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My mother's PC stopped working the other day, I managed to figure out it was the motherboard, so I got her a new one (K7 M848A from PCChips) and a new processor (Sempron 2500) both of which aren't the greatest, but work and are considerably better than what she had. Also, I upgraded her from a 250W PSU to a 350W PSU to be safe. When installing the new mobo I had to add an external video card, I had an old nvidia lying around, so I used that.

Now when I boot everything checks out fine, until windows goes to start, it boots to the safe mode option (where you pick safe mode or normal mode) and no matter which of the 5 options available I choose, the damn thing reboots every time. Her hard drive works fine if I install it in my pc, so its not that, anyone have any ideas?? I've tried many things and none have worked thus far.

oh and by external video card I meant it doesn't have an integrated one, so I had to insert one via AGP slot... sry for the retardation ^_^

Welcome to PCHF , Pbrundog.

Did you reinstall windows after upgrading or are you using the old install from the old configuration?

:-) Hey pbrundog,

Welcome to PCHF. We have an awsome team of experts here who will be able to get you up an running in no time.

First, you are a total doll for helping your mother. ?

Now, hardware is not my area of expertise, and I would assume from your post that this is related to some type of hardware issue. One of our hardware gurus will be logging on soon, so just hang in there.

TTFN

T

I have not reinstalled due to the simple fact that it is my mother's PC and she doesn't have anything backed up, and it all needs to be saved... I was going to back it up with my computer but when windows comes up it asks you to activate it (which it never did before) and I can't activate it because it needs the drivers for my computer's Ethernet card before it can use it to connect to the internet ?:-( ?

so I can't just reformat windows... if need be I can buy another hard drive, format that one and use it as the main drive long enough to grab her files from the secondary one... but I'd prefer not to have to spend the money if at all possible (especially since windows does work to some extent with my pc

other ideas?

sweet! ya its still not working but its good to know you guys are here and helping in an extremely timely manner (she wants to have it fixed tonight... but I doubt that's gonna happen)

one thing I am going to try is taking the hard drive from an old computer (back from the win98 days... its a 10 gig lol) and see if it will boot on the computer... its a long shot but at least it might bring about some useful information

:-D Hey Pbrundog,

Save your brainpower Dog. Try going to Xdrive, it's a free 30 day trial. Just make sure that you cancel it once you have her info copied back to her PC.

It is quick, it works really well, and they are trustworthy. I have used them myself for years.

Maybe you can have your mother up and running tonight afterall. Hero son's are held in high regard by Moms. :-D

TTFN

T