Booting Problems

Well, In the rig in my sig, I have an 80GB Primary HD. That has my Windows and all my music, games, etc on it. For some reason, when I installed my new motherboard (P4S800D-X), It won't boot sometimes. I ahve to restart like six times with the reset button before it will actually boot. When it does that, it will post, the hard drive led will light up for a few seconds and then you have the blinking cursor, then it just goes to a black screen. The monitor is still on (Green LED on a gateway, and its lit up and all). I no data is corrupt and this is a fresh XP install. It has happened since before I installed Ubuntu on my secondary drive (the 40GB). I am still stumped about this. Sometimes when I hit the reset switch, it will ask me "Start windows in safe mode, etc etc" And I can boot up with normally. It's like my MBR is messed somehow, but nothing was changed, and it still boots up (albeit unwillingly sometimes). im using windows right now. So it has to be working fine. Is it a sign of a dying HDD? My SMART status is healthy, and it has been working great since I got it. Is it a motherboard issue, or is it something else. I knwo it couldnt be heat, because, well, its working now lol. The HDD temperature is 20C and the secondary is 30C. My processor likes to idle at around 44-52.5C and the video card is always idling high. The only thing new in this rig is the motherboard. I wonder if I'm missing an important setting that I need to change. Anyone have a clue?

Can you please use paragraphs; it makes it much easier to read.

Restate the problem more clearly, if you want people to take time to read it and try help you.

“I no data is corrupt and this is a fresh XP install.” What is this even mean?

Ok so far I have that your new mother board is not booting sometimes, and you can fix this by restarting.

Not to sure what to make of this, but I would check all the bios settings. Put them all into the optimized settings your bios has, if that doesn’t work try put all the settings in manual that its ment to have.

I don’t use intel, nor have I seen or used “asustek” brand board, do you mean a asus?
You can find all your correct default settings by reading around a bit.

Secondly your saying you have a problem with boot into windows, or is it Ubuntu that isn’t booting.

If Ubuntu isn’t booting that may be a MBR problem, should post on some Ubunto forum for help.

I would try booting up with the Windows XP CD and select to go into the repair console and run chkdsk /r. This will check for corrupted files.

When you replaced the motherboard, did you reformat your hard drive and reinstall everything? Or, did you just use the hardware detect and reinstall drivers? If you did the latter, try doing the former and your problem may go away.

Sorry about the horrible grammar and the lack of paragraphs, it was like 2 am lol.

I did do a fresh install of Windows when I installed the new motherboard. I have done factory reset on the BIOS configuration. Ubuntu boots phenominally, Windows doesn't.

Which drive is set to 1st boot priority?

Try switch them around, The same kind of thing happend ot me when I was installing unbuntu, but I had it on a single drive with partitions.

If it still doesnt work, check out some ubuntu forums, might need to fix your mbr.

WEll, this was happenign way before I installed Ubuntu. And Ubuntu boots beautiful when I set the secondary drive to boto first, but when I set the primary to boot first, it hates me lol.

Just to find out, run the Powermax diagnostic on your Maxtor HD, and the Seatools diagnostic on the Seagate. What you describe, though, sounds more like a bad Windows install with perhaps a hardware incompatibility than anything else. Might be worth your while to try a fresh reinstall.

I never thought of that. I would die if I lost all that information! 8.5 days of Trance, all my anime, all my stuff! I will run those tools tomorrow when I get home from class. I just hope the HD isn't going bad.