Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Please can somebody help me - this is driving me nuts !
Put a new system together: XP2400 on a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP with 512 Mb
DDR2700, 60 Gb Seagate HD and Matrox G400 graphics.
Booted-up a DOS floppy fine and used FDISK to prep the drive.
Tried installing Windows 2000: All went easily until it came to the part
where it re-boots and is 'running Windows for the first time' - it just
hangs indefinitely ! :-) Tried several times - same result.
Did a fresh build of Win 2K with the drive installed on a Duron 1200, and
then moved the drive over to the XP2400. No complaints, no errors, it just
hangs when the 'Starting Windows' progress stripe has completed.
Tried swapping memory and also tried swapping the motherboard for another -
GA-7VRXP Rev 1.1 - even tried using a different hard drive and still the
same hanging problem.
So, where do I go now ?
Does Windows 2000 have problems running on the XP series of Athlons ?
Does Windows 2000 have problems running on a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP motherboard ?
I've had Windows 2000 installed on many other systems - Pentium MMX 200,
P-II 333, P-III 733, Athlon 1.0 & Athlon 1.4 - all fine. Whatever is going
wrong on the XP2400 really has me stumped !
I'd be very grateful of any help offered.
TIA,
Kevin.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

first moving a drive from one machine to another is never a good idea,
because of the differences in drivers for the mainboards chipset, this
rarely turns into a good build. You should be booting from the 2000
disk then as the install continues you will be prompted to install the
sata drivers. I do not believe this is a hardware incompatibility
problem. Just a software install problem. After the OS is done you
have to load the chipset drivers which may have been installed with
generic drivers from 2000(in your case probably not, as your board is
pretty new and 2000 most likely doesn't have native drivers.



"Kevin Lawton" <kepla@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:c4rtsl$eau$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
> Please can somebody help me - this is driving me nuts !
> Put a new system together: XP2400 on a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP with 512 Mb
> DDR2700, 60 Gb Seagate HD and Matrox G400 graphics.
> Booted-up a DOS floppy fine and used FDISK to prep the drive.
> Tried installing Windows 2000: All went easily until it came to the
part
> where it re-boots and is 'running Windows for the first time' - it
just
> hangs indefinitely ! :-) Tried several times - same result.
> Did a fresh build of Win 2K with the drive installed on a Duron
1200, and
> then moved the drive over to the XP2400. No complaints, no errors,
it just
> hangs when the 'Starting Windows' progress stripe has completed.
> Tried swapping memory and also tried swapping the motherboard for
another -
> GA-7VRXP Rev 1.1 - even tried using a different hard drive and still
the
> same hanging problem.
> So, where do I go now ?
> Does Windows 2000 have problems running on the XP series of Athlons
?
> Does Windows 2000 have problems running on a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP
motherboard ?
> I've had Windows 2000 installed on many other systems - Pentium MMX
200,
> P-II 333, P-III 733, Athlon 1.0 & Athlon 1.4 - all fine. Whatever is
going
> wrong on the XP2400 really has me stumped !
> I'd be very grateful of any help offered.
> TIA,
> Kevin.
>
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Thanks, JAD.
I don't have SATA. Not on the board and can't afford the expensive drives
anyway.
Expected that loading the m/board drivers would be the next step once the
system had booted Windows 2000 properly, but it didn't get that far. Would
have expected that Windows default 'vanilla' drivers would get the system
booting - but with just basic graphics and slow IDE. Any need for drivers
should have shown once Windows 2000 was running for the first time,
shouldn't it ? If that isn't the case then how can I get round the problem
?
The system has so far been 'minimal build' - just mobo, proc, memory,
graphics, floppy and hard drive - to keep it simple. Once that was working
then I'd add other bits (CDRW, DVD, sound, SCSI) one at a time.
Still lost and confused by this problem as the system works fine in DOS,
booted from either floppy or HD.
Kevin.

JAD <> wrote:
| first moving a drive from one machine to another is never a good idea,
| because of the differences in drivers for the mainboards chipset, this
| rarely turns into a good build. You should be booting from the 2000
| disk then as the install continues you will be prompted to install the
| sata drivers. I do not believe this is a hardware incompatibility
| problem. Just a software install problem. After the OS is done you
| have to load the chipset drivers which may have been installed with
| generic drivers from 2000(in your case probably not, as your board is
| pretty new and 2000 most likely doesn't have native drivers.
|
| "Kevin Lawton" <> wrote in message
| news:c4rtsl$eau$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
|| Please can somebody help me - this is driving me nuts !
|| Put a new system together: XP2400 on a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP with 512 Mb
|| DDR2700, 60 Gb Seagate HD and Matrox G400 graphics.
|| Booted-up a DOS floppy fine and used FDISK to prep the drive.
|| Tried installing Windows 2000: All went easily until it came to the
|| part where it re-boots and is 'running Windows for the first time' -
|| it just hangs indefinitely ! :-) Tried several times - same
|| result. Did a fresh build of Win 2K with the drive installed on a
|| Duron 1200, and then moved the drive over to the XP2400. No
|| complaints, no errors, it just hangs when the 'Starting Windows'
|| progress stripe has completed. Tried swapping memory and also tried
|| swapping the motherboard for another - GA-7VRXP Rev 1.1 - even tried
|| using a different hard drive and still the same hanging problem.
|| So, where do I go now ?
|| Does Windows 2000 have problems running on the XP series of Athlons ?
|| Does Windows 2000 have problems running on a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP
|| motherboard ? I've had Windows 2000 installed on many other systems
|| - Pentium MMX 200, P-II 333, P-III 733, Athlon 1.0 & Athlon 1.4 -
|| all fine. Whatever is going wrong on the XP2400 really has me
|| stumped !
|| I'd be very grateful of any help offered.
|| TIA,
|| Kevin.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

I would clear the HD(format/remove partition) and then boot from the
2000 disk. You have to set the boot sequence to CD-ROM first. This
would be the best way of beginning. I mentioned the sata stuff only as
an example of certain extraneous drivers that need to be loaded during
the 2000 install. Most of the drivers will be loaded after the first
desktop appears.


"Kevin Lawton" <kepla@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:c4s15r$gcq$1@titan.btinternet.com...
> Thanks, JAD.
> I don't have SATA. Not on the board and can't afford the expensive
drives
> anyway.
> Expected that loading the m/board drivers would be the next step
once the
> system had booted Windows 2000 properly, but it didn't get that far.
Would
> have expected that Windows default 'vanilla' drivers would get the
system
> booting - but with just basic graphics and slow IDE. Any need for
drivers
> should have shown once Windows 2000 was running for the first time,
> shouldn't it ? If that isn't the case then how can I get round the
problem
> ?
> The system has so far been 'minimal build' - just mobo, proc,
memory,
> graphics, floppy and hard drive - to keep it simple. Once that was
working
> then I'd add other bits (CDRW, DVD, sound, SCSI) one at a time.
> Still lost and confused by this problem as the system works fine in
DOS,
> booted from either floppy or HD.
> Kevin.
>
> JAD <> wrote:
> | first moving a drive from one machine to another is never a good
idea,
> | because of the differences in drivers for the mainboards chipset,
this
> | rarely turns into a good build. You should be booting from the
2000
> | disk then as the install continues you will be prompted to install
the
> | sata drivers. I do not believe this is a hardware incompatibility
> | problem. Just a software install problem. After the OS is done you
> | have to load the chipset drivers which may have been installed
with
> | generic drivers from 2000(in your case probably not, as your board
is
> | pretty new and 2000 most likely doesn't have native drivers.
> |
> | "Kevin Lawton" <> wrote in message
> | news:c4rtsl$eau$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
> || Please can somebody help me - this is driving me nuts !
> || Put a new system together: XP2400 on a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP with 512
Mb
> || DDR2700, 60 Gb Seagate HD and Matrox G400 graphics.
> || Booted-up a DOS floppy fine and used FDISK to prep the drive.
> || Tried installing Windows 2000: All went easily until it came to
the
> || part where it re-boots and is 'running Windows for the first
time' -
> || it just hangs indefinitely ! :-) Tried several times -
same
> || result. Did a fresh build of Win 2K with the drive installed on a
> || Duron 1200, and then moved the drive over to the XP2400. No
> || complaints, no errors, it just hangs when the 'Starting Windows'
> || progress stripe has completed. Tried swapping memory and also
tried
> || swapping the motherboard for another - GA-7VRXP Rev 1.1 - even
tried
> || using a different hard drive and still the same hanging problem.
> || So, where do I go now ?
> || Does Windows 2000 have problems running on the XP series of
Athlons ?
> || Does Windows 2000 have problems running on a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP
> || motherboard ? I've had Windows 2000 installed on many other
systems
> || - Pentium MMX 200, P-II 333, P-III 733, Athlon 1.0 & Athlon 1.4 -
> || all fine. Whatever is going wrong on the XP2400 really has me
> || stumped !
> || I'd be very grateful of any help offered.
> || TIA,
> || Kevin.
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Thanks, JAD.
Okay - I'll clean-off the HD and install a CD drive and try that. Usually I
'prep' an HD for a new machine with two partitions to start with - a primary
with DOS so that it will boot and a logical with a copy of the Windows
install CD plus service packs one and two. Once the machine is working fine
then I can use Partition Magic to adjust partitions as I require -
eventually being able to mutli-boot several different op systems. I've found
Windows has to go in first or things get broken.
Cheers,
Kevin.

JAD <> wrote:
| I would clear the HD(format/remove partition) and then boot from the
| 2000 disk. You have to set the boot sequence to CD-ROM first. This
| would be the best way of beginning. I mentioned the sata stuff only as
| an example of certain extraneous drivers that need to be loaded during
| the 2000 install. Most of the drivers will be loaded after the first
| desktop appears.
|
| "Kevin Lawton" <> wrote in message
| news:c4s15r$gcq$1@titan.btinternet.com...
|| Thanks, JAD.
|| I don't have SATA. Not on the board and can't afford the expensive
|| drives anyway.
|| Expected that loading the m/board drivers would be the next step
|| once the system had booted Windows 2000 properly, but it didn't get
|| that far. Would have expected that Windows default 'vanilla' drivers
|| would get the system booting - but with just basic graphics and slow
|| IDE. Any need for drivers should have shown once Windows 2000 was
|| running for the first time, shouldn't it ? If that isn't the case
|| then how can I get round the problem ?
|| The system has so far been 'minimal build' - just mobo, proc, memory,
|| graphics, floppy and hard drive - to keep it simple. Once that was
|| working then I'd add other bits (CDRW, DVD, sound, SCSI) one at a
|| time. Still lost and confused by this problem as the system works
|| fine in DOS, booted from either floppy or HD.
|| Kevin.
||
|| JAD <> wrote:
||| first moving a drive from one machine to another is never a good
||| idea, because of the differences in drivers for the mainboards
||| chipset, this rarely turns into a good build. You should be booting
||| from the 2000 disk then as the install continues you will be
||| prompted to install the sata drivers. I do not believe this is a
||| hardware incompatibility problem. Just a software install problem.
||| After the OS is done you have to load the chipset drivers which may
||| have been installed with generic drivers from 2000(in your case
||| probably not, as your board is pretty new and 2000 most likely
||| doesn't have native drivers.
|||
||| "Kevin Lawton" <> wrote in message
||| news:c4rtsl$eau$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
|||| Please can somebody help me - this is driving me nuts !
|||| Put a new system together: XP2400 on a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP with 512
|||| Mb DDR2700, 60 Gb Seagate HD and Matrox G400 graphics.
|||| Booted-up a DOS floppy fine and used FDISK to prep the drive.
|||| Tried installing Windows 2000: All went easily until it came to the
|||| part where it re-boots and is 'running Windows for the first time'
|||| - it just hangs indefinitely ! :-) Tried several times -
|||| same result. Did a fresh build of Win 2K with the drive installed
|||| on a Duron 1200, and then moved the drive over to the XP2400. No
|||| complaints, no errors, it just hangs when the 'Starting Windows'
|||| progress stripe has completed. Tried swapping memory and also tried
|||| swapping the motherboard for another - GA-7VRXP Rev 1.1 - even
|||| tried using a different hard drive and still the same hanging
|||| problem. So, where do I go now ?
|||| Does Windows 2000 have problems running on the XP series of
|||| Athlons ? Does Windows 2000 have problems running on a Gigabyte
|||| GA-7VRXP motherboard ? I've had Windows 2000 installed on many
|||| other systems - Pentium MMX 200, P-II 333, P-III 733, Athlon 1.0 &
|||| Athlon 1.4 - all fine. Whatever is going wrong on the XP2400
|||| really has me stumped !
|||| I'd be very grateful of any help offered.
|||| TIA,
|||| Kevin.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Okay, I installed a CD drive and tried installing from CD onto a new HD -
same result as before. Everything seems okay untill, just after a reboot, it
goes to 'run Windows for the first time' - and it just hangs forever.
I've tried using several different HDs - 40, 60 & 80 Gb Seagate HDs. Same
result on all of them. All tried on another machine afterwards with no
problems.
Tried replacing the Matrox G400 AGP card with a Matrox Mystique PCI card
(and changed BIOS) but still no change - it boots as far as the 'Starting
Windows' bar completes and then hangs. In 'Safe Mode with Command Prompt' I
can see Mup.sys as the last file sucessfully loaded. I think this is the
famous 'muppet' problem !
Got myself a new PSU - a big beefy 550w job - and still no change.
So far, every piece of hardware except for the processor has been swapped
out.
Before buying another AMD XP2400 CPU I'd really like to make sure something
is wrong with the one I've got.
Does anyone know of any CPU testing/diagnostic software which I could
download and run from a floppy ?
TIA
Kevin.

JAD <jdemma25@eartink.net> wrote:
| I would clear the HD(format/remove partition) and then boot from the
| 2000 disk. You have to set the boot sequence to CD-ROM first. This
| would be the best way of beginning. I mentioned the sata stuff only as
| an example of certain extraneous drivers that need to be loaded during
| the 2000 install. Most of the drivers will be loaded after the first
| desktop appears.
|
|
| "Kevin Lawton" <kepla@btinternet.com> wrote in message
| news:c4s15r$gcq$1@titan.btinternet.com...
|| Thanks, JAD.
|| I don't have SATA. Not on the board and can't afford the expensive
|| drives anyway.
|| Expected that loading the m/board drivers would be the next step
|| once the system had booted Windows 2000 properly, but it didn't get
|| that far. Would have expected that Windows default 'vanilla' drivers
|| would get the system booting - but with just basic graphics and slow
|| IDE. Any need for drivers should have shown once Windows 2000 was
|| running for the first time, shouldn't it ? If that isn't the case
|| then how can I get round the problem ?
|| The system has so far been 'minimal build' - just mobo, proc, memory,
|| graphics, floppy and hard drive - to keep it simple. Once that was
|| working then I'd add other bits (CDRW, DVD, sound, SCSI) one at a
|| time. Still lost and confused by this problem as the system works
|| fine in DOS, booted from either floppy or HD.
|| Kevin.
||
|| JAD <> wrote:
||| first moving a drive from one machine to another is never a good
||| idea, because of the differences in drivers for the mainboards
||| chipset, this rarely turns into a good build. You should be booting
||| from the 2000 disk then as the install continues you will be
||| prompted to install the sata drivers. I do not believe this is a
||| hardware incompatibility problem. Just a software install problem.
||| After the OS is done you have to load the chipset drivers which may
||| have been installed with generic drivers from 2000(in your case
||| probably not, as your board is pretty new and 2000 most likely
||| doesn't have native drivers.
|||
||| "Kevin Lawton" <> wrote in message
||| news:c4rtsl$eau$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
|||| Please can somebody help me - this is driving me nuts !
|||| Put a new system together: XP2400 on a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP with 512
|||| Mb DDR2700, 60 Gb Seagate HD and Matrox G400 graphics.
|||| Booted-up a DOS floppy fine and used FDISK to prep the drive.
|||| Tried installing Windows 2000: All went easily until it came to the
|||| part where it re-boots and is 'running Windows for the first time'
|||| - it just hangs indefinitely ! :-) Tried several times -
|||| same result. Did a fresh build of Win 2K with the drive installed
|||| on a Duron 1200, and then moved the drive over to the XP2400. No
|||| complaints, no errors, it just hangs when the 'Starting Windows'
|||| progress stripe has completed. Tried swapping memory and also tried
|||| swapping the motherboard for another - GA-7VRXP Rev 1.1 - even
|||| tried using a different hard drive and still the same hanging
|||| problem. So, where do I go now ?
|||| Does Windows 2000 have problems running on the XP series of
|||| Athlons ? Does Windows 2000 have problems running on a Gigabyte
|||| GA-7VRXP motherboard ? I've had Windows 2000 installed on many
|||| other systems - Pentium MMX 200, P-II 333, P-III 733, Athlon 1.0 &
|||| Athlon 1.4 - all fine. Whatever is going wrong on the XP2400
|||| really has me stumped !
|||| I'd be very grateful of any help offered.
|||| TIA,
|||| Kevin.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Sorry to reply to my own post, but here's the latest update on the problem:
I tried downloading Knoppix, which took all night and half the morning, but
the CD didn't work - maybe I got a duff ISO image - so I FDISKed the HD and
installed Red Hat 9 instead. Went in like a dream - 20 mins from FDISK to
playing 'Tux Racer'. The hardware seems slick and flast and has been running
now for about 6 hours with no problems.
I guess this proves that the hardware is okay, but I'd still like to run
some good diagnostic tests to prove that point. Anyone know of any
diagnostics to run under Linux ?
So, there is still a problem with installing or running Windows 2000, and
I'm not too sure what to do next to solve it. I've now tried swapping
everything in the system except for the CPU, but as Linux runs fine I'm
guessing that it is okay.
I will investigate the option of trying Win4Lin so my applications can be
used, but there might be a problem. One of the most important applications
is the Driver and Video software which comes with the Matrox G-series
Rainbow Runner video capture card. I don't want to run programs under any
sort of emulation which might comprimise performance, as the whole reason I
built this machine was to have something fast enough for video editing. My
Duron 1200 and Athlon 1.4 are plenty fast enough for everything else I do.
The original problem is still present - Windows hangs when the 'Starting
Windows' progress bar completes, when Mup.sys has been loaded. Now that I
think we've eliminated a hardware problem, I am beginning to wonder if there
isn't a problem with Windows itself. Windows 2000 is over four years old,
the hardware is relatively recent. Could it be that they are just not
compatible ?
TIA
Kevin.

Kevin Lawton <kepla@btopenworld.com> wrote:
| Okay, I installed a CD drive and tried installing from CD onto a new
| HD - same result as before. Everything seems okay untill, just after
| a reboot, it goes to 'run Windows for the first time' - and it just
| hangs forever.
| I've tried using several different HDs - 40, 60 & 80 Gb Seagate HDs.
| Same result on all of them. All tried on another machine afterwards
| with no problems.
| Tried replacing the Matrox G400 AGP card with a Matrox Mystique PCI
| card (and changed BIOS) but still no change - it boots as far as the
| 'Starting Windows' bar completes and then hangs. In 'Safe Mode with
| Command Prompt' I can see Mup.sys as the last file sucessfully
| loaded. I think this is the famous 'muppet' problem !
| Got myself a new PSU - a big beefy 550w job - and still no change.
| So far, every piece of hardware except for the processor has been
| swapped out.
| Before buying another AMD XP2400 CPU I'd really like to make sure
| something is wrong with the one I've got.
| Does anyone know of any CPU testing/diagnostic software which I could
| download and run from a floppy ?
| TIA
| Kevin.
|
| JAD <jdemma25@eartink.net> wrote:
|| I would clear the HD(format/remove partition) and then boot from the
|| 2000 disk. You have to set the boot sequence to CD-ROM first. This
|| would be the best way of beginning. I mentioned the sata stuff only
|| as
|| an example of certain extraneous drivers that need to be loaded
|| during the 2000 install. Most of the drivers will be loaded after
|| the first desktop appears.
||
||
|| "Kevin Lawton" <kepla@btinternet.com> wrote in message
|| news:c4s15r$gcq$1@titan.btinternet.com...
||| Thanks, JAD.
||| I don't have SATA. Not on the board and can't afford the expensive
||| drives anyway.
||| Expected that loading the m/board drivers would be the next step
||| once the system had booted Windows 2000 properly, but it didn't get
||| that far. Would have expected that Windows default 'vanilla' drivers
||| would get the system booting - but with just basic graphics and slow
||| IDE. Any need for drivers should have shown once Windows 2000 was
||| running for the first time, shouldn't it ? If that isn't the case
||| then how can I get round the problem ?
||| The system has so far been 'minimal build' - just mobo, proc,
||| memory, graphics, floppy and hard drive - to keep it simple. Once
||| that was working then I'd add other bits (CDRW, DVD, sound, SCSI)
||| one at a
||| time. Still lost and confused by this problem as the system works
||| fine in DOS, booted from either floppy or HD.
||| Kevin.
|||
||| JAD <> wrote:
|||| first moving a drive from one machine to another is never a good
|||| idea, because of the differences in drivers for the mainboards
|||| chipset, this rarely turns into a good build. You should be booting
|||| from the 2000 disk then as the install continues you will be
|||| prompted to install the sata drivers. I do not believe this is a
|||| hardware incompatibility problem. Just a software install problem.
|||| After the OS is done you have to load the chipset drivers which may
|||| have been installed with generic drivers from 2000(in your case
|||| probably not, as your board is pretty new and 2000 most likely
|||| doesn't have native drivers.
||||
|||| "Kevin Lawton" <> wrote in message
|||| news:c4rtsl$eau$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
||||| Please can somebody help me - this is driving me nuts !
||||| Put a new system together: XP2400 on a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP with 512
||||| Mb DDR2700, 60 Gb Seagate HD and Matrox G400 graphics.
||||| Booted-up a DOS floppy fine and used FDISK to prep the drive.
||||| Tried installing Windows 2000: All went easily until it came to
||||| the part where it re-boots and is 'running Windows for the first
||||| time' - it just hangs indefinitely ! :-) Tried several
||||| times -
||||| same result. Did a fresh build of Win 2K with the drive installed
||||| on a Duron 1200, and then moved the drive over to the XP2400. No
||||| complaints, no errors, it just hangs when the 'Starting Windows'
||||| progress stripe has completed. Tried swapping memory and also
||||| tried swapping the motherboard for another - GA-7VRXP Rev 1.1 -
||||| even
||||| tried using a different hard drive and still the same hanging
||||| problem. So, where do I go now ?
||||| Does Windows 2000 have problems running on the XP series of
||||| Athlons ? Does Windows 2000 have problems running on a Gigabyte
||||| GA-7VRXP motherboard ? I've had Windows 2000 installed on many
||||| other systems - Pentium MMX 200, P-II 333, P-III 733, Athlon 1.0 &
||||| Athlon 1.4 - all fine. Whatever is going wrong on the XP2400
||||| really has me stumped !
||||| I'd be very grateful of any help offered.
||||| TIA,
||||| Kevin.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Latest update on this long-running problem.
I've had some measure of success ! :-)
Having tried swapping every other piece of hardware in the system, I pulled
the precious XP2400 from the GA-7VRXP m/board and put in a Duron 650 - and
started again from scratch.
Windows 2000 installed normally and appears to be running fine - it has even
detected all the devices on the GA-7VRXP - so this appears to be an XP2400
problem ?
Where next ? I know of only two differences between the XP2400 and the
Duron 650:
1) The XP2400 is much faster - could this cause 'timing problems' ?
2) The XP2400 has SSE (streaming SIMD extensions) - could these cause
Windows 2000 to hang ?
Thanks to everyone for all the help so far, but I still have a problem to
solve - I need to have the XP2400 in this system.
Anyone got any ideas how to make it work with Windows 2000 - it works fine
with Windows Me and Linux ?
TIA (again)
Kevin.

Kevin Lawton <kepla@btopenworld.com> wrote:
| Sorry to reply to my own post, but here's the latest update on the
| problem: I tried downloading Knoppix, which took all night and half
| the morning, but the CD didn't work - maybe I got a duff ISO image -
| so I FDISKed the HD and installed Red Hat 9 instead. Went in like a
| dream - 20 mins from FDISK to playing 'Tux Racer'. The hardware seems
| slick and flast and has been running now for about 6 hours with no
| problems.
| I guess this proves that the hardware is okay, but I'd still like to
| run some good diagnostic tests to prove that point. Anyone know of any
| diagnostics to run under Linux ?
| So, there is still a problem with installing or running Windows 2000,
| and I'm not too sure what to do next to solve it. I've now tried
| swapping everything in the system except for the CPU, but as Linux
| runs fine I'm guessing that it is okay.
| I will investigate the option of trying Win4Lin so my applications
| can be used, but there might be a problem. One of the most important
| applications is the Driver and Video software which comes with the
| Matrox G-series Rainbow Runner video capture card. I don't want to
| run programs under any sort of emulation which might comprimise
| performance, as the whole reason I built this machine was to have
| something fast enough for video editing. My Duron 1200 and Athlon 1.4
| are plenty fast enough for everything else I do. The original problem
| is still present - Windows hangs when the 'Starting Windows' progress
| bar completes, when Mup.sys has been loaded. Now that I think we've
| eliminated a hardware problem, I am beginning to wonder if there
| isn't a problem with Windows itself. Windows 2000 is over four years
| old, the hardware is relatively recent. Could it be that they are
| just not compatible ?
| TIA
| Kevin.
|
| Kevin Lawton <kepla@btopenworld.com> wrote:
|| Okay, I installed a CD drive and tried installing from CD onto a new
|| HD - same result as before. Everything seems okay untill, just after
|| a reboot, it goes to 'run Windows for the first time' - and it just
|| hangs forever.
|| I've tried using several different HDs - 40, 60 & 80 Gb Seagate HDs.
|| Same result on all of them. All tried on another machine afterwards
|| with no problems.
|| Tried replacing the Matrox G400 AGP card with a Matrox Mystique PCI
|| card (and changed BIOS) but still no change - it boots as far as the
|| 'Starting Windows' bar completes and then hangs. In 'Safe Mode with
|| Command Prompt' I can see Mup.sys as the last file sucessfully
|| loaded. I think this is the famous 'muppet' problem !
|| Got myself a new PSU - a big beefy 550w job - and still no change.
|| So far, every piece of hardware except for the processor has been
|| swapped out.
|| Before buying another AMD XP2400 CPU I'd really like to make sure
|| something is wrong with the one I've got.
|| Does anyone know of any CPU testing/diagnostic software which I could
|| download and run from a floppy ?
|| TIA
|| Kevin.
||
|| JAD <jdemma25@eartink.net> wrote:
||| I would clear the HD(format/remove partition) and then boot from the
||| 2000 disk. You have to set the boot sequence to CD-ROM first. This
||| would be the best way of beginning. I mentioned the sata stuff only
||| as
||| an example of certain extraneous drivers that need to be loaded
||| during the 2000 install. Most of the drivers will be loaded after
||| the first desktop appears.
|||
|||
||| "Kevin Lawton" <kepla@btinternet.com> wrote in message
||| news:c4s15r$gcq$1@titan.btinternet.com...
|||| Thanks, JAD.
|||| I don't have SATA. Not on the board and can't afford the expensive
|||| drives anyway.
|||| Expected that loading the m/board drivers would be the next step
|||| once the system had booted Windows 2000 properly, but it didn't get
|||| that far. Would have expected that Windows default 'vanilla'
|||| drivers would get the system booting - but with just basic
|||| graphics and slow IDE. Any need for drivers should have shown once
|||| Windows 2000 was running for the first time, shouldn't it ? If
|||| that isn't the case
|||| then how can I get round the problem ?
|||| The system has so far been 'minimal build' - just mobo, proc,
|||| memory, graphics, floppy and hard drive - to keep it simple. Once
|||| that was working then I'd add other bits (CDRW, DVD, sound, SCSI)
|||| one at a
|||| time. Still lost and confused by this problem as the system works
|||| fine in DOS, booted from either floppy or HD.
|||| Kevin.
||||
|||| JAD <> wrote:
||||| first moving a drive from one machine to another is never a good
||||| idea, because of the differences in drivers for the mainboards
||||| chipset, this rarely turns into a good build. You should be
||||| booting from the 2000 disk then as the install continues you will
||||| be
||||| prompted to install the sata drivers. I do not believe this is a
||||| hardware incompatibility problem. Just a software install problem.
||||| After the OS is done you have to load the chipset drivers which
||||| may have been installed with generic drivers from 2000(in your
||||| case probably not, as your board is pretty new and 2000 most
||||| likely
||||| doesn't have native drivers.
|||||
||||| "Kevin Lawton" <> wrote in message
||||| news:c4rtsl$eau$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
|||||| Please can somebody help me - this is driving me nuts !
|||||| Put a new system together: XP2400 on a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP with 512
|||||| Mb DDR2700, 60 Gb Seagate HD and Matrox G400 graphics.
|||||| Booted-up a DOS floppy fine and used FDISK to prep the drive.
|||||| Tried installing Windows 2000: All went easily until it came to
|||||| the part where it re-boots and is 'running Windows for the first
|||||| time' - it just hangs indefinitely ! :-) Tried several
|||||| times -
|||||| same result. Did a fresh build of Win 2K with the drive installed
|||||| on a Duron 1200, and then moved the drive over to the XP2400. No
|||||| complaints, no errors, it just hangs when the 'Starting Windows'
|||||| progress stripe has completed. Tried swapping memory and also
|||||| tried swapping the motherboard for another - GA-7VRXP Rev 1.1 -
|||||| even
|||||| tried using a different hard drive and still the same hanging
|||||| problem. So, where do I go now ?
|||||| Does Windows 2000 have problems running on the XP series of
|||||| Athlons ? Does Windows 2000 have problems running on a Gigabyte
|||||| GA-7VRXP motherboard ? I've had Windows 2000 installed on many
|||||| other systems - Pentium MMX 200, P-II 333, P-III 733, Athlon 1.0
|||||| & Athlon 1.4 - all fine. Whatever is going wrong on the XP2400
|||||| really has me stumped !
|||||| I'd be very grateful of any help offered.
|||||| TIA,
|||||| Kevin.