Win7 won't boot after motherboard change

[jkolak]

Hi,

For those who followed me on my issues with my Soyo Dragon Ultra KT400+, the motherboard finally failed, putting to rest the mystery over the power supply, RAM, video card, etc. It just kept getting harder to start, and then once started would shut down after increasingly shorter periods of time until it became unusable because it wouldn't stay running for more than a few minutes.

So, hoping to keep my memory, CPU, etc, I replaced it with a Foxconn K75741GXMG-6L. The good news is the computer really likes the new motherboard. The bad news is Windows hates it.

Well, specifically, Windows 7 refuses to start. On initial boot up, it tries to start like normal. Then the screen flashes off and the computer reboots. On reboot, it offers Start Windows Normally or Startup Repair. If I choose to start normally, it stops on a Blue Screen. (Just numbers, no driver named - it won't stop on the screen long enough to read them anymore).

When I did Startup Repair, it worked really hard and did a lot of things, but in the end the error message said that Windows was unable to repair the computer and suggests that the problem may have been caused by a recent change in hardware configuration.

Continuing retries give the same results, except that Startup Repair comes back with the message that it can't fix it much faster now, and the BSOD doesn't stay on screen long enough to read anymore, though it's form factor looks the same.

I never experienced this when I have done motherboard changes in the past. Windows XP would just report "new device found" and would load the appropriate drivers.

Isn't there anyway to get Windows 7 to boot so I can change the drivers?

Repair install doesn't work either. It wants me to boot Windows and run the installation from there.

[EEVIAC]

Windows 7 has to be reinstalled. Windows installer will detect the hardware configuration and use the appropriate hal driver..

I would slave the drive on another computer to get your files off of it, put the drive back into your new computer/motherboard and reinstall..  A repair install might fix it, but you can't seem to get it to do that...


edit:

I never experienced this when I have done motherboard changes in the past. Windows XP would just report "new device found" and would load the appropriate drivers.

interesting         Those other boards might have been very similar to each other enabling one hal driver to work for all, so to speak..

[patio]

What you performed is a Startup Repair...which will only fix issues with the bootloader etc. but not your issues....

Repair Install of Win7

I suggest reading it thru 1st and printing a reference copy before starting.
Done properly all your data and apps will be intact....

Good Luck.

[killerb255]

Considering that the link states that Windows 7 can only be repair-installed from within the OS itself, I don't think this will be an option for jkolak...

In general, changing out the motherboard usually will result in a BSOD.  The main reason are because of the hard drive controller and motherboard chipset, but other factors certainly do come into play.

For those of you who have changed your motherboards out without problems, it's usually because the motherboard's hard disk controller and/or the chipset are the same.

Repair-installing was certainly an option with Windows XP if you get a BSOD, as long as:

1) The CD you're repair-installing from has the same edition as your BSOD'd OS (i.e.: if your BSOD'd OS is XP Professional, use an XP Professional disc to repair).
2) The CD you're repair-installing from is at the same Service Pack level or higher.
2) The CD you're repair-installing from has the exact same version of Internet Explorer as your BSOD'd OS (which usually means a slipstream is necessary with a third-party utility like nLite--no official XP disc has IE7 or IE8 integrated).

For Windows 7, your best bet is to try and change your hard disk controller driver in Device Manager to a generic one before trying to swap the motherboard.  Even then, you may run into problems...

Overall, it's not worth repair-installing anymore, as NT6 puts you in a Catch 22 with it anyway (can't get to the OS to run the repair-install!).  If Startup Repair doesn't work, and you don't have access to the original motherboard, then your best bet is to back up the data and format.

[jkolak]

Thanks everyone!

What a learning experience this has been!

So the death of a motherboard is really a system fatality since Windows cannot launch after repair.

I'm really, really surprised that with all the sophisticated recovery tools included in Windows, that they have not developed a provision to recover from this situation.

Seems easy enough, just like a fresh install is able to deal with a wide variety of hardware.

I think really, they should allow a repair install from the DVD bootup.

As it turns out, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I had already redirected My Documents to the second partition, so I only had to copy C:\users to D: (using the Ubuntu live CD).

I had forgotten about Windows 7 and drivers. Foxconn must not be very common as the ethernet adaptor and audio were not working when finished.

Luckily the old Foxconn drivers worked okay under Windows 7, so the system is up and running now.

Now to get on to reinstalling software....
 

[MOCKBA]

I have exact same problem and motherboard was replaced by exact same model. So I believe the problem lead to Windows 7 copy protection feature. Certain checksum fails so it can't boot. I do not understand why Microsoft doesn't provide simple repair procedure for this case. Unfortunately my original Windows 7 DVD got lost and now I am trapped in the situation. I need to contact PC seller for DVD replacement and it is hard procedure. Why Microsoft can't make things easier?

[Quantos]

I have exact same problem and motherboard was replaced by exact same model. So I believe the problem lead to Windows 7 copy protection feature. Certain checksum fails so it can't boot. I do not understand why Microsoft doesn't provide simple repair procedure for this case. Unfortunately my original Windows 7 DVD got lost and now I am trapped in the situation. I need to contact PC seller for DVD replacement and it is hard procedure. Why Microsoft can't make things easier?

You need to start your own thread to get support.