Help Needed! Upgraded CPU and now Win2k Pro won't boot (1 Viewer)

[John_Bonner]

Yesterday I upgraded the CPU in my machine. I went from a 1.2GHz Athlon to an Athlon XP 2400+ (with new HS & fan). Before I did the upgrade I flashed the BIOS to the latest version (May 2002). The system was working fine, no problems whatsoever.

It took a few tries to get a POST but mainly because I had the wrong clock speed set. After setting the jumpers to default, the system recognized the new CPU at the right speed. Good so far.

Then Windows 2000 Pro starts. I get the first (black) screen with the long progress bar the says underneath "For troubleshhoting hit F8......". Then comes the Win 2K splash screen that has a smaller progress bar and says "Starting Up" Copyright 1985-1999 MS Corp. Good so far.

Then comes a blue screen that normally has small message boxes that say "Windows is starting up" and "Applying security policy", etc...but those messages never appear. The system just hung at the blank blue screen. After rebooting it goes thru the first two startup screens I just mentioned then up comes a black screen that says something like "Disks need to be check for consistency" basically a chkdsk or a scandisk. The second paragraph says "Hit any key if you wish to skip the disk check" then it starts to countdown from 10 seconds. 9, 8, 7, then it just hangs at 6 seconds....EVERY time at 6 seconds. Very odd.

Here's what I've tried:
* Tried skipping the disk check, system just hangs
* Tried Safe Mode, I get the black screen with the long progress bar, when it gets to the end it hangs
* Booted from Win2K CD, after it loads a bunch of files you then can hit "R" for the recover utility, hitting "R" gave me a "Please wait" message and it just hangs
* Booted from Win2K CD, after it loads a bunch of files you then can hit "Enter" to install Win 2K, hitting "Enter" gave me a "Please wait" message and it just hangs
* Booted from a DOS floppy, ran a 3 hour scandisk, same results

Any suggestions???

From a DOS prompt I can see all of my files and directories on C: drive. I'll reformat if I have to but I'd like to know if there's any way I can backup important files before doing so. I have an old DOS prgram called Fastwire which works ok, but all filesnames are cut down to 8 characters and finding files like e-mail adress books, IE favorites, etc is a real pain.

Any help would really be appreciated.

System specs:
Epox 8K7A with 5/29/02 BIOS
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
IBM Deskstar 60GB 7200
512MB Crucial DDR 2100
Pioneer A06 DVD writer
Floppy drive
ATI Radeon LE 32MB
300w PS
Windows 2000 Pro (not sure of service pack, maybe SP3?)

 

[Christo Ramo]

Is the cooling system adequate? Make sure you have the right fan and thermal grease. Did the existing motherboard work with win2k loaded on it. (Prior to swapping out the chip) Why did you flash the BIOS?

 

[John_Bonner]

Cooling is good. CPU runs about 32C.
Mobo worked fine with Win2K prior to CPU upgrade.
BIOS was flashed because earlier version did not support Athlon XP 2400.

I'm having a hard time determining if the problem is hardware-related or software-related. The new CPU "seems" ok. The machine starts up, I can go into the BIOS, I can boot to DOS. I just can't get Win2K to boot. Each path I take I end up with the same result...system hangs.

I have an old 200MHz compaq from 1996 or 97. Late last night I installed Win2K Pro on it and it actually works. Tonight I'll try to remove the hard drive from my newer machine, put it in the old warhorse and see what happens. If it boots I'll backup my important data to CD then format and reinstall Win2k.

 

[Christo Ramo]

I don't think there is any issue with the XP processor and Win2k, I am sure there are people out there mixing them up. Hmmm! Do you have a network at home? Can you access that pc even though it hangs. I am thinking that you might need to format. I have seen issues that even adding RAM to the machine would cause it to crash. Sounds weird but it happenes. But use the format as a last resort. Did you try resoring the registry to last known good? Did you run the scan disk? Did it find any errors?

 

[Rob Gillespie]

There shouldn't be any issue with the processor and Windows 2000. I'd be tempted to try putting the old processor back in to see what happens.

One thing that springs to mind is your motherboard settings. The XP chips will use a different FSB speed to the older Athlons. Try reducing your memory and CPU speeds down to 100% in the BIOS. I'm thinking that the board might be detecting the new chip and upping the FSB, but your memory isn't fast enough. The memory will run at 133mhz (133%) but any faster is likely to cause problems.

Actually, thinking about it, both chip and RAM should be at 133%. Mmmm...

You can always reinstall Windows 2000 without formatting the drive. You could reinstall over the top of the current installation, or install a folder other than WINNT. In fact I'd probably try that second option first because if you can't get it to work, it could be the CPU that's playing up.

Once you're back up and running, you might want to consider rearranging your hard drive so that the OS doesn't sit on the same partition as your own data. Saves a lot of hassle if you ever need to reinstall.

 

[John_Bonner]

Thanks for the suggestions Rob.

I'll try different FSB settings. The only thing I changed was the ratio setting to DEFAULT. If I remember correctly when the system POSTed it said 15x133. Which rounds to 2,000 (the clock speed of a 2400XP). I'll try backing that second number down to 100 thru the jumpers/dip switches.

You can always reinstall Windows 2000 without formatting the drive

I tried this also, after the initial loading of files you are prompted to hit "Enter" to begin installation. When I hit "Enter" I got a "Please wait" message in the lower left corner. An hour later, "Please wait" was all there was...another hang.

I'm a little reluctant to swap the cpu's, since I don't know what condition the thermal pad on the new one will be in once removed and I don't know if I have any Artic Silver left (gotta look for it).

Yes I will setup an OS only partition. You've made this recommendation plenty of times to others, I guess I should've paid more attention.

 

[JamesHl]

Definitely try lowering your memory clock speed just to see if it'll run.

The bus speed shouldn't have changed though, the 2400 is a step below the 166mhz bus which starts at 2600.