Motherboard replaced, won't access HD help please

[Milla Maxwell]

Hi,
I need some help. I replaced the motherboard with a good used one I bought on ebay. It booted to the BIOS setup ok. I made all the necessary changes then saved and exit. It showed the Dell boot screen, then I heard the HD read for a half-second then nothing, it just hangs there with a black screen. It's a SATA and it's the only HDD in the computer. I'm pretty sure I have the BIOS setup correct. I checked the SATA connection and it's fine. The OS is Win XP.

Is the MB Bad? or what else might it be?

Thanks

 

[Darren]

Motherboard likely fine if you're POSTing. Try a different SATA port?

Also what's your boot mode in? XP era stuff is old enough it sore of predates my experience, but might try toggling between IDE vs SATA mode to see if it boots with one or the other. Has to match what it was before when the OS was installed on the drive.

 

[Milla Maxwell]

The boot sequence is 1st optical drive and 2nd Sata HDD. That is the only way the BIOS would let me do it. It will not let me place HDD as #1.

I should say that I bought this motherboard as a spare just in case the original motherboard should fail in the future. Both motherboards are exactly the same. And, the computer was working just fine before I installed this (spare) motherboard for testing.

After POST I can hear it start to access the HDD. I wish it would at least give me a clue. I hate to return this motherboard if it is not bad.

 

[johnb35]

Access the bios and make sure the sata ports are enabled. Dell had the option to disable individual sata ports back then.

 

[Milla Maxwell]

I did that before I came here to post this thread. I only wish it was that simple. thanks though.
I was even wondering if the HDD is bound to the original MB by the MB Serial #, as this MB might have a different Serial # that the HDD does not verify. But I have done this on another P4 Win XP Sata computer with no problems. But that was a Asus MB, not a Dell.

 

[johnb35]

The hard drive doesn't matter. Did you also check to make sure the either IDE or AHCI was selected for sata controller? If the drive is detected in a different system then its most likely bad motherboard.

I'm just curious why you want to spend money on such an old system anyway? I wouldn't think many websites are gonna continue to work on XP for much longer.

 

[Milla Maxwell]

IDE or AHCI ? Is that in the BIOS setup? It's not in mine. The BIOS setup sees the HDD and shows the correct specs, and it says "HDD will be controlled by the BIOS". When I start it the screen shows the Dell logo with a progress bar below it. After a few seconds the logo disappears and it stops doing anything and the screen is very dark gray. Who knows what the problem is. probably simple but the seller is not replying to my messages. I opened a return.

About your curious question. Are you referring to the internet? LOL No way man. I got a windows 10 desktop for use on the internet. I am using this XP computer as an Mp3 player, photo viewer, and database out in my garage. I have it hooked up to my 100 watts per channel stereo receiver.
I tried blue tooth with my phone but the songs lose power, volume, clarity, and resolution by radio waves, makes it sound like a radio station. And also my phone can only store a 1000 or so songs (flac & mp3). But the XP can store 10's of 1000's of songs.

 

[beers]

I tried blue tooth with my phone but the songs lose power, volume, clarity, and resolution by radio waves, makes it sound like a radio station. And also my phone can only store a 1000 or so songs (flac & mp3). But the XP can store 10's of 1000's of songs.

You could probably see which codec is being passed, if you pair it as a handsfree or headset device it generally uses a narrower band than a speaker, which is more a property of the encoding in the transmission layer than an actual source waveform or radio property item. Since Bluetooth is digital you'd either get work/notwork behavior over the air, but if you're compressing that prior to broadcasting then that's the data you'll end up with from a quality perspective.

Also since you see a device string for the drive the SATA port 'probably works', was this the same behavior as on your last board? You could probably use a Linux LiveCD in order to do some more digging and isolate hardware variables.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/bluetooth-headset-will-only-show-as-hands-free/e7c5ce82-39cf-4568-b009-d96cfd808658

 

[Darren]

Why did you replace the motherboard in the first place? Just as a test to know if you have two good ones?

You've very just likely got a setting mismatch somewhere that's preventing it from booting. I'd still try and find IDE vs AHCI or SATA. I forget where exactly is it in those BIOS but it could be in a weird spot. Look for SATA mode, boot mode, or something similar. Try with each one, usually it's AHCI mode on those SATA drives. I don't think secure boot existed on those platforms but if it's in there, try toggling that too.

If old board still works, throw it back in and match settings.

 

[Milla Maxwell]

There is no IDE vs AHCI or SATA, there's just Sata 0 Sata 2 or Pata 1, Pata 2. BIOS sees the HDD as Sata 0, so that tells me the Sata port is working.

Anyway, I found the problem. it works now. thanks for all the help.

 

[johnb35]

What was the issue?