drive. I've also seen Windows try to install on the 40GB IDE drive. Why would the error only come after it restarted after installing?

[GJSNeptune]

Well right now I only have the dual-device IDE cable, so the hard drive will still be on a 40-c cable. Do both devices need it, or which one needs it more?

[JrRacinFan]

Hmmm, just a question but do you have an SATA based DVD drive handy?

[Steevo]

If the drive doesn't detect the extra ground cables to make the 80 it limits the speed to UDMA3 or Ultra ATA 66. It doesn't prevent the drive from working, just from performing at its theoretical best.


I am going to agree with Mussels, either get a boot floppy or CD to run memtest http://www.memtest86.com/



And or downclock everythign a bit.