rebuild gone wrong :(

[nwarren]

installed a new mobo and video card today in my home built pc and it won't make it to windows. i can get into the bios ok. after bios screen, it acts like it is going to go into windows, but then it goes to the start windows normally or in safe mode screen, then it hits a blue windows screen of death for a split second and auto restarts. old mobo is an asus a8v deluxe, new mobo is an asus a8n5x. old video card is a xfx geforce 6800gt 256mb ddr3 agp 8x, new video card is a xfx geforce 7600gt 256mb ddr3 pci-e x16. i did the out-of-case test and the same thing happened as before. ram is 2gb (2 x 1gb) kingston hyperx pc3200 ddr400. had to upgrade the current psu as well. went from an antec true380 380watt to an antec neo he 550watt. reason for this is because old mobo uses a 20pin connection, new mobo uses a 24pin connection. i am wondering if i need to reinstall xp and start fresh for something like this. i thought i read somewhere that if you buy the upgrade version of xp, it recognizes your system specs once and then it is no longer good anymore? i really am confused at this. i am almost certain the hard drive is working fine (it is whirring like it should), the cpu (amd athlon64 fx55 socket 939) is fine, the ram seems fine, and the new mobo and video card is fine as well. everything was working in the previous build earlier today. at the beginning of when i turn on the pc, it shows that it recognizes the new video card, and in the bios it is recognizing all 2gb of ram and the hard drive. i would appreciate anyone's input on this as i have never had a problem like this before. one more thing, i was going to try the pc without the new video card, but the new mobo has no onboard video, so that's out.

[YukonMaster]

What about trying with the old graphics card with the new mobo or the old mobo with the new graphics card?

YukonMaster

[nwarren]

i'd like to add that after reading more deeply into the user reviews on newegg, it seems many people had to reinstall windows to make the a8n5x mobo work properly.

[nwarren]

Originally Posted by YukonMaster What about trying with the old graphics card with the new mobo or the old mobo with the new graphics card? YukonMaster

it won't work since the old mobo uses agp and the new mobo uses pci-e.

[YukonMaster]

Well thats no good than... hmmmmm, Im sure someone else will give their input on this but, you could try this, http://www.theeldergeek.com/replace_motherboard.htm
and if you have to reinstall windows I would put your old mobo and GPU back in and get all the updates for the bios and back up your files, and then reinstall Windows. But thats just a suggestion.

[nwarren]

Originally Posted by YukonMaster Well thats no good than... hmmmmm, Im sure someone else will give their input on this but, you could try this, http://www.theeldergeek.com/replace_motherboard.htm and if you have to reinstall windows I would put your old mobo and GPU back in and get all the updates for the bios and back up your files, and then reinstall Windows. But thats just a suggestion.

i am in the process of running a repair on xp, i'll let you know if it works out for me.

[nwarren]

well, i got it to get into windows from performing the repair suggested above. however, now it takes five minutes to boot up and then when it gets into windows, it takes another four minutes to be able to do anything with the computer. not really sure why it is so bogged down. it has plenty of ram and a fast processor. i'll post more about it as i get results. thanks so far for the help, it's working much better now even if it's slow.

[glc]

You need to uninstall all the drivers and stuff for the old hardware and install the new drivers.

[nwarren]

well, i was able to get it so that is takes about 2 minutes to boot up. it runs great once it finally settles.

as for uninstalling the old drivers, are you referring to the video card, the mobo, or both?

[Staren]

Everything. This is why we usually suggest backing up data and doing a full format and installing Windows fresh with a major hardware change. To get the best boot times back, you'll want to go into the device manager and pull everything that looks like it went to the old hardware. Also go into add/remove programs and make sure any software control panels from the motherboard or video card aren't still hanging around.

[nwarren]

i have a feeling i will have to do a complete reinstall of windows with the format, however i do not have my own full copy of xp and i really don't want to purchase vista for lack of funds. the computer seems to run solid now other than the longer boot up time, so i think i will leave it at that. thanks for everyone's help, i do appreciate it.