Hardrives or OSs wont work with new mobo...

[Toshiro]

I think this is hardware related...

After installing my new mobo correctly, starting up with my HDD hooked up, it wouldn't see the HDD with its jumpers set to Master. So I took off the jumper, and it would see it fine. I tried getting it to load Windows XP, but it would give me the "We apologize for the inconvenience..." screen and I'd choose Start Windows Normally. There was a flash of blue screen, the Loading Windows XP Home screen showed for a split second then the comptuer went back to the very beginning (POST, I think). I tried Safe Mode, and Load Most Recent Good Settings (or whatever it's called), but got the same results. I tried different drive with XP, got the same problem. I tried running Knoppix with the hard drive in, and with the harddrive out, but never got as far as to loading KDE.

A computer-guru friend of mine says he thinks its due to the mobo using a different IDE configuration or something. Said something about finding the settings the HDD needs or whatever.

I don't have any PCI, AGP, or anything hooked up. Just CPU/heatsink, CD-R drive, DVD drive, keyboard, mouse and monitor, and sometimes the HDD. No matter what I try it wont load Windows or Knoppix. I even tried running Windows XP Restore CD on a spare HDD and it ran the app fine, but still wouldn't let me load windows.

What the heck could possibly be the problem, and how can I fix it?

All the drives I've tried worked perfectly before (except one which is dying, but it still was a functional drive), and Knoppix used to run with no problems on that comp.

The mobo is in my sig (or at least it should be).

EDIT: the blue screen that flashes has about 1/4 a page of text. I think I saw the word "corruption" but it flashes so quickly I can't tell if it actually says that or not, and if it does, can't tell what it says is corrupted...

 

[Marvel]

I have a western digital HDD and if plugged for master and no other HDD on the cable it will cause a problem as you describe initially. In my case the MB bios shut down that entry into their disk table(don't know correct name) and your system will try to boot from some other device. To get things working at least to see the disk remove the jumper on the disk and boot again. Find the first entry in the bios disk table that describes the ide drives, which will be something like deleted device and remove it. Then work your way down to your disk and make it first if thats what you want.
Hope this is close for you, what it sounds like is the bios could not find the disk on the boot and simply wiped the first entry which may have been the information about your drive. In its place the bios wrote something we may not understand but will cause your problem on the next boot.

 

[Toshiro]

My comp sees the drives fine, but wont load windows from them... I've checked and all the info it shows in BIOS looks correct, but I can't do anything with the drives or boot Knoppix from CD

 

[Toshiro]

*bump*

Still haven't solved the problem.... nobody has any ideas or suggestions?

 

[Senseis]

how new is the motherboard and the other parts you using? If they are new you should getting the lastest bois for MB and flash it.

 

[zerozero]

Your OS was configured to work with the old MOBO. If you're running XP, get your CD-ROM as bootable before the HDD (in BIOS boot priority) insert your XP disk and select repair. Follow the prompts.

 

[Toshiro]

Senseis: mobo was brand new straight out of the box. I'll check Gigabyte for updates.

zerozero: I'll try that, but from what I've seen it wont help. I had a spare hard drive and I tried totally reinstalling windows on it, but it didn't work either.

Thanks for the help, I post my results later, I guess.

 

[Toshiro]

Update:

I tried flashign BIOS. I tried the F2 version BIOS for the 8MV533M-RZ, and it said "file size incorrect" in the Q-Flash utility. Tried F3 version. Same "file size incorrect". I'm not sure if I wanna try the files straight from DOS prompt, because if they ARE wrong..........

I don't have a real WinXP CD. Only the eMachines Restore CD which will reinstall WinXP, but not 'repair' it. So I'm back to having no options besides draggin the thing out of town and paying out the *insert name of appropriate orifice* for a professional to screw with it. Sigh.