Windows won't load, memory overflow and MBR errors

[hero9989]

I already posted this in the windows xp (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-239452_35_0.html) forum but things have developed and I think It may be a hardware fault
This is what I put in my original topic:

Ok,
(Just to note before I start, I was trying to do the BIOS update so that the motherboard would work with the new AM3 CPUs (it's an MSI K9A2 Motherboard) So that I could upgrade it without having to buy a new motherboard.)

- I had vista and windows 7 beta installed on seperate hard drives (60GB for vista ultimate64bit and 120GB for windows 7 ultimate 64bit beta)
- I went over the windows 7 beta with the new RC1 version of Windows 7.
(it was working fine at this point)

- to try and get the BIOS updater to work (only seems to work in XP for some reason), I shrunk my windows 7 volume to half capacity, and formatted the remaining space as a new partition
- I put in the disc in for windows XP and booted from it, started the install from the disc onto the new partition I created by shrinking the windows 7 volume.
- it copied the setup files to the new partition, finished that ok,

- when it came to boot the OS from the hard drive to finish setup, it came up with an error saying there was an error loading OS


- it won't stop doing this no matter what I try.



I've tried
- using both my vista and windows 7 discs to restore the boot settings
- reinstalling windows vista
- removing the hard drive containing windows 7 and the new xp partition from the system (so all that was remaining was the hard drive with vista on it)

At this point I'm willing to try pretty much anything, I've already lost the installations for Windows Vista and 7, I just want to get it to boot an OS.





From that now, I just got home and tried it again, trying to boot from the windows xp disc I get "CDBOOT: Memory Overflow Error"
Booting from the hard drive "MBR Error"


PLEASE HELP!

 

[Kill@dor]

I just loaded Windows 7 64-bit yesterday and had no issues what so ever. Try posting specs of your machine and we can try to figure out what may have went wrong. Also, updating the BIOS with that new OS might not have been a smart idea...i think something was corrupted.

 

[hero9989]

specs:
Motherboard: MSI K9A2 Platinum Ver 1
CPU: Phenom X3 8750 black edition
Memory: 1x2GB DDR2 PC6400 CAS 6-6-6-18
Graphics: Club3d HD4870 1GB overclocked edition
Hard drive 1: 60GB IDE (not sure of the make or model..) (the vista one)
Hard drive 2: 120GB IDE (not sure of the make or model..) (the windows 7 one)
Disc Drive: Sony DVD+-RW


I didn't have a problem with windows 7, it was after that, when I tried to install XP that things started going wrong


Ok, for some reason, the clock speed had changed its default to 2.5Ghz instead of 2.4Ghz like it should be, that fixed the memory overflow issue, but not the MBR one.

 

[dokk2]

"MBR ERROR" Master Boot Record use fdisk and enter FDISK /MBR...
You could go back to basics ,, fdisk one of your hdd's create whatever partition you want/need install winxp update whatever is needed and go from there,NOTE there are no mobo disks out yet for win7 so you will have to use winxp to update bioses etc remember win7 is not yet ready for 24/7/365 use it is just a come on not qiute ready for prime time,microshaft did advise everyone to that effect...

 

[hero9989]

I didn't update the BIOS yet, that was the point of installing XP, so I could do it from windows XP.

also, I only tried to install it from Vista and it didn't work. I know not to use Windows 7 for anything like that yet.
The BIOS is untouched, it's still got version 1.5 installed which is from back in june.

 

[Kill@dor]

Here is what you need to do:

Enter Windows XP Recovery Console. To get here, slap in your Windows disk and it will load the installation...when its done you'll get to the blue screen. Press R for receovery.

When you reach the command prompt type the following and then press Enter.

*fixmbr* (without the stars)

The fixmbr utility will write a master boot record to the hard drive that you're currently using to boot into Windows XP. This will repair any corruption or damage that the master boot record may have.

Take out the Windows XP CD, type exit and then press Enter to restart your PC.

Windows XP should now start normally

 

[hero9989]

All seems fixed! got vista back on with the bios updated!

Thanks so much guys for all your help! ^_^