[TrueAnubis]

Well, I got myself a new computer. Pretty much what I did was I had them take the hard drive out of the old one and make it the primary hard drive on the new one. I did this so that I could save all my data. Mission accomplished on that.

Unfortunately, more problems have arisen, three in particular that are quite nasty. My new system is as follows:

Computer Manufacturer: ASUS
Computer Model: M2N-E
CPU Manufacturer: AuthenticAMD
CPU Family: AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor 3200+
CPU Speed: 2009 MHz
Front-Side Bus Speed: 200 MHz

Now for the problems:

1. When the computer starts up, it takes about three minutes. This is not right at all, as it's about 100 times slower than my old computer. It lags slightly even when running, although it's noticably faster than the old computer at these times. I have no idea what's causing this.

2. No sound whatsoever. When I use WinAMP, I get some "Bad DirectSound Driver" error, and sometimes I get a "A device ID has been used that is out of range for your system" error. This makes no sense, as the sound is direct from the MB. The guy at the computer store said sound cards are pretty much obsolete these days, with MB sound being just as good in almost all cases, so I didn't waste money on an actual sound card. Unfortunately, I can't test this because the sound doesn't work at all! I tried installing the drivers from the CD, but then I get an error saying "HDA Audio bus driver is missing" or some nonsense, which is dumb because it should be there on the CD!

3. I tried going to Windows Update, but that crashes Internet Explorer EVERY SINGLE TIME.

In addition to this, under device manager, I have a device conflict (yellow exclamation point) next to "Microsoft System Management BIOS Driver". None of this makes any sense, as they were force to do a Windows Repair Install to get Windows XP to work on the new computer, so a repair install won't fix it. I will not mess with the BIOS again after frying my last computer trying to do so; besides, I doubt there is any radically updated BIOS for this recent a model of MB.

Anyway, there you have it. I have no clue how to fix any of this.

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Hi there

When you got the new computer, did it come with an operating system already installed on it's hard drive (i.e was it function BEFORE you got them to install your old drive into it?)

If so, then I suggest you use the new drive as the primary & your old drive as the slave. All your data will still be accessible but at least you will have a clean installation of Windows configured with the correct drivers etc, to boot from.

The problem essentially is that your old drive is setup with all the neccessary drivers & configuration for the old computer, NOT new one. Although Windows will detect some of the new hardware you now have, and install drivers for it where possible, there are bound to be some that it doesn't have the correct drivers for. Apart from that, taking a drive pre-loaded with Windows & installing it in a completely different computer with different hardware (which is exactly what you have done), tends to result in a buggy installation even when all the neccesary drivers are available & installed.

[Samm]

Hi there

When you got the new computer, did it come with an operating system already installed on it's hard drive (i.e was it function BEFORE you got them to install your old drive into it?)

If so, then I suggest you use the new drive as the primary & your old drive as the slave. All your data will still be accessible but at least you will have a clean installation of Windows configured with the correct drivers etc, to boot from.

The problem essentially is that your old drive is setup with all the neccessary drivers & configuration for the old computer, NOT new one. Although Windows will detect some of the new hardware you now have, and install drivers for it where possible, there are bound to be some that it doesn't have the correct drivers for. Apart from that, taking a drive pre-loaded with Windows & installing it in a completely different computer with different hardware (which is exactly what you have done), tends to result in a buggy installation even when all the neccesary drivers are available & installed.

[TrueAnubis]

Nope, the new HD is just a 500 GB monster with nothing on it, bought solely for use as storage. My only Windows XP is what's already on the old HD.

I already figured I need to do a clean installation of Windows XP at this point. I'm just not sure how to go about wiping the old HD (with Windows XP on it) to do a fresh install without touching the 500 GB HD (since I backed up all my old files on that one). I tried the Windows XP CD, but there's no option for "wipe this HD and install Windows XP fresh". Do I just format the HD or something (via the "Format" option when I right click on the HD) and then boot it up with the Windows XP CD in there?

[TrueAnubis]

Well, I went in and tried a clean install, but it isn't working. It does the partitioning and the formatting, then it goes through setup and restarts. Once that happens, I get the following error:

"NTLDR is missing"

1. I made sure everything was bootable. Problem persists.

2. Computer hard disk is set up as properly as possible. This MB, unfortunately, only has a single IDE slot, and I require two. Now two can be connected to the one slot as per the manual, but the problem is that it never wants to read the HD as the Primary. Nope, it reads my DVD writer as Primary and my HD as Slave. I tried flipping the connector as per the manual, but it doesn't recognize either when I do that. I have tried every conceivable jumper setting to no avail.

3. All the cables are secure.

4. The HD is fine, as I was just using it before doing this fresh install.

There have been other solutions on web sites, but they all go over my head (or use DOS, which is unavailable in Windows XP). I need step-by-step layman's terms instructions on how to fix this issue.

[TrueAnubis]

All fixed now. I just had to remove the partitioning on all the hard drives and enable only the one I was installing Windows XP on was booted while installing it.

[Samm]

Glad to hear you managed to sort it out.

I'm going to mark this topic 'Resolved'. If you encouter any further problems, please don't hesitate to ask