New Sys doesn't Boot Part 2

Hi Again,

I got a new PS and got everything powered up, but still having booting problems. First I cleared the CMOS. Then I turned on the system. The POST screen came up. Pressed F1 to continue, another screen came up and it asked if I wanted the Windows to boot normally or safe mode. I chose safe mode. After that it took a few seconds as if the something was going to happen but it reebooted, and I was back to the POST screen. Here now I could see a new line added ' CPU unworkable or has been changed. Please see CPU softMenu'. The Abit Bios has a softmenu to change CPU clock and other stuff. So I went into that and checked it out, I left everything at default (the way it alredy was) . But it just constantly reboots.

I am not sure of the problem. Can anyone help?

 

If all of the mobo settings are correct (the defaults might randomly not be, slim chance but pays to check), I'd look through the manual for any jumpers that might be set wrong. After that ... I'd suspect that something is up with one of your components. If you can get a known-good system with all compatible parts, I'd start swapping yours in one at a time to see what's not working.

 

Here's the original specs again just to refresh everybody. I tried to boot with the barebones approach. Didn't hook up the DVD-RW and only connected 1 piece of 512mb ram.

Abit IC7-Max3 MO - new
P4 2.8ghz, fsb 800mhz - new
corsair xms ddr pc3200 (2 x 512mb) -new
PowerColor Radeon 9700pro AGP 8x card (128mb DDR) - new
WD 60GB hdd - has winxp pro running (pulled it out of my older system)
Ultra 500w power supply - new
Chaintech dragon case - new
Floppy drive - old
Sony DVD+/-RW - new

Does anyone know if there are any compatibility issues with the P4 2.8c ghz , fsb-800mhz and the Abit Ic7-max3 mo? I have been running everything at default. Would it be a problem if I run the CPU at 533Mhz bus speed?

 

Use load optimized defaults option in bios and try that. That motherboard is compatible with 800mhz processors.
Your problem clockspeed is set too high causing it to reboot.
One other thing. Are you trying to load Windows that was installed on the hd out of the other box?

 

In the CPU softMenu options I looked at the CPU clock speed. It says 2800/200. Since my processor is 2.8Ghz, I figured this was correct. For FSB speed it says 'By CPU'. When I tried so see what options I had in case I wanted it user defined, there were 4 options, 2 of them being 533/133, 800/200. I just let the default be. And yes the Windows XP was loaded in the HD in the old machine. I do have another 160GB seagate IDE HDD sitting around, which I recently bought, but I did not hook it up yet as I wanted to have it exchanged for a SATA drive, but I could probably hook it up if that is the problem. Could you tell me what is the difference in performance between a IDE and SATA drive? I'll just keep the IDE drive if it's not too much. The SATA is costing me only 2 more bucks for the same HD space.

 

SATA has much more headroom than IDE (PATA), though the performance gain at this point in time is only beginning to become noticable. The other big benefit is that the cables are much thinner, making cable routing and airflow easier. For $2, I'd go for it.

 

OK. There is the problem.
If you can, take the hd out of the new box and put it back in the old. Boot up the old box and open device manager and uninstall everything.
Once you do that shut the old box down and put the hd back in the new one.
Boot it up. You should get into Windows now and it will install all your hardware.
The above sometimes works and sometimes doesn't
If it doesn't then format and do a clean install.

 

I would like to thank Bob and everybody else at this forum. My system is up and running. After I installed the new HDD with a fresh copy of Win XP on my new system, it booted. The only thing is when I boot my system it stops at the post screen and still displays that message 'CPU unworkable or has been changed. Please see CPU softmenu'. After I press F1, it boots normally. I don't know how to make this message go away.

Another minor problem I am having is, my HDD is 160 GB. I booted directly form the Win XP cd. It formatted the drive in NTFS and loaded the OS. But my HDD space only shows 127 GB. Can anybody help me with this so that I can make use of more space?

 

Yea. That is a bug with the bios. Head to to motherboard site and download the latest bios and after the flash that should clear up. The new bios should also fix the cpu problem.

 

Here is a link to the bios downloads:

http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/bios.php?categories=1&model=5

Looks like IC7 BIOS 20will fix your problem.

 

I tried to get a Bios update. ABIT provides a utility called FlashMenu. I d/l it and used it to update, but it says my Bios is already up to date. ic7 max3 13 is the latest version for this MoBo. Is there any other option to take out these glitches?

 

My son posted that it's a problem with XP if you don't have sp1 installed. XP doesn't recognize a disk larger than 137Gig. Try to upgrade to sp1 and see if it the rest of the disk will show up.

 

I am on it. I did the sp1 express update from MS but, that did not affect it. But somebody told me I would have to integrate SP1 while installing windows and then it would let me do it. Also that I would have to install the Intel raid driver (F6) during Win OS installation.

Here's the link if somebody needs to slipstream sp1 into their Win XP -

http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/winxp-sp1-bootcd.html

I have had a chance to try it yet, but I will and give you and update. Thanks.

 

It works. XP with SP1 during installation recognizes the lost space.

Thnx everyone

 

good you found out how to slipstream it, i was told this should solve the problem, i just wasn't sure how it was done. thats too bad that you need to slipstream it in order for it to work. just one more step to take during a fresh install i guess.

 

Here is MS hotfix to enabled 48bit lba in XP to fix the 127 Gig limit:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013&Product=winxp