hitting a brick wall

system specs:

1. motherboard = shuttle av49vn
2. CPU = intel P4 2.4 ghz 400 FSB northwood
3. HD = western digital 80 gig 7200rpm
4. ram = 2 x 256 ddr 2100
5. video card = geforce fx 5200 128 mb
6. os = xp home (oem)


I have totally hit a brick wall and I need help. I have built a few systems before but it has been a while. I just bought this motherboard and proccessor. I have install it my machine and everything turns on.

I have two hds but my second is a 20 gig and is only used for storage. I have my 80 gig partitioned into 4 drives.
c: = 10 gig
d: = 10 gig
e: = 30 gig
f: = 30 gig
(approx)

I had my system running on a ks75a motherbard with a 1.2 ghz duron. I switched to the new new motherboard and cpu. My problem is this.

I can get into the bios. I can F8 and get to the boot choise screen. But when I choose any option i.e. safe mode, safe mode at prompt, normal boot, last known good, etc. I get the blue screen of death. I thought that the problems were the video drivers but I can't get into vga mode to tell. I tried booting from my xp cdrom and repairing the windows partition and it went through it's repair process but nothing changed. The I installed another xp os on my d drive for duel boot. When I intstall it everything worked perfectly. Of course none of my programs were there but I got to the desk top and could do anything I wanted...no blue screen. So I am at a brick wall. I don't know what else to do. I can't get into my original xp to fix any drivers problem via safe mode and I'm not experienced enough to do it through dos. PLease help me. I have a huge project due for work and I picked a crummy time to upgrade my machine.

Thanks

Before changing any hardware in a PC, you have to un-install those driver before. This is specially important for motherboard and video card.

If you go see in Device Manager under System, you'll find a bunch of driver for all the component of your motherboard. I really think XP is having a conflig in the motherboard driver.

My suggestion is to back up all your data and do a clean installation on your C: drive. If you try safe mode and safe mode don't run, you're usually screw big time. :(

Before deleting all the data on your 80 gig drive, try the following:

1. Set the jumpers on your 80 gig drive as the Primary Slave and the HDD you installed the new XP OS on as your Primary Master. Do not use Cable Select.
2. Go into Bios (Standard CMOS Features) and <Enter> the IDE Adapters sub-menus for each drive to ensure they are being recognized correctly by your motherboard.
3. Exit Standard CMOS Features and Enter Advanced BIOS Features. Set your First Boot Device to HDD-0, Second and Third Boot Device to Disabled. Ensure both "Boot Other Device" and "Boot Up Floppy Seek" are set to Disabled.
4. Exit Advanced BIOS Features and Enter Integrated Peripherals. Check to see that Onboard Lan Boot ROM is set to Disabled.
5. Exit Integrated Peripherals and Enter PnP/PCI Configurations. Set Reset Configuration Data to Enabled.
6. Exit PnP/PCI Configurations and "Save and Exit Setup".
7. After shut down and system reboots into C drive, if all is well, you should be able to access all of the files on your D drive. Since you changed your motherboard setup from the original on your 80 gig HDD, it would probably be a good idea to copy any/all files from D to C that you need/want to save.
8. Once that is done, shut the system down and disconnect C drive - leaving only the 80 gig HDD.
9. Change the jumpers on the 80 gig to Master.
10. Repeat Step 2.
11. Exit Standard CMOS Features and Enter Advanced BIOS Features. Set your First Boot Device to boot from Floppy. If you install your OS from a CD, set the Second Boot Device to CDRom and the Third Boot Device to HDD-0. If you will install the OS from a Floppy, set the Second Boot Device to HDD-0 and leave the Third Boot Device at Disabled. Change "boot Up Floppy Seek" to Enabled.
12. Exit Advanced BIOS Features, place a DOS floppy that has the Fdisk and Format programs on it in the floppy drive and "Save and Exit Setup".
13. Fdisk and remove all partitions.
14. Reboot and fdisk /MBR for a fresh Master Boot Record.
15. Reset partitions.
16. Format hard drive.
17. Remove the DOS floppy and place your install disk in the proper drive, reboot and install XP.
18. Once that is done and you have successfully booted into the OS, shut the system down.
19. Reconnect your former C drive containing the files you saved.
20. Change the jumpers to Primary Slave.
21. Repeat Step 2.
22. Exit Standard CMOS Features and Enter Advanced BIOS Features. Set your First Boot Device to HDD-0 and Second and Third (if changed) Boot Devices back to Disabled. Set "Boot Up Floppy Seek" to Disabled.
23. Exit Advanced BIOS Features and "Save and Exit Setup".
24. You will then be able to copy the saved files back over to the 80 gig drive and remove the extra HDD if desired.

If you have problems or cannot access the 80 gig drive at Step 7, let me know and I can recommend some free recovery programs you can try or try and walk you through the problem. Good Luck.

V.

Or you could just take a sledgehammer to it, that is always fun, and you'll feel so less stressed out once it's smashed.
Plus you could post the pictures of your box in a million different pieces, that way we wouldn't miss out on all the fun.

But i think vvirtho is on the right track, just follow those instructions and all should be fine.

cheers
.:front2back:.