ABIT nv8 problems

Hey all,
I just purchased an Abit NV8 mobo and I've been having problems
booting. I have SUSE 9.2 and WinXP, SP2 on my machine. The Grub loader
works, but windows or linux won't boot up. The windows screen comes up
for about a second, and the system reboots. Linux tells me that /bin/sh
can't be found. I tried to use a old hd that I have that also has WinXP
on it (no Linux), but the exact same thing happens, even in safe
mode...it will find some drivers but will crash and reboot. Has anyone
else experienced this problem? I'm using an MSI NX6200TC video card,
AMD 3400+ socket 754 cpu and 512Mb of Kingston Value RAM (PC3200). Any
help will be appreciated!

kalavase.RemoveThis@gmail.com wrote:
|
| Hey all,
| I just purchased an Abit NV8 mobo and I've been having
| problems booting. I have SUSE 9.2 and WinXP, SP2 on my
| machine. The Grub loader works, but windows or linux won't
| boot up. The windows screen comes up for about a second,
| and the system reboots. Linux tells me that /bin/sh can't be
| found. I tried to use a old hd that I have that also has WinXP
| on it (no Linux), but the exact same thing happens, even in safe
| mode...it will find some drivers but will crash and reboot. Has
| anyone else experienced this problem? I'm using an MSI
| NX6200TC video card, AMD 3400+ socket 754 cpu and
| 512Mb of Kingston Value RAM (PC3200). Any help will be
| appreciated!
|

Hey -

Tell us about your PSU. Who makes it, maximum rated wattage and amps on the
+12v, +5v and +3.3v rails.

Cheap, generic, "came with the case" PSU's are well known for causing
problems with not being able to boot. Generally, however, your system won't
even POST with inadequate power.

That said .. you obviously have a Windows XP installation (actually tried
two) and a SUSE installation that were built on another machine. I can't
speak with authority on Linux, but I can tell you with authority that
Windows XP won't boot on new hardware, even into safe mode, because the
Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) doesn't match.

You may be able to boot if the chipset on the new motherboard is
substantially the same and the processor is from the same family .. but
you'll spend a lot of grunts and groans as XP's New Hardware Wizard sorts
out drivers for the system devices and integrated peripherals.

The HAL is built when Windows XP is installed, mating the installation
closely to the hardware that it is installed upon. Throw a different
processor, chipset, etc., at Windows XP and it'll crash upon booting. Add
to this Microsoft's "No BSOD in XP" mantra, your system will reboot by
default, rather than give you a BSOD.

Your best bet would be to put the hard disk back onto it's original platform
and back up your personal data, installation files, etc., then do a clean
install from scratch on the new hardware.

Alternatively, at least with Windows XP, you can perform a "Repair Install"
to sort this out. To perform a Repair, boot with your XP CD, following the
steps you took when Windows XP was first installed (including pressing F6 if
you need a RAID/SATA driver). When the installer inspects your hard
disk(s), it will find your existing XP installation and offer you to select
that partition and perform a Repair.

A Repair Install will wipe out any Service Packs and Windows Updates that
aren't slip-streamed into your CD (for example, you have an XP Gold CD ..
then Service Pack 1 and 2 will be wiped out, along with all the Windows
Updates). You can create a new XP CD, slip-streaming SP2 (search the web ..
instructions are posted all over the place) to avoid having to reinstall
SP2. Your installed applications, data and user settings will be retained
with a Repair Install .. but there is no guarantee that the results will be
stable (though it usually will be) .. you'll also have much garbage from the
original installation in your system registry.

Jef