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Upgraded Computer, Xp Doesn't Like It


Tony Harrison

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Should really ask on a computer forum, but since there are some people who know what they're talking about on here I thought I'd try asking.

Put some new bits in my computer yesterday. New motherboard/CPU (Celeron D, 2.5GHz), 512Mb DDR, new power supply. All put together properly by someone who knows what they're doing, heatsink properly fitted with silver-compound paste, etc.

Anyway, on boot up XP didn't like it, and kept restarting the system. My mate reckoned it was because XP is configured for the old machine, so I put in the disk (it's a legit copy), and went through the setup process to repair the existing install. Went through ok, a few dialog boxes saying DLLs couldn't be loaded, but then after it rebooted I got a blue screen message, saying the display driver was in a loop.

As advised, I rebooted again, and this time got into windows. I got an error message (Do you want to send Microsoft an error report, etc), which I cleared, but the desktop was slow. The mouse cursor moved fine, but it took about two minutes for the Start menu to open and let me Shut Down. I'm assuming something was giving the CPU a hammering.

I think it's probably my graphics card - it was being odd in the last setup. Should I try booting the PC without the graphics card in it and use the on-board graphics? In fact I've probably got a spare card I could try. I don't think it's the CPU/board, as it handled the XP setup process fine and wasn't sluggish.

Anyone got any advice? Any ideas appreciated, thanks.

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Its recommended that you COMPLETELY re-install windows after upgradigin a major hardware component, like a motherboard or a cpu. The fact you've done all of them and tried keeping the same install of windows is what i reckon would be the cause of it.

I think the general thing is to re-install windows if you change the motherboard, not just keep the old windows version and repair it.

Back up all your files, re-install windows and see if that sorts it. When you say it took ages for the start menu to come up, i'd suspect its not actually the graphics card, all that does is display the screen and i don't think it'd be something that'd physically slow the start menu down (if its displaying the screen correctly then it should handle popping a menu up) and as you said it was slow on shutdown i'd think its either windows trying to re-write a shed load of new settings ready for next time you turn the machine back on, or theres a problem with the drivers for something... probably your motherboard.

I think if you did go to a computer forum the first thing they'd say is re-install windows.

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Thanks. Didn't do that as I didn't have space to back the files up elsewhere. I've just got hold of another hard disk, so I'll try a clean install on that...

that'd be wise - I've got away with going from one dead motherboard to another with a very similar chipset without requiring a full reinstall but anything more complicated than that would be proper risky.

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Have you installed the new motherboard drivers? And deleted the old ones? If it's an AGP motherboard you need to install the motherboard's GART driver before you install the new graphics drivers.

As for the DLL's that couldn't be loaded... was this during setup? Could be that the disc was scratched and couldn't copy a few files. If this is the case then you may still have missing files. Not always a problem though.

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Due to the graphics driver problems i'd recommend a completely clean install of the graphics drivers. Use drivercleaner or similar to completely remove any traces of the old ones then load the latest ones off the manufacturers website.

I'm currently running a repaired install of windows after it died for no apparant reason and the performance has definately taken a hit, and it's not utilising my dueal core CPU properly. Clean install are always a good idea if changing the motherboard.

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