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Upgraded motherboard, now Vista-64 won't start

P

pm

Elite Member Mobile Devices
I bought Windows Vista Ultimate back around Jan., installed the 64-bit version and have been generally pleased with it. My computer was a E6700, 4GB DDR2-667 ECC RAM, and a DFI Infinity 975x motherboard. I upgraded today to a E8500, 4GB DDR2-1000 RAM, and a Gigabyte GA-EP35 DS3L motherboard.

I fired up Vista and it blue-screened too fast to read. So then I tried "safe" mode and that bluescreened too - again too fast to read. Then I tried booting with the Vista disk and repairing, and that ran for ages and then ended by basically saying that it wants to ask Microsoft what to do, and then after a bit more comes back and does nothing. So then I tried restoring back to a previous version of Vista... and didn't help. So then I did a memory test with the Windows memory checker, and then tried my old memory (which worked fine and also passed the checker) and then just to be paranoid, I checked it with a couple of passes of Memtest. So then I tried to repair Vista by doing an "upgrade" install... but that wants to erase my hard disk. So then I tried my previous copy of Windows XP, and that of course is fine... ironically. So then I tried a clean install of Vista 64 on another hard disk, and that is fine - that's what I'm typing this on.

I don't want to go back to XP 32-bit, I like having 4GB of RAM (it makes a noticeable difference in Age of Conan, among others). I don't want to use the clean install of Vista 64 - it takes me days (weeks?) to get everything back the way that I like it.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how I can fix Vista 64? Is there any hidden method to get it to install over the top of a current install without erasing the disk?

Thanks for any advice.
 
The problem is Vista is loading drivers for your old motherboard which of course do not work with your new motherboard.

There are methods of preparing the system for a motherboard change so this doesn't happen, but I don't know what you can do if you can never even get it to boot.

I think your best bet at this point is to recover anything from the old hard drive that you want to keep and re-install Vista.
 
How would I do a repair install, theAnimal?

I know how to do a repair install in XP, but I couldn't figure out what sequence of menus would get me to do an install in 64-bit Vista that doesn't completely reformat/repartition the hard disk. I can see how you do a repair - but when I look at the log files that doesn't do anything, it just checks the filesystem integrity mostly. And I can see how you can do an install that erases everything is... but how do I get to the menu that lets me re-install in a way that doesn't erase everything?
 
Thanks, theAnimal - there's a lot of really good information at that website.

That technique doesn't work for me - I can't click on Upgrade in step #10 of the link you sent.

I'm wondering if that is the SP1 issue that they mention at the top. I'll try to create a slipstream DVD tonight and will see if that works.

Thanks again for that link - it's very informative.

You rock!
 
Well, I slipstreamed the DVD and I tried to install it - both by booting from the Vista DVD and from Windows itself with the not-so-good happy disk plugged in. In both cases, the "upgrade" button was greyed out.

I have to say that I very disappointed with Vista - I don't understand why XP just boots up with the new motherboard and Vista can't. And I don't understand why the "upgrade" button is greyed out - why can't I upgrade? Even if I ignore the fact that XP works fine with the new motherboard, I don't understand I can't just repair the installation that I have. Why must things that were fairly easy to do on XP have to be harder on Vista?

I have a retail copy of Windows Vista Ultimate, and it wasn't cheap. This shouldn't be so hard to do...
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: pm
And I don't understand why the "upgrade" button is greyed out - why can't I upgrade?
Click to expand...
You can't upgrade because you booted from the Vista DVD. You can only do an upgrade if you run the Vista Install DVD from inside of Wnidows.
Click to expand...

I tried it both ways. In both cases, upgrade was disabled.

And I have the retail version. FWIW, here's a screenshot: http://home.comcast.net/~pfmahoney/IMG_9042.jpg
 
Yeah, I noticed that after I'd first posted.

The most common reason for having problems moving Windows from one motherboard to another one is the hard drive controller driver.

I recently moved Vista 32 from one motherboard to another one and had to first change the hard drive controller drivers from the fancy Intel ones to the standard "PCI IDE Controller". Running the "Repair" option using the Vista Install CD had no effect. I also tried pre-installing drivers for the new drive controller, with no success.

I have no idea how to handle this situation with SATA drives. I was using an IDE drive. AnandTech member dClive was a lot of help to me when I was pondering my own motherboard swap.

Gee...who's that handsome guy in the screenshot? (grin)
 
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