Tech Support Forum - View Single Post - [moved from h/d's]Downgrade from vista to xp, hangs on boot hard drive problem

**blah789** · 08-27-2008, 04:54 PM

Weird because I installed Vista Ultimate on an A7N8X-E Deluxe, which is an nForce2 board, and things went fine using Vista's bundled drivers. (I subsequently went back to XP/2000 though, because Vista's such a piece of crap - too slow even after many tweaks - worst 200 bucks I ever spent)

Did you install any new hardware before attempting all this? If so removing or unplugging that hardware might allow you to move forward in the POST screen. I'm asking because it's really weird that software changes (such as an OS) could cause the POST to lock up.

Beyond that, you could try unplugging all your disk drives (including CD/DVD) and try to boot up and see how far you can get (POST/BIOS-wise). If things go fine, you can try replugging your drives one at the time until you find out which one causes the lockup. Perhaps try plugging that one into another IDE channel or switching it to master/slave.

P.S: Do you get as far as the memory test at all? You said it stops after displaying motherboard + processor info. You could also try removing your memory modules/switching their slots (watch out for static!) and see if that's where the boot sequence is failing.

08-27-2008, 04:54 PM	#2 (permalink)
blah789 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 2,292 OS: Windows 2000 SP4 and Windows XP SP3	Re: Downgrade from vista to xp, hangs on boot hard drive problem Weird because I installed Vista Ultimate on an A7N8X-E Deluxe, which is an nForce2 board, and things went fine using Vista's bundled drivers. (I subsequently went back to XP/2000 though, because Vista's such a piece of crap - too slow even after many tweaks - worst 200 bucks I ever spent) Did you install any new hardware before attempting all this? If so removing or unplugging that hardware might allow you to move forward in the POST screen. I'm asking because it's really weird that software changes (such as an OS) could cause the POST to lock up. Beyond that, you could try unplugging all your disk drives (including CD/DVD) and try to boot up and see how far you can get (POST/BIOS-wise). If things go fine, you can try replugging your drives one at the time until you find out which one causes the lockup. Perhaps try plugging that one into another IDE channel or switching it to master/slave. P.S: Do you get as far as the memory test at all? You said it stops after displaying motherboard + processor info. You could also try removing your memory modules/switching their slots (watch out for static!) and see if that's where the boot sequence is failing.