wasnt sure where to post this. well, i recently managed to mangle my processor, an AMD Athlon FX-55 on a A8n-SLI mobo. I was running a water cooling system my friend had set up for me, but i just recently came back from vacation, and the comp would shut down because the CPU would overheat. found there was a leak so i tried to replace the cooling system back to regular, and everything was fine but managed to bend some needles on the processor. Oh well, i was wanting to upgrade anyway. so i decided to upgrade the mobo as well. i have my eye on the M2N-SLI mobo with the AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual core. my friend was going to help me with the install, but i want to make sure all the right steps are taken. so my question is, what steps do i need to take in order to have everything work fine ? thanks for any help am running XP SP2.
I have A8N Sli mobo, and only reason for the upgrade (apart from nForce 4 Chipset) is the socket 939. I had misfortune to buy my mobo just before the AM2 socket got released, and judging from the CPU prices, it was a bad timing for me.
I don't know about you, but I had to upgrade my HD BIOS in order to get it running in SATA II mode. That "upgrade" is caused by bug in nForce4 chipset, and it is possible that it is make-it-nForce4-only-drive upgrade. No reverting possible for me (Maxtor DiamondMAX).
So, I guess there are things you should consider before you go and install new stuff:
- Ground yourself
- Don't bend the needles
- Avoid water cooling. You know why. Big heatsink is all you need.
- Make sure you have floppy drive around. You might need f6 drivers.
- Make sure you run the make-disk utility before you start Windows setup (f6 drivers).
- Prepare all of the driver CD's for your hardware. Searching for one CD/DVD at the time is time-consuming.
- Connect everything (USB ports, all the PCI cards, all external hardware...) before windows setup
- Driver list to be installed (after the Windows setup is done):
1. MOTHERBOARD - Absolute MUST
2. CPU Support
3. Graphic Card
4. Other PCI cards, printers...
5. Latest DirectX
- Check the Hardware manager to see if there are "unknown" or "problem" devices (read: drivers you forgot to install)
- Visit the Microsoft Update
- Reboot every time you are asked to. No skipping.
- Don't settle for less than 100% functionality.
thank you for your help, but i was wondering, should i just go in and upgrade the drivers from the mobo disc, or should i first remove any existing drivers with driver cleaner pro or something like that ?
It's not really required to remove old drivers.. It shouldn't affect your system much either way.
Uninstalling software (I'm not talking about drivers) might be wise thing to do if you are not planning on formatting the drive before the Windows setup. For the disk space sake.
You will have to reinstall all of it again, format or no format.
thanks everyone. i got it all running and ran perfectly for a full day but last night i got a blue screen of death. it said it was related to nvata.sys. it posted these numbers which i wrote down: BCCode: 10000d1 BCP1: 00000060 BCP2: 00000002 BCP3: 00000000 BCP4: BA632AB0 6SVer: 5_1_2600 SP: 2_0 product: 768_1. would appreciate any help. I ran memtest and it found no errors. here are specs:
M2N-SLI Deluxe
2GB Patriot RAM
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
Zalman CNPS 9500 cooler
1 500GB Seagate Barracuda
1 300gb Seagate Barracuda
oh yeah, another problem, when i tried to install the cool'n'quiet driver, after uninstalling the previous one, it would get stuck at the searching for previous drivers screen, no matter what i did. So far it has been running great without it though. Really appreciate some help, thanks.
oh yeah, and everytime i start up, the found new hardware device wizard pops up about an 'other PCI bridge device' which i cant identify. could this be the problem ?
ok update, i Dled the latest chipset driver from the ASUS site and installed it. i installed the network controller, whereas before i didnt, because i already had an ethernet card installed and didnt want to bother with it. i think this might have fixed the problem, but now i cant connect to the internet. EDIT: internet works fine now. but, i just now tried to load uTorrent, and I automatically got the BSOD, same as before...
ok now, every time i run uTorrent, after a few moments i get the bsod. the error this time says *** STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x00000060, 0x00000062, 0x00000000, 0xBA632AB0)
*** nvata.sys - address BA632AB0 base at BA61D000, DateStamp 44ea5cc9. I have latest BIOS, and chipset drivers... this sucks !
There is one thing you should have in mind:
If you have already installed VGA drivers, and your VGA has GeForce chipset, you wont be able to update mobo drivers properly. Some of them will not be updated.
What you need to do is:
- uninstall VGA drivers
- uninstall mobo drivers
- install updated mobo drivers
- install VGA drivers
If I was you, I would go to NVIDIA's homepage for the mobo drivers. ASUS tends to be 6 - 12 months behind the current version. If you do, you might need to get the sound drivers separately.
my god what a nightmare. ok. so i did as you said, i uninstalled everything. but, i wanted to be thorough so i used driver cleaner pro, and yes i did it right, in safe mode. so i restart to reinstall, and the goddamn mouse and keyboard wont work. i use a wireless setup. i couldnt do a damn thing. so i went and got an old mouse and keyboard, powered off and went back, still nothing. i couldnt do anything !!
luckily i had another version of windows installed long before, which i never used because it had become corrupted and would give me a BSOD as soon as i tried to log into it. but, when i recently got this new MOBO and reinstalled the drivers, i installed all of the network drivers, as before i didnt. magically, this old version of windows worked again. so i logged into this version of windows with the old mouse and keyboard and it worked ok. so i installed the drivers the way you told me to and that works ok. but now, i cant choose which windows i want to log onto, whereas before it automatically gave me a choice of which install of windows i wanted to log onto. so i deciced to reformat drive C (orig version of windows) to get rid of that version thinking it would then automatically have to recognize the other version and log onto that which has everything i know on. so i copied some files to drive F, on my 500gb seagate, and in doing so somehow (im a dumbass) moved some windows files over there. so as i went to the setup screen, it wouldnt recognize any version of windows, except for on drive F! so i didnt know what the hell to do, and so i hit repair this version on drive F like a moron and walk away because it was seriously pissing me off. i get back on, and now it tries to reinstall windows on drive F, and now i cant get on any previous version of windows and it automatically tries to install windows. so i decided to stop and ask before i shot myself in the foot again. I desperately need some help !
You will have to disable 500 GB HD in BIOS. That way it wont try to repair it. You can also disable all HDs you have. Windows setup program can still install the windows correctly, only it wont detect any present installations.
P.S. Don't forget to re-enable them after the first reboot.
ok i disabled the HD, and went back to try it out and nothing changed. the only damn windows that is recognized is on drive F, which there is no windows installed on ! so i formatted drive c completely. is there any way to just get it back to the way it was before ? right now im about to install a fresh copy on drive C. but how can i get to the windows installed on drive D if i wont give me a choice ?? thanks again for your help Chaky, any and all help is much appreciaterd.
You obviously deleted (a.k.a. moved from C to F) most of the files on drive C, so the setup program isn't detecting any windows installations there. I don't know exactly what is setup program looking for (maybe it is just entries in boot.ini), but it obviously isn't there.
You need to disable the 500 GB HD. If you already have and the setup program is still prompting you to fix that, then unplug the cable of the 500 GB HD and try to install on C drive (or D, whichever you prefer). No need to format the drive.
There is a way to get it back, but you would need to remove both drives and plug them in another machine. Or you can copy them manually from the recovery console (hardly an option here).
BTW, no need to uninstall the drivers in the safe mode. Simple rollback would do.
Okay, all you had to do was edit the boot configuration file in windows.. (Boot.ini which is located in the root directory (C:\)). It is a special OS file which can easily be edited either by editing the file (NOT recommended unless you know what you are doing) or by going to Start-run-cmd. In the command prompt, go to the C:\, and use the bootcfg command to edit the boot.ini file.
Mk, I'm a little confused as to what is going on atm.. You have two seperate partitions on one hd, right? And now a second hd? Heh? You should NEVER reformat unless it is your last option.. as it is always a B**** to deal with.
yes, i have a 300 gb, with 2 partitions, C and D. then a 500 gb, with drive F. I had windows installed on partition C at first, then that became corrupted for some reason and would get bsod. then i installed onto D and is the one which ive been using for the past year. then i uninstalled the chipset and vid drivers as recommended by chaky to update, but when i logged on to the D windows, my mouse and keyboard completely stopped working. so i tried the drive C again, and it magically worked for the first time after getting this new mobo, the M2N-SLI deluxe and installing the network drivers (which i didnt do on a8n-sli). the mouse would work on C windows, so installed the drivers there. then went restart, but it wouldnt give me a choice as to which windows i wanted. it just automatically did the C windows. so i went to format drive c in hopes that it would then automatically go do D windows, and in doing so backed up some files on drive F (and inadvertantly moved some windows files over there). in windows setup, it would only recognize a windows installed on drive F, in which there was actually no windows installed, just the remainder of some files on drive F. then all it wanted to do was install a fresh copy on drive F. so then i disabled the HD with drive F on it in BIOS, and went to start up it would say something like NTLDR missing press ctrl+alt+del to restart and couldnt even get to an OS. so i formatted drive C, and reinstalled on drive C so i could have an OS to go to and wouldnt have to install on another hard drive in drive F. now, all i want to do is to be able to choose which version of windows i want before it boots, so i can get to the D windows..
Is the D Windows even there anymore? If Windows setup was not even showing a D:\Windows, then you have some problems.. Try the XP cd, and see if it allows you the option of 'repairing' the Windows installation on drive D:\. If not, use the recovery console, and see if it gives you an option on drive D. If this doesn't either.. then your kinda screwed.. Boot to drive C, and see if drive D is even recognized in My computer. Right click my computer- Click Manage- then go to Disk Management. Take a screen shot or something.. and post it on here.
If I was you, I would install windows on drive C (no repairs, no formatting) and manually install mobo drivers (as, cancel any automatic driver installation upon 2nd reboot). And don't install/uninstall drivers in safe mode. That is a bad karma.
Manually reconstructing windows installation is next to impossible and only real solution is to install windows + manually install drivers (old school).
When I say "manually" I mean double-clicking the driver bundle from NVIDIA and such.
ok i went to windows setup and it will not recognize any installation of windows on drive D. went to recovery console, and it recognizes drive d. went to disk management it has drive C Healthy (system) then D Healthy and F Healthy.
ok somehow i didnt catch this before but was looking around the drives and somehow, seriously i have no idea how but somehow drives D and F switched all files between the two. d and f are on two different hard drives, but somehow all the files got switched. i know i didnt do that, at least not intentionally. weird shit. so the windows IS on drive F now apprently. so how do i get to choose drive f instead on startup ?
The confusion with drive letters is caused by 500 Gig HD. It represents (another) primary partition on the system. By default, first letter (C) is assigned to first primary partition. Second one (D) is assigned to second primary partition (in your case 500 Gig HD). It used to be F, because it was added after first windows was installed, but when your attempted to install the windows again, it reorganized the drive letters, so you have C (1st disk primary partition) D (500 Gig HD) E (1st disk secondary partition)
Drive letters assignment can be changed by disk management.
For you to be able to choose drive F on your startup, you need to change D to F in your disk management. If it is occupied, you can simply change current F to something else, then change D to F.
Note: Changing drive letters can cause problems with installed software.
Yea.. the drive letter doesn't matter much.
Try this: boot to c:\. My computer- c:\. Go to tools- folder options-view- and uncheck: Hide protected operating system files (recommended). Click ok. There should be many more files in C:\. Find boot.ini and open it.
Here is what mine looks like:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional x64 Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
(With the multi(0).. part all on one line)
Anyway, I suggest you add a line after the end.
Assuming that your double partitioned hd is jumpered as the primary.. Then add this:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows "
Save it, and reboot.. Tell us what happens. If it doesn't allow you to boot to D:\ this time, then tell us what the error message is, and post a copy of your boot.ini file.
ok, it now lets me choose a second windows, thats a start. but, it tries to go to a windows setup, and restarts since the disk isnt in. here is a copy of the boot.ini file after altering it as you said. its the same as yours actually
[boot loader]
timeout=90
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows"
Hm.. well either the boot.ini file is referring to the wrong partition or that specific windows partition is corrupted.
Boot into the windows version that works, right click "My Computer" then click manage. Go to disk management, and maximize the screen. Click print screen, then go to start-run-mspaint. Paste the printed screen then save as a .png document. Post the screen shot here so I can have a better idea of what is going on.
hey! i waS juSs wondering if anyBody knew how 2 unblock a netGear fireWall..it waS enabled..nd now it blocks many different sites like yahoo..etc. i waS juSs wonDering if anyBody could help or if tHey know how to unBlock it..
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I responded to your PM, so check your messages. I usually don't, so feel lucky. You could have started a new thread instead of derailing this one.
lol. ok here we go. and i gotta say thanks for your help so far josh. [IMG]http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z50/chuteboxe39/untitled.jpg[/IMG]
hah.. not a problem.. just hope we can get ya fixed up soon :)
Whoa.. you have three hd? Hm okay.. Uh, that boot.ini file tried to boot drive f. Okay.. its a bit confusing, but if you want to boot to drive D, then go back and edit the boot.ini file to this: (just change the second entry- the one you created)
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows"
Barring some unforeseen circumstance, that should allow you to boot to D:\. Post what happens.
ok so i changed the drive letters so F is D. changed the info in boot.ini and restarted, but when i went to boot it gave me an error about drive letter and disk information or something... windows on drive C still works perfectly.
Oh.. what? Why did you change the drive letters?
Hell, I'm almost tempted to tell you to install GRUB..
Okay, there are some tools that you can probably use.. what OS are you currently running on your hd?
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