AK73-1394(A?) won't boot after 2000->XP upgrade

Chris,

Thank you very much for your response!

 > Best to never upgrade operating systems. It is better to install to a
clean
 > hard drive if possible. I'm not saying this is causing your problem since
 > you had the problem before the upgrade, but it is a good rule of thumb.

Yeah, I know, but I thought there isn't much difference between 2000 and XP
and hoped for the best... Normally I wouldn't upgrade at all, but I needed
XP to do some XP specific driver development work...

 > Definitely update the BIOS. The latest version is 1.20 and here is the
page
 > with a link to it:
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://tinyurl.com/nued</font" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/nued</font</a>>

OK, I will do this.

 > I have found AOpen boards to be extremely stable, so they are mainly what
I
 > use for my customers.

Not in my experience, unfortunately... And when I was first configuring my
system I saw a lot of posts from dissapointed folks on the aopen news
server...

 > Most times if I having problems with a system freezing
 > up, I look to new drivers first, then check hardware. Did you update the
Via
 > motherboard drivers? You can get the latest version of them here:
 > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://tinyurl.com/ko8y" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/ko8y</a> . Install these first, then update your video and
 > sound drivers.

Well, in the past when I was trying hard to fix those freezes I tried
everything and I upgraded VIA drivers multiple times as well as all other
drivers. I got system to a relatively usable state (originally audio was
causing all sorts of problem) and gave up, but recently I decided to give it
another try and changed my video card, but it again froze a couple of times
after that.

 > I just fixed a system today that was blue screening with XP and found out
 > that it was a faulty Ethernet card causing the problem. If you can post
your
 > system specs someone can point you to the latest drivers for your
hardware.

The system is very basic (off my head, don't have access to it at the
moment):
AK73-1394(perhaps A, don't remember now)
Duron 850
384MB PC133 SDRAM
Geforce MX440 64MB AGP video card (just recently installed)
Some basic ethernet card (came with cable Internet, so I don't remember
brand)
CD-ROM
CD-RW
30MB Maxtor HDD

 > Another common cause of freezups is faulty memory. If you're replacing
your
 > hard drive to eliminate the problem, I would try everything else first.

The reason I am now adding a hard drive is to do a fresh install. I don't
think memory is at fault because it never failed any tests, including all
kinds of burn-in tests I tried. Although, I am not 100% sure here. I
remember reading somewhere that this mobo was sensitive to number of memory
modules installed...

 >
 > One last thing to do is run Ad Aware. You can get this program for free at
 > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.download.com" target="_blank">www.download.com</a> . Spyware can cause so many problems with a PC because
 > there are applications running in the background that you don't know
about.
 > These programs can use huge amounts of system resources.

Since I had this issue from day one and I always had a firewall I don't
think it is spy ware, but I will look into it when I have it running...

Thanks,
/Mikhail<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: AK73-1394(A?) won't boot after 2000-&gt;XP upgrade 

<large snip>

Mikhail,

It shounds like you have done most of the right things to try to combat the
problem. Do the BIOS flash before you do your next install. Make sure things
like memory and CPU timing are not overclocked at all. As soon as you
install XP or 2000 again, do the VIA driver update first thing. Then do the
video drivers. Make sure you get your video drivers from nVidia, not from
anywhere else. You may want to try a different video card in case there is a
problem with yours. One other thing you can do is try another power supply.
This is something else that can cause problems if things aren't right. Also,
AOpen has a 3 year warranty on their motherboards, so if it's still in
warranty, you can get a replacement if you find the board is faulty. Oh, and
one other thing I just thought about. Check the capacitors on the
motherboard. They are the round cylindrical things that sort of surround the
CPU socket. there was a streak of bad capacitors that made their way onto
many brands of motherboards. The problem with most of them is that they leak
fluid. What it will look like is yellowish or brownish corrosion on the top
of the capacitor. This will cause the problem you describe as well. In fact,
if it is bad enough, you won't get through an operating install without it
locking up. If you want a picture of what they look like, let me know and I
can email you one or post it somewhere.

Chris
 >> Stay informed about: AK73-1394(A?) won't boot after 2000-&gt;XP upgrade 

Thanks for sharing your ideas, Chris! As to how the capacitors look, I
happen to be a hardware design engineer, so pictures are not required )

Thanks again. I will see what I can do... I posted approximately the same
question on microsoft.public.windows.setup_deployment and here is what
someone posted in response (my question is below):

From: "cww" <docvamp RemoveThis @yahoo.com>
Subject: BSOD after upgrading from 2000 to XP
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 12:55:26 -0700

I haven't been able to find anyone that has gotten past
this error. But one thing I think should be tried first
is a Repair. The way you do this is boot off of the CD
and select the Install option. Yes I know its a messed up
way to repair. But once you get past that point you have
another Install option PLUS a repair. Try that repair and
see if it will fix it. Other than that you should be able
to install on the same HDD using a different dir/folder to
house XP (parallel install). Just remember which one you
installed to and when it comes up in Windows you can
remove the old XP dir/folder. This is a good option for
those that don't want to lose the info on their HDD
without having to use another HDD for an install.


 >-----Original Message-----
 >Hi all,
 >
 >I tried upgrading from 2000 to XP using full retail version and now I can't
 >even boot in safe mode. It crashes wih the stop code 0x7E and exception
code
 >0xC00000005 (STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION). The last thing I see before blue
 >screen is that it was loading the mup.sys and then it crashes. I see
several
 >options where to go from here, but would appreciate an advice. The options
I
 >see are as follows:
 >
 >1. Get another hard drive and install XP on it from scratch. Cons - $$$,
 >personal settings and installed software will be lost.
 >
 >2. Take out my existing drive, install it into another system and copy most
 >valuable files from the boot partition to another partition (I have 2
 >partitions there) and then do clean install on C:. Cons - same as above
 >except for $$$, but a lot of hassle in addition.
 >
 >3. I suspect my motherboard is at fault. Perhaps I should change it, but
 >this probably has to go together with 1) or 2)...
 >
 >Does anyone know a better way? Any other advice? Please help!
 >
 >The mobo I am using is Aopen AK73-1394 with Duron850
 >
 >Thanks,
 >/Mikhail
 >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: AK73-1394(A?) won't boot after 2000-&gt;XP upgrade 

The repair might fix it, but it's not a sure thing. I have had some success
with the XP repair, but not always. It's worth a try. Also, and I'm sure
you've done this, but make sure all of the patches and updates are installed
for the operating system as well. there are about 50-60 updates for XP right
now. I hope they hurry up with service pack 2 so it can be slipstreamed into
the install. It takes almost as much time to install the updates as it does
the operating system right now. Anyway, post back here when you try this
thing again, I'm curious to see how you turn out.

Chris


"MM" <mbmsv.DeleteThis@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:bkd5de$ehe5$1@ID-204311.news.uni-berlin.de...
 > Thanks for sharing your ideas, Chris! As to how the capacitors look, I
 > happen to be a hardware design engineer, so pictures are not required )
 >
 > Thanks again. I will see what I can do... I posted approximately the same
 > question on microsoft.public.windows.setup_deployment and here is what
 > someone posted in response (my question is below):
 >
 > From: "cww" <docvamp.DeleteThis@yahoo.com>
 > Subject: BSOD after upgrading from 2000 to XP
 > Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 12:55:26 -0700
 >
 > I haven't been able to find anyone that has gotten past
 > this error. But one thing I think should be tried first
 > is a Repair. The way you do this is boot off of the CD
 > and select the Install option. Yes I know its a messed up
 > way to repair. But once you get past that point you have
 > another Install option PLUS a repair. Try that repair and
 > see if it will fix it. Other than that you should be able
 > to install on the same HDD using a different dir/folder to
 > house XP (parallel install). Just remember which one you
 > installed to and when it comes up in Windows you can
 > remove the old XP dir/folder. This is a good option for
 > those that don't want to lose the info on their HDD
 > without having to use another HDD for an install.
 >
 >
  > >-----Original Message-----
  > >Hi all,
  > >
  > >I tried upgrading from 2000 to XP using full retail version and now I
can't
  > >even boot in safe mode. It crashes wih the stop code 0x7E and exception
 > code
  > >0xC00000005 (STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION). The last thing I see before blue
  > >screen is that it was loading the mup.sys and then it crashes. I see
 > several
  > >options where to go from here, but would appreciate an advice. The
options
 > I
  > >see are as follows:
  > >
  > >1. Get another hard drive and install XP on it from scratch. Cons - $$$,
  > >personal settings and installed software will be lost.
  > >
  > >2. Take out my existing drive, install it into another system and copy
most
  > >valuable files from the boot partition to another partition (I have 2
  > >partitions there) and then do clean install on C:. Cons - same as above
  > >except for $$$, but a lot of hassle in addition.
  > >
  > >3. I suspect my motherboard is at fault. Perhaps I should change it, but
  > >this probably has to go together with 1) or 2)...
  > >
  > >Does anyone know a better way? Any other advice? Please help!
  > >
  > >The mobo I am using is Aopen AK73-1394 with Duron850
  > >
  > >Thanks,
  > >/Mikhail
  > >
  > >
 >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: AK73-1394(A?) won't boot after 2000-&gt;XP upgrade