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Calling IT geeks

serfur1

serfur1

bici italia
VIP
I'm a bit stuck on a motherboard swap.

Background:
I had an OEM Acer desktop micro-ATX computer, AMD Ahtlon II X4, 4gb RAM, 1TB HD, WIN7

I upgraded to a full size case, another 1.5TB drive, 8gb RAM and it ran fine, It's been this way for 6-8 months.

I bought a 128gb SSD, Win8, and an Asus m5a97 R2.0 motherboard then moved back to the states.

When I got here and unpacked everything I sat down to do a motherboard swap, put Win8 on the SSD and get back running again.

I installed the new motherboard, swapped everything over and tried to boot to previously, working Win7. It hung up on the windows logo which I learned online means that something is missing drivers.

I then though, I'll just unplug the HDD and install a fresh copy of Win8 on the SSD, then point to my user data/program files on the HDD. No dice there either. It hangs on the install right away saying I need media drivers, so I downloaded the ALL of the available drivers from Asus for the MB but haven't had luck getting them "installed" during Win8 install, probably because I don't have just .inf files, the files I downloaded from Asus are large and have all kinds of "setup" files and readme files etc etc.

What to do? The Win7 installation on the HDD is an OEM and not a standalone. I do have a security code for it. Should I just download an image of Win7 and put in my code? I bet it hangs up just like Win8 does. What drivers do I need to install on the motherboard.

It boots to UEFI BIOS just fine and everything but the OS is working.
 
neevo

neevo

Limey Hippo
themonk said:
Try legacy bios instead?
Click to expand...
X2

Take the bios out of UEFI mode until you've installed windows and updated all drivers etc

What are the mains voltages like between Italy & the US? Maybe a PSU change is warranted if they are too dissimilar though I've only had that problem once in a decade with a foreign students' PC in the GB
 
serfur1

serfur1

bici italia
VIP
I'll try the legacy BIOS first.

the PSU is an american unit that I ran through a transformer since I had it sitting under my desk running other things as well.

Am I wrong to assume that a new MB shouldn't have kept my computer from booting up from the old HDD? Is there anything weird that happens, like the AMD chip not wanting to be just dropped on a new MB? or my OEM Win7 somehow tied securely to the old MB?
 
J

Justin

Damn.
VIP
MB probably ships with Win8 Secure Boot enabled.

Disable that shit or set the compatibility mode to auto.
 
themonk

themonk

ex-monk.
VIP
serfur1 said:
I'll try the legacy BIOS first.

the PSU is an american unit that I ran through a transformer since I had it sitting under my desk running other things as well.

Am I wrong to assume that a new MB shouldn't have kept my computer from booting up from the old HDD? Is there anything weird that happens, like the AMD chip not wanting to be just dropped on a new MB? or my OEM Win7 somehow tied securely to the old MB?
Click to expand...
When I've had issues post motherboard swap, it usually is a result of missing drivers (which either causes a continuous boot cycle or BSOD) or activation, the hardware is too different from previous and thus Windows demands activation.

Technically, if you purchased an Acer computer, the OS license is tied to that box eternally and you cannot move the license to another computer which you have effectively done.
 
serfur1

serfur1

bici italia
VIP
themonk said:
When I've had issues post motherboard swap, it usually is a result of missing drivers (which either causes a continuous boot cycle or BSOD) or activation, the hardware is too different from previous and thus Windows demands activation.

Technically, if you purchased an Acer computer, the OS license is tied to that box eternally and you cannot move the license to another computer which you have effectively done.
Click to expand...
ok, I thought so, but a fresh win8 on a new SSD should work...after I disable UEFI. BUT, wouldn't the optical drive be ok, since I got it to read and start installing Win8? I guess I could always put Win7 SP1 ISO on a thumb drive and do a fresh install that way and use my activiation code from the Acer computer.
 
neevo

neevo

Limey Hippo
serfur1 said:
:D I'm a cheap ass. I only paid like $249 for that Acer box and it ran great, until I ran out of room on the MB.
Click to expand...
Have you got lots of add-in cards installed? If so try removing them so you have a basic machine, install win and then add them one at a time and install and reboot each time

You could also try disabling on-board stuff in a similar manner
 
Short Round

Short Round

Oppan Gangnam Style
VIP
Good grief... 5 years since I built a machine and there are some terms here that I just don't understand... WTF.

UEFI? Windows Secure Boot?
 
Short Round

Short Round

Oppan Gangnam Style
VIP
Justin said:
Another tech dinosaur. :jump:
Click to expand...
jjj

A quick search... I've only dealt with one UEFI Mobo. My brother's computer came with something like this. It caused a lot of problems if he left a USB hard drive plugged in upon boot. Even if I changed boot device priority, it would always look for the USB drive first. I had to disable USB drive boot for it to work.

Only reason I did that.. and this might help serfur1... if you install an OS with UEFI enabled... you cannot turn it off. You have to reformat and reinstall. Oh... and if UEFI was enabled on one mobo... won't transfer to another.
 
neevo

neevo

Limey Hippo
Short Round said:
Good grief... 5 years since I built a machine and there are some terms here that I just don't understand... WTF.

UEFI? Windows Secure Boot?
Click to expand...
UEFi is basically a new bios style for simpletons that can only use a mouse and dribble a lot when stumped.
 
serfur1

serfur1

bici italia
VIP
neevo said:
Have you got lots of add-in cards installed? If so try removing them so you have a basic machine, install win and then add them one at a time and install and reboot each time

You could also try disabling on-board stuff in a similar manner
Click to expand...
I have a sapphire Radeon HD 5450 1gb video card, and a SATA card installed. the MB has no onboard video, so I need the video card, but I'll unhook the SATA card which had my optical drive on it.

Now that I've gone back and checked the Win8 Pro is an upgrade, so I'll need to get Win7 working first. I think I'll start by going legacy BIOS and doing a fresh install of Win7 SP1 off of a thumb drive to my HDD, then upgrade, then move the OS over to the SSD. One thing at a time.
 
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