# New MOBO in an E-machine?



## sherry (Mar 7, 2005)

I spent the afternoon trying to put a Chaintech 7NIL2 mATX mobo in my daughter's T2482 E-machine computer.  The emachine currently has an AM37 MOBO with an AthlonXP 2400+ with 256 ram.  

Everything went fine-- new MOBO was recognized, got into the BIOS, it saw all the peripherals and ram-- no problems.  Well, except one-- it wouldn't boot into Windows XP.  (The new MOBO has an Athlon XP 3200+ with 1g of ram.) My daughter did not want to do a fresh install of Windows XP because she has college essays and homework on her harddrive.  

After about two hours of troubleshooting to no avail, I finally put the old MOBO back in.  Booted up into windows with no problems at all.

Can someone explain to me what happened here?  About three weeks ago, I replaced the socket 370 MOBO in my mom's old HP with a new socket 478 P4 motherboard, and it booted right up into windows after the change!  She uses it everyday and loves it!  

Appreciate any and all insight for this newbie.


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## Cromewell (Mar 7, 2005)

when trying to replace the motherboard remove everything from windows device manager then instead of rebooting shut down and change the board.  Your problem came about becuase Windows is loading drivers and accessing devices that are no longer there and so it causes issues.


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## Bobo (Mar 7, 2005)

sherry said:
			
		

> it wouldn't boot into Windows XP.



What does it do instead?  Freeze, or what?  You should definitely do a reinstall of XP, it just works better.  Get a second HDD, and use Norton Ghost( or a similar program) and put it on ther, then transfer it back.  

@Cromewell
What devices wouldn't be there?

BTW, where in Western PA do you live?(if you hadn't noticed, i live there too )


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## Cromewell (Mar 7, 2005)

everything.  When you change a motherboard, unless you get real lucky all the access points for devices are different because of the new northbridge and southbridge


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## Bobo (Mar 7, 2005)

Cromewell said:
			
		

> everything. When you change a motherboard, unless you get real lucky all the access points for devices are different because of the new northbridge and southbridge



Oh, i getcha, you were just saying the locations would be different.

That is why you should start over (reformat)


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## Cromewell (Mar 7, 2005)

right, new addresses for everything thats still there and some stuff might not be there at all (ie IGP or onboard sound, lan)


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## sherry (Mar 7, 2005)

*Emachines*

Well, that makes some sense.  Would I accomplish the same thing if I PRE-loaded the drivers for the new board and video card on to the harddrive before I swapped the mobo out, or would that just confuse things further?

I got an error screen after POST that said something about "We are sorry for the inconvenience, but Windows cannot load properly"  Then it gave me some choices about starting in DOS, normally and some other ways.  And it just kept automatically restarting itself.  

Anyway, my daughter and I talked about it, and we decided that we are just going to let the computer the way it is for the time being until she gets out of college for the summer.  Then she doesn't care if I do a complete reinstall of Windows.  It's just that she has things on there right now that she doesn't want to lose.  

I'm guessing I just got lucky with my mother's computer then? 

Bobo, I am to the north of Pittsburgh and I-80 and to the right on a map-- up where the elk roam free.  

Anyway, thanks to both of you for taking the time to reply-- this is a great forum!


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## Bobo (Mar 7, 2005)

sherry said:
			
		

> Well, that makes some sense. Would I accomplish the same thing if I PRE-loaded the drivers for the new board and video card on to the harddrive before I swapped the mobo out, or would that just confuse things further?


I would accoplish some things if it worked, but I don't think it would.





			
				Sherry said:
			
		

> I got an error screen after POST that said something about "We are sorry for the inconvenience, but Windows cannot load properly" Then it gave me some choices about starting in DOS, normally and some other ways. And it just kept automatically restarting itself.


 Don't you hate how it is annoying polite about everything? 


			
				Sherry said:
			
		

> Anyway, my daughter and I talked about it, and we decided that we are just going to let the computer the way it is for the time being until she gets out of college for the summer. Then she doesn't care if I do a complete reinstall of Windows. It's just that she has things on there right now that she doesn't want to lose.


 A complete reinstall of everything is most likely what you need to do, yes


			
				sherry said:
			
		

> I'm guessing I just got lucky with my mother's computer then?


 Probably. Computers are like that


			
				Sherry said:
			
		

> Bobo, I am to the north of Pittsburgh and I-80 and to the right on a map-- up where the elk roam free.


Elk roam free?  Here in Wexford, I have only seen deer ( a few big ones, though, that could pass for elk)

Have fun!


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## Lax (Mar 7, 2005)

There's no way you can just burn the stuff to a disk or another HDD? If you could do that then there's no reason you wouldn't be able to do a fresh install.


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## Bobo (Mar 7, 2005)

Lord AnthraX said:
			
		

> There's no way you can just burn the stuff to a disk or another HDD? If you could do that then there's no reason you wouldn't be able to do a fresh install.



It would be a pain, but you could put the mobo in now, if you did that....


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## Cromewell (Mar 7, 2005)

> Would I accomplish the same thing if I PRE-loaded the drivers for the new board and video card on to the harddrive before I swapped the mobo out, or would that just confuse things further?


I suppose theres always a chance that could work but I'm thinking the drivers wouldn't install because the required hardware isn't present.


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## sherry (Mar 8, 2005)

Lord AnthraX said:
			
		

> There's no way you can just burn the stuff to a disk or another HDD? If you could do that then there's no reason you wouldn't be able to do a fresh install.




We talked about that too, but I was such a giant exposed nerve after yesterday thinking I had lost her HD, that I think I will just step back and take a break for awhile. 

You know, you have a few successes at this and you let yourself get cocky thinking that it's so easy.  And then here comes the 2x4 to the forehead......


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## Bigshow1030 (Mar 8, 2005)

*exactly*

You know I thought I was the only one that had that problem


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## tweaker (Mar 8, 2005)

The motherboard is the last piece of hardware you want to atempt to replace without doing a format and reinstall of windows.


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## Bobo (Mar 8, 2005)

tweaker said:
			
		

> The motherboard is the last piece of hardware you want to atempt to replace without doing a format and reinstall of windows.



Besides the hdd


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## Bigshow1030 (Mar 9, 2005)

*exactly*

little hard to have the hdd work if you don't


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