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motherboard massacre

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Anonymous
Motherboard Authority

Hi there.

I just got a brand new MSI K7TPro2-A mobo. But my IBM 75GXP hard-drive died on me. So, I decided that while I wait for a new hard-drive to arrive, I will use the one from my old comp. I removed the old 500 MB Western Digital hard-drive from my old Gateway 2000 computer (Intel Pentium 75 Mhz.), and plugged it into the new one. Of course, that hard-drive still had windown 95 installed with all the drivers of the old comp. When I started the comp, it started finding new hardware (new processor, video card, etc.) and installing a whole bunch of stuff, and then asked me if I wanted to restart the comp in order to complete the hardware installation. Foolishly enough, I said yes. Next thing I know, the computer won't start. I suspect that it made some changes to my motherboard. For those of you familiar with the K7TPro2-A motherboard, you might be aware that it has a Smart D-LED system. It runs a whole bunch of tests when you power it up (before it actually boots the system), and lets you know if there is anything wrong through 4 leds on the mobo. Well, now it is failing one of the tests -- initializing hard-drive controller or initializing keyboard controller. It sets off an alarm because of that, and won't go any further -- won't even attempt to boot.

Well, that's the history. Anyways, my question is how do I bring back my motherboard to its original state? Would clearing the CMOS help? And if so, after clearing the CMOS, do I need to do anything to restore the original CMOS?

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

Pyramix

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Pyramix on 01/11/01 04:49 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

More about : motherboard massacre

If I was you I wait untill you get your IBM HD back, and then start from scratch all over. Before you so this, clear out your CMOS, but restting its jumper.

However, maybe you can't wait that long. So clear out your CMOS, then see if you can get back into win. If you can't try booting in safe mode. But I think that your best bet (and of course the most painful) is to reformat your 'old' HD and then clear out your CMOS, and then install WIN on the newly formated HD. I know that this will take a while depending on what you want to put on your 'old' HD; but hopefully you have stopped after you restarted your PC.

Good Luck

Courtney Regan, MCP

i have had a little expierence in putting an older model HDD on a newer mobo. and every time i've tried the CMOS wouldn't recognize the HDD at all. my suggestion is try pulling the HDD and then go into the BIOS reset the defaults and see if it will finish the POST(Power-On-Self-Test) if it does just wait for the new HDD that you have coming to you and scrap the 500mb. if that doesn't help sorry

PLUS, since you are using the 'old' HD, it is only 500Meg, which is really only useful for a drastic hold over until you can get back your IBM. If you do this, whatever you do, install minimaly after you install Win on your HD; as it doesn't make sense to waste time installing any thing beyond Win and maybe IE5 or MS Word.

But, for the long run, you must do a clean install of WIN on your IBM drive, so don't over do it installing stuff on a temporary drive.

Good Luck.
Anonymous
Motherboard Authority

Nope, it won't complete POST even when there is no hard-drive. I've already tried that. And since the system is not booting, there is no question of me going into the BIOS. Thanks anyways.

Pratik
Anonymous
Motherboard Authority

Yes, I will try clearing the CMOS. I just wanted to make sure that doing so would not do anything unexpected on my system. What exactly is in the CMOS? And what am I doing when clearing it? Another thing -- how exactly do I clear the CMOS? The motherboard manual tells me to change the jumper settings. After I do that, do I need to turn on the system, turn it back down, and then reset the jumper settigns to the original one? Is that how I do that? Or is it some other way?

Once, and if, it works, I will do a clean install of win98 on my old hard-drive (which is running win95 right now). That was actually my original intention. After all that I have been through, doing a clean install of an OS is no problem at all :( 

Yeah, I just want to put some hd in the computer, so that at least it will work for a couple of weeks while I wait for my new hard-drive to arrive. It is very difficult for me to survive without a computer. I am going to install just some programs that I need and stuff, gonna keep it very simple until my new hd gets here.

Thanks for all your help.

Pyramix
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