Booting up after upgrades

[MattGamer]

Hi guys, tonight was my first experience with working inside of a computer besides maybe switching out a PCI card. I decided to update my motherboard, Processor and RAM.

I read a few articles about how to hook it all up and get up and running. upon completion I plugged in and hit my power button only to be confronted with this.

One Beep then my Motherboard BIOS screen which gives me the option to enter the setup flashes by real quick. then I run into this message

"Not Found any disk!! please wait"

then it gives me the options to start windows normally, safe mode ect.
when I try to open windows it begins loading windows but a few seconds in i get a quickly flashed blue screen with a bunch of text. flashes too fast for me to read. then the whole process repeats endlessly from the beep.

Now keep in mind im a first timer, quite illiterate as far as the real technical stuff goes. am I right in assuming theres a problem with my hard drive's connection? or did I mess something else up? as far as I can tell everything got connected right (nothing backwards or anything :p )

what could be my potential problems and fixes for this?

[The Wise Monkey]

The main problem is that you can't just switch out your entire setup and expect Windows to run first time...

You will probably need to re-install Windows to get around this, as you will have problems with performance and stability, even if you do manage to get your old copy of Windows working.

I've just been through all of this myself, so I know how annoying it is.

[MattGamer]

so just load up with my windows disc in?

[The Wise Monkey]

Yeah, you may be able to get away with a repair of the OS rather than a complete reinstall.

To repair the OS, boot up with the windows disc, press enter to continue the setup, press f8 to agree to the t&c, then there should be an option to repair a previous installation of windows - press r, iirc.

This instigates the Windows setup, so it will be like a fresh install, except you will have all your programs still available.

[MattGamer]

alright, I will give this a try right now. thank you. if I run into any other issues I will be sure to ask :D

[MattGamer]

the repair of windows does not seem to have done anything besides get rid of the windows startup options (safe mode ect)

[The Wise Monkey]

Hmm, you may need to re-install Windows.

Have you got a spare HD you can try instead of formatting your main one? Have you partitioned your hard drive at all?

[MattGamer]

no i dont have a spare and afaik I dont have it partitioned

Update: I tried to re-install windows completely but the problem is i dont have the direct discs, I only have the restores so when i try to re-install off of them it wont accept the product key. from what ive heard i may need to buy a full version of an OS to install to get around this? problem being that the restores arent configured for my new motherboard or something along those lines.

[The Wise Monkey]

I assume that you bought your computer pre-made with the OS already installed then.

You are right about that - the restore disks are only meant for the original hardware. It looks as though you will need to buy a new OS disk.

[MattGamer]

uhhhg I was worried about that... I REALLY dont wanna go to vista at this point in time :(

[MattGamer]

hey monkey, wanna hear a funny story? APPARANTLY when you put in your 25 digit product key you CANT use the number pad because its somehow different than the top row numbers as far as the product registration key is concerned...

so I spent a whole night trying to find a way around this and all i did was use the wrong bloody button.... love technology :mad:

anyways, working through now, hopefully up and running tonight if i get anything else ill be sure to ask here :D . thought some reader of the forums may come across that little tidbit and get some amusement out of it

[The Wise Monkey]

lmao, I honestly didn't know that... XD

Anywho, glad you got it working again - run some stability tests to make sure everything is working well.