Latest update on this long-running problem.
I've had some measure of success ! :-)
Having tried swapping every other piece of hardware in the system, I pulled
the precious XP2400 from the GA-7VRXP m/board and put in a Duron 650 - and
started again from scratch.
Windows 2000 installed normally and appears to be running fine - it has even
detected all the devices on the GA-7VRXP - so this appears to be an XP2400
problem ?
Where next ? I know of only two differences between the XP2400 and the
Duron 650:
1) The XP2400 is much faster - could this cause 'timing problems' ?
2) The XP2400 has SSE (streaming SIMD extensions) - could these cause
Windows 2000 to hang ?
Thanks to everyone for all the help so far, but I still have a problem to
solve - I need to have the XP2400 in this system.
Anyone got any ideas how to make it work with Windows 2000 - it works fine
with Windows Me and Linux ?
TIA (again)
Kevin.

Kevin Lawton wrote:
| Sorry to reply to my own post, but here's the latest update on the
| problem: I tried downloading Knoppix, which took all night and half
| the morning, but the CD didn't work - maybe I got a duff ISO image -
| so I FDISKed the HD and installed Red Hat 9 instead. Went in like a
| dream - 20 mins from FDISK to playing 'Tux Racer'. The hardware seems
| slick and flast and has been running now for about 6 hours with no
| problems.
| I guess this proves that the hardware is okay, but I'd still like to
| run some good diagnostic tests to prove that point. Anyone know of any
| diagnostics to run under Linux ?
| So, there is still a problem with installing or running Windows 2000,
| and I'm not too sure what to do next to solve it. I've now tried
| swapping everything in the system except for the CPU, but as Linux
| runs fine I'm guessing that it is okay.
| I will investigate the option of trying Win4Lin so my applications
| can be used, but there might be a problem. One of the most important
| applications is the Driver and Video software which comes with the
| Matrox G-series Rainbow Runner video capture card. I don't want to
| run programs under any sort of emulation which might comprimise
| performance, as the whole reason I built this machine was to have
| something fast enough for video editing. My Duron 1200 and Athlon 1.4
| are plenty fast enough for everything else I do. The original problem
| is still present - Windows hangs when the 'Starting Windows' progress
| bar completes, when Mup.sys has been loaded. Now that I think we've
| eliminated a hardware problem, I am beginning to wonder if there
| isn't a problem with Windows itself. Windows 2000 is over four years
| old, the hardware is relatively recent. Could it be that they are
| just not compatible ?
| TIA
| Kevin.
|
| Kevin Lawton wrote:
|| Okay, I installed a CD drive and tried installing from CD onto a new
|| HD - same result as before. Everything seems okay untill, just after
|| a reboot, it goes to 'run Windows for the first time' - and it just
|| hangs forever.
|| I've tried using several different HDs - 40, 60 & 80 Gb Seagate HDs.
|| Same result on all of them. All tried on another machine afterwards
|| with no problems.
|| Tried replacing the Matrox G400 AGP card with a Matrox Mystique PCI
|| card (and changed BIOS) but still no change - it boots as far as the
|| 'Starting Windows' bar completes and then hangs. In 'Safe Mode with
|| Command Prompt' I can see Mup.sys as the last file sucessfully
|| loaded. I think this is the famous 'muppet' problem !
|| Got myself a new PSU - a big beefy 550w job - and still no change.
|| So far, every piece of hardware except for the processor has been
|| swapped out.
|| Before buying another AMD XP2400 CPU I'd really like to make sure
|| something is wrong with the one I've got.
|| Does anyone know of any CPU testing/diagnostic software which I could
|| download and run from a floppy ?
|| TIA
|| Kevin.
||
|| JAD wrote:
||| I would clear the HD(format/remove partition) and then boot from the
||| 2000 disk. You have to set the boot sequence to CD-ROM first. This
||| would be the best way of beginning. I mentioned the sata stuff only
||| as
||| an example of certain extraneous drivers that need to be loaded
||| during the 2000 install. Most of the drivers will be loaded after
||| the first desktop appears.
|||
|||
||| "Kevin Lawton" wrote in message
||| ...
|||| Thanks, JAD.
|||| I don't have SATA. Not on the board and can't afford the expensive
|||| drives anyway.
|||| Expected that loading the m/board drivers would be the next step
|||| once the system had booted Windows 2000 properly, but it didn't get
|||| that far. Would have expected that Windows default 'vanilla'
|||| drivers would get the system booting - but with just basic
|||| graphics and slow IDE. Any need for drivers should have shown once
|||| Windows 2000 was running for the first time, shouldn't it ? If
|||| that isn't the case
|||| then how can I get round the problem ?
|||| The system has so far been 'minimal build' - just mobo, proc,
|||| memory, graphics, floppy and hard drive - to keep it simple. Once
|||| that was working then I'd add other bits (CDRW, DVD, sound, SCSI)
|||| one at a
|||| time. Still lost and confused by this problem as the system works
|||| fine in DOS, booted from either floppy or HD.
|||| Kevin.
||||
|||| JAD wrote:
||||| first moving a drive from one machine to another is never a good
||||| idea, because of the differences in drivers for the mainboards
||||| chipset, this rarely turns into a good build. You should be
||||| booting from the 2000 disk then as the install continues you will
||||| be
||||| prompted to install the sata drivers. I do not believe this is a
||||| hardware incompatibility problem. Just a software install problem.
||||| After the OS is done you have to load the chipset drivers which
||||| may have been installed with generic drivers from 2000(in your
||||| case probably not, as your board is pretty new and 2000 most
||||| likely
||||| doesn't have native drivers.
|||||
||||| "Kevin Lawton" wrote in message
||||| ...
|||||| Please can somebody help me - this is driving me nuts !
|||||| Put a new system together: XP2400 on a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP with 512
|||||| Mb DDR2700, 60 Gb Seagate HD and Matrox G400 graphics.
|||||| Booted-up a DOS floppy fine and used FDISK to prep the drive.
|||||| Tried installing Windows 2000: All went easily until it came to
|||||| the part where it re-boots and is 'running Windows for the first
|||||| time' - it just hangs indefinitely ! :-) Tried several
|||||| times -
|||||| same result. Did a fresh build of Win 2K with the drive installed
|||||| on a Duron 1200, and then moved the drive over to the XP2400. No
|||||| complaints, no errors, it just hangs when the 'Starting Windows'
|||||| progress stripe has completed. Tried swapping memory and also
|||||| tried swapping the motherboard for another - GA-7VRXP Rev 1.1 -
|||||| even
|||||| tried using a different hard drive and still the same hanging
|||||| problem. So, where do I go now ?
|||||| Does Windows 2000 have problems running on the XP series of
|||||| Athlons ? Does Windows 2000 have problems running on a Gigabyte
|||||| GA-7VRXP motherboard ? I've had Windows 2000 installed on many
|||||| other systems - Pentium MMX 200, P-II 333, P-III 733, Athlon 1.0
|||||| & Athlon 1.4 - all fine. Whatever is going wrong on the XP2400
|||||| really has me stumped !
|||||| I'd be very grateful of any help offered.
|||||| TIA,
|||||| Kevin.