Solved INTEL to AMD Windows Boot Fail

[Metalmonkey47]

Alright guys, this is gonna be a fun one.

I bought a new AMD AM3+ 8 core processor and Asrock mobo from Microcenter tonight, got home and stripped the old outdated Intel gear, for the AMD.

I've got all of my AMD setup wires tucked neatly, get it to it's bay, turn it on and fail..


It boots past the BIOS okay, and starts Windows loading screen, but about 20 seconds in screen goes black, and it starts the whole process over again. Same deal with trying to boot in safe mode.

I feel like I'm in deep now and didn't research enough before trying to make a big change. Probably a driver issue that i'm experiencing.

Any suggestions? I would really hate to put my old mobo back in, just so I can go and uninstall mobo drivers.

Please ignore pre-existing system information at the bottom, this is the updated relevant specs.


OLD Intel system:
Mobo - XFX 750I Extreme
Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo
Video - Zotac 9800GSO
Ram - Crucial 6gb DDR2

NEW AMD system:
Mobo - Asrock 970DE3/U3S3
Processor - AMD FX 8120
Video - Pre-existing Zotac
RAM - Crucial 8gb DDR3

 

[Night Hawk]

You forgot one thing! Once you make a major hardware change a clean install of Windows is just about always a mandate to see the best results! You can however try the Repair Install method to see if you could save the existing copy of Windows but may likely run into any number of possible problems between lingering device drivers for hardwares and chipset no longer seen as well as other things!

The best practical advice anyone can give you for this however is still to see a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

 

[Metalmonkey47]

Crap, yeah I was afraid you were gonna say that

Sad fact is, I've lost my Windows 7 Install DVD somewhere in my mess of computer parts so i'm either gonna have to dig or go chuck some more money at this thing and make it work.


I have a 1TB drive in right now, with a TON of data... if i run a fresh install over the top of the existing OS, am I going to loose any user data or important files?

I have 32bit now, but the AMD is a 64bit. I suppose now would be the time to make the change?

 

[Night Hawk]

AMD64 is what you would expect to see after 2003 and on. That has nothing to do with the OS itself but supports the 64bit OSs. The Repair Install option would upgrade over the existing installation to refresh all system files while keeping programs, files, folders, and unfortunately the now no longer wanted existing drivers inplace!

The first thing you can do if the Startup repair isn't able to get you upto the desktop where the "This may be a counterfeit copy of Windows" will likely now being found in the lower right hand corner of the screen since the hardware profile has been changed would be uninstalling what you can as far as the old board drivers in particular before trying install anything new.

When upgrading a case to that extent it is just as if you built an entirely new one! Likewise over the summer months I finally got around to swapping out the main board, cpu, memory, keeping the old video and sound cards, and added in a brand new supply which then required a full clean install of Vista for that.

The first thing you can do in the meantime if you go with the upgrade to repair method would be making sure you back everything up you can to another drive in anticipatation that a clean install may be forced on you if the upgrade over plus new hardwares end up seeing too many errors. That's the drawback of making a large change like this without planning ahead where the best possible formula is total wipe, start over fresh!

Now for simply performing a clean install without a reformat the Windows.old folder will pack away most of your user files and other things there. You can make a backup using the Windows Easy Transfer tool prior to any clean install and see that restore user files as well as program settings once Windows and all programs are back on fresh.

Method One in one of the guides here at SF explain how to use the Sysprep tool for moving the hard drive with 7 already installed into a new system. In an actual sense you have already done the move as far as the hardware changes but would have been better off using the Sysprep tool before the swap was made as you can see in the first part of the guide seen at http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html

The WET however can still be used for the user files and setting to preserve those elements while a manual backup of other things not found under the "C:\users\" directory will be needed if the repair should falter on you. If you are put in the spot of performing a clean install from scratch once everything is back up and running again that would be the time for one other backup option to consider. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

 

[Metalmonkey47]

Thanks NightHawk! You've been a lot of help.


I found my original 7 install disk in a pile of junk that i'm now organizing!


Currently waiting for Windows 7 to finish installing. What i ended up doing was a custom installation on the original hard disk, and letting it move all of my current info to Windows.old folder and I'll recover settings later.


EDIT: During the install process, after reaching the 'Expanding Installation Files' section, I reached an error stating that:

"Windows cannot install required files. Make sure all files required for installation are availible, and restart the application."

What? I've successfully used this disk before. Why am i having issues with this install?

 

[Metalmonkey47]

EDIT: Hold tight, I think I've got it working. i'll update again shortly.

 

[Metalmonkey47]

Nailed it! Thanks for the help.


After running my experience rating and printing, I hit a BSOD. Gotta run updates and look for issues.

 

[Night Hawk]

You have to run the upgrade advisor to find out where the hang up is being seen if you are still running into any problems. Download Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from Official Microsoft Download Center

It certainly won't be anything hardware related if no faults are present since I dropped a fest temp install of 7 on an old boat anchor and the 32bit flavor ran first on 512mb until the pair of dimms saw the contacts cleaned and were reseated to get the 1gb total. A look at the memory dump for the blues you had could also be a help.