Please help, boot problems

[Shattered Skies]

My old rig's Mobo went bad, so yesterday I rebuilt the system to make it slightly faster. I added a new type of mobo, memory and processor, and then had Windows run a quick "Repair Mode to see if anything on the OS was corrupted when the Mobo went bad. I also ran scandisk to see if any of my info was corrupted.
Now I'm having a strange problem when trying to restart the computer. Please note that other than this the system is working flawlessly.

In windows, after I completely shut down the computer I can turn it back on without a problem, but only after I unplug it for 5 minutes. Also, if I try to restart the computer from Windows, the system successfully exits the OS, but then the screen goes black and the monitor goes into standby mode (orange light). When I reach this point I need to unplug the computer and let it sit for five minutes before I can turn it back on. In other words, a soft boot is impossible. Needless to say, this becomes rather annoying when a new piece of software asks for a restart.

A few items of note:

-I have the most current system mobo BIOS
-Memory is working properly
-reattached the vid card to assure proper placement
-PSU is sufficient for new items
-Heat is registering within normal tolerances

-The motherboard Post Code always (even in Windows) flashes "FF", and I never hear the 1 beep post during boot-up, but I can enter Windows and everything within the OS does work properly.

-reset button is not working any longer

-when booting the system, Epox motherboards go through a quick diagnostic that shows various items and temperatures being checked. Eveything shows as "OK", but I do get one warning: "Notice- CPU has changed since last session. Please adjust settings in CMOS, Save and Reboot. To bypass this message and continue to Windows, press F1" In Windows, the processor does show correctly in the System Information tab

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

WinXP Home
AMD Sempron 2800+
Epox 8KDA3I mobo
512 MB OCZ DDR 400
40 GB WD 7200 RPM DH
16X DVD-R
Soundblaster Audigy 5.1


Old specs for computer that were changed out:

Asus A7V266-E mobo
512 MB Crucial SDRAM
AMD 1900+

 

[Harvey]

Your Asus board uses a VIA chipset, and your new Epox board is based on an nVidia set. One problem may be incompatible drivers from either chipset maker or built into Windows XP. Sometimes, these drivers even use the same file names so finding, deleting or replacing them may take longer than re-installing Windows from the ground up... if that's even possible.

Moving an installed setup from one motherboard to another is always iffy. In this case, re-installation may be the only way to be sure you get this one right because you'll never know if there's some other problem lurking and waiting to bite you.

I've successfully moved earlier versions of Windows from one board and chipset to another, and there's probably a way to do it in XP, at least in some situations, but in your case, you've already overwritten so much of your registry that there's no going back.

I strongly recommend building your new setup on a new drive. Your 40 GB drive is already too small for a serious XP installation so you don't have to wipe it until you have Windows up and running on your new setup. Then, you can just plug your old drive in on another IDE channel and copy your files to the new drive.

If you really want to be cool about it, don't start before investing in a copy of some disk cloning software like Norton Ghost. Any version from Ghost 2002 or later will work. Ghost clones your drive, and the Ghost copy is fully bootable and operational. The drives do not have to be the same size, but obviously, the smaller drive has to be able to hold everything that's on the larger one.

Large drives are cheap so, when you get your new drive, buy a pair and a device called a moble rack. The link is for reference, not to recommend any particular vendor. A mobile rack allows you to plug in IDE drives for backup or transfer purposes, then remove the drive for safety.

Once you have your basic XP installation running, copy all your files to your new drive. Then, you can use Ghost to clone your continuing installation as you install each program. That way, if any new installation fails and screws up your drive, you can Ghost back from the backup drive to your last known good condition and start from there, instead of having to start over.

After that, regularly Ghost your drive, especially immediately after a virus and spyware scan. No one has invented a virus that can jump the air gap so no matter what happens to your main drive, you're always as good as your last Ghost image.

 

[Shattered Skies]

Thank you for the reply, Harvey. I appreciate how detailed you were in your response. I'm just glad to hear it probably isn't a motherboard problem considering how difficult it was to get the CPU and heatsink placed.