• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Help needed. Yes, I'm a retard...

W

Wet1

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 14, 2008
Messages
97
My old Sony PC with a P4 was getting pretty sluggish so I went on NewEgg and found what seemed to be a good deal on a MB/CPU combo and some new memory. I figured I'd just install this new combo in my old Sony PC and live happily ever after. Did I mention I'm a retard when it comes to computers???

The parts:
MB BIOSTAT|TA785GE 128M 785G/SB710
CPU AMD|PH II X2 550 AM3 3.1G RT
MEM 1Gx2|WINTEC 3AXT6400C5-2048K R

Plus my 500gb HDD, DVD-ROM, etc, with Vista OS.

So I get my new parts and proceed to hook everything up (I'm cool with that part). I then plug in my HDD and think Vista should recognize the new hardware and make the necessary changes and I should then be GTG... yeah right!

Windows will not load. Not in safe mode, not with my last settings, nothing. I put in the Vista recovery disk and it fails to repair the problem as well. At this point I'm thinking I have a bad MB. Well, it so happens I ordered two of these combos, one for a friend, so I try the other MB and processor. Same thing.

Okay, you're probably laughing right now, thinking, he is a real retard!!! Well, I'll be the first to admit it...

Sooooooo, what am I missing? What do I need to do to get my OS to recognize the new hardware? I know reformatting the HDD and reloading the OS would do the trick... but I don't want to do this unless I absolutely have to.

Thanks in advance for any help!
 
You absolutely have to reformat...

You went from a P4 to a completely different Chipset, CPU, HD, RAM etc....
 
I guess this means I'm going to have to convert everything back over so I can recover all my files and info from my HDD. Man, this bites...

Thanks for telling me what I pretty much knew, but didn't want to acknowledge. :)
 
If you have another PC? You can hook it up to it as a slave and copy all your documents, movies, music, and so forth without having to put the old PC back together.

Once that's done, then do a fresh install and move all your stuff back on the newly installed OS on a separate partition. That way if you ever need do a fresh install again all your documents are on another partition. ;)
 
Another thing you could try, if you have another pc, is slipstreaming in the latest updates into a vista ISO and performing an in place "upgrade" of the current vista installation (assuming your current vista installation is not completely up to date with win.updates). This should replace the necessary files to use the new hardware. However, if the original system was sluggish, I'd fully recommend reformatting/reinstalling -- also, switch to windows 7, as it feels much faster than Vista, IMO.
 
Wet1 said:
Urrrrrggggggggggg! :mad:

I was affraid of that. :(
Click to expand...

You'll thank yourself later. A fresh, clean installation is much better than using an "upgrade" option or whatnot. Besides, it sounds like you don't do it very often anyway.
 
To be fair though Jon55, most of the speed gains comes from not having anything extraneous running/installed/scheduled, etc. A "fresh, clean installation" isn't very meaningful if the first thing you're going to do is throw everything back on top of it.

You could take your new computer to Best Buy and have the Geek Squad install Windows 7 for $39, which includes the software and the installation. Pretty cheap for a nicer OS, no matter what you think of their business model.
 
Phyltre said:
You could take your new computer to Best Buy and have the Geek Squad install Windows 7 for $39, which includes the software and the installation. Pretty cheap for a nicer OS, no matter what you think of their business model.
Click to expand...

That's only if you qualify for the free Windows 7 upgrade:

* You purchased your PC between June 26, 2009 and January 30, 2010, and
* It's running Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, or Windows Vista Ultimate.

Otherwise they will have you buy a retail disk off the shelf, and install it for $29.99
 
Phyltre said:
You could take your new computer to Best Buy and have the Geek Squad install Windows 7 for $39, which includes the software and the installation. Pretty cheap for a nicer OS, no matter what you think of their business model.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's kinda nifty if you're grandma and have no idea what you're doing. Although as Monkey34 said, there's a big limit on that offer. Their business model is perfectly fine, and I never said it wasn't; I know a lot of people hate them but honestly no one is forcing you to shop there, nor is it the only option, so I don't see the problem.

To be fair though Jon55, most of the speed gains comes from not having anything extraneous running/installed/scheduled, etc. A "fresh, clean installation" isn't very meaningful if the first thing you're going to do is throw everything back on top of it.
Click to expand...

Not when the installation has been there for years and the user just keeps randomly installing/uninstalling random programs and drivers. But that's not the users fault, it's just what happens with any system that has been used for many, many years. I know there won't be huge performance gains or anything, but there would most likely be at least a little, and probably a decent amount of freed up space too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top