Tech hepl needed!

[Circuit]

I bought and installed a new motherboard and CPU. Everything seems to work, except for Windows XP. It boots up, sends me to the desktop like it normally would, then all my icons and the Start Menu disappears. Right clicking on the desktop stops working. The Task Manager is my only means of doing anything in Windows. I've reinstalled all my devices, checked the BIOS for freaky things, but everything seems to be as it should be. I've even reinstalled XP completely, but the same thing happens. The only thing I know to do that I haven't tried is reformatting my HD and installing XP again, but I'd rather that be absolutely a last resort.

edit: btw, everything seems to work in Safemode and there's nothing goofy in the Device Manager. I'm on the same PC right now.

[Kermit]

You installed XP on a new motherboard without formatting? I've seen people get away with it with no major problems, expecially when the chipsets are similar, but I always format when using a new Mobo.

The key seems to be that it works in Safemode. That's telling you something. Grab an old 2 or 4 gig hard drive laying around (Don't tell me you don't have one, I don't want to hear it.) and install XP fresh on that. If it works you have your answer.

[jackrabbit]

I'm with Kermit on this one. Unless you are swapping similar motherboards you typically have to start with a fresh install of windows XP. I've heard of people uninstalling the motherboard drivers from safe and rebooting, but I've personally never had any luck with a new motherboad without reformatting. :(

[Circuit]

Well, I did end up just reformatting and reinstalling Windows XP. I got to the first update for XP and the next time I rebooted the same problem happened. So I just chalked it all up to being some incompatibility with that particular motherboard and my hardware and took it back and exchanged it for an Abit AV8. Now I'm having all sorts of new problems, mostly the fact that I can't even get it to POST. I've tried refreshing the CMOS jumper like it says, but still I can only get to the Abit logo and the time you can press delete to get to the BIOS and it freezes up.

A nifty thing about this board (besides not working) is that is has a little lcd number panel on it to report any error messages. The one I'm getting now is 7F. On the BIOS screen, it says "If errors occur, report errors & wait for keys -If no errors occur or F1 key is pressed to continue: Clear EPA or customization logo E8POST.ASM starts". I'm still searching on the matter, but I'm extremely frustrated at this point. I may just end up taking the motherboard and CPU back to the store and live with what I have. I've never had this much trouble before. All I've done since yesterday evening is fuck around with my computer and it's driving me insane.

The board is an Abit AV8; CPU is AMD64 3200+ Venice; PS is an Ultra X-Connect 500W. I've removed everything else but the hard drive and video card with no luck. Switched RAM around, removed the video card. I'm at my wit's end.

[armerius]

sounds like either a bad cpu or another bad mobo to me. I would switch to an ASUS board rather than the ABIT boards... cpu is a little harder to test unless you have another socket 939 one sitting around....

post problems really suck

[Circuit]

Well then. I'm finally up and running. Turns out after having so much trouble with the Gigabyte board, I gave this Abit one too little credit. I disconnected pretty much everything but the CPU and memory and was still getting errors. Apparently the board doesn't like that and would yell at me.

So then I took it over to a friend's house who had a running computer with an internet connection to do some more research on the POST codes and common problems with the board. I found that one of my problems was that I only had one power connection from the PSU to the mobo. Huh? I had no idea. There's a small 4-pin power connector right by the large one that was also supposed to be plugged in. After digging around in the manual, the part that mentioned it seemed to be mentioning it just to let you know it was there and didn't say "plug it in". Nevertheless, I should've realized early on that it probably needed to be connected. Ah-ha! The board wasn't getting enough power. That'll solve all the problems, right? Sadly, no.

After clearing the CMOS about a grabillion times, I was once again stumped. Turning on the computer would only produce loud beeps and I had no idea what they meant. The manual only spoke of the codes on the nifty LCD readout, but the one I was getting wasn't listed. The beeps hadn't changed during all my troubleshooting when I had the monitor disconnected, so luckily my friend happened to have a DVI cable at his house. I connected it to his giant LCD monitor to see if perchance there was any readout on the screen about what was wrong. Oh look, it says the VGA card needs to have power plugged into it! Yes, stupid me. I had been so frustrated by this point that I was troubleshooting problems that I caused. So now it should work! Right? What the...NO!

Same error message as before about the "If errors occur, report errors & wait for keys -If no errors occur or F1 key is pressed to continue: Clear EPA or customization logo E8POST.ASM starts". What the hell does that mean? I researched again. Nobody mentioning that error had any solutions that I hadn't tried already, so I decided to calm down a little and try to think of anything it could be before I threw the whole damn thing out of the window. What was this strange Engrish errror message saying? "Wait for keys"? I had previously unplugged the keyboard during the "unplug everything" phase. I plugged it in and...holy shit it works! The motherboard apparently won't even boot into the OS without a keyboard attached. None of my Googling provided any links to people who were stupid enough to leave the keyboard disconnected, so there it is. I was so frustrated and delerious from the first shit mobo that I progressively got too dumb to work the new one.

And that's my long and uninteresting story of Upgrade 2005.

[armerius]

that is a first.. never heard of a mobo not posting because of no keyboard being attached.

[Circuit]

Neither have I. It's the only reason I don't feel like a total moron.