What a fun time I've had!
Two weeks ago my motherboard finally died. The input power jack had a slight short in it, and it finally melted into a dead short. This fried several reisitors and other ICs that couldn't be repaired.
So I got a brand new motherboard and installed it. When I tried to boot it up, it kept crashing. I couldn't figure it out, so I decided to reinstall windows. It would install and then freeze up at random points during the process. I decided to see if one of my simms was shot, so I took one out and tried. It looked like one was better than the other, but I was still getting bootup freeze. So I took it to a shop and had them tested. Guess what? Both were shot!
I talked to a technician and he said they get quite a few M51 7700s in because they don't vent heat very well. The memory they use can't handle it, and they start to fail after a few months. If you computer is locking up during boot, have your memory checked- that's probably the problem. I replaced it with a single 1 gig simm that has a life time warrenty.
So I fired it up and it booted off the hard drive! Woo hoo! Now comes the problem.
Since I started to install windows earlier, apparently the install routine deleted my old config files. It asked me to get a confirmation code from microsoft. The network adapter wasn't working, so it gave a phone number to call. I called and a recording asked me for the long number Windows generated. I did, and the recording told me that the number was invalid!! The windows code is generated from my product registration code (on the sticker on the back of the computer), but since I only got half of an windows installation done, it didn't have the code!
So no problem, I'll just instal windows. I tried, but it can't see my hard drive! I contacted the motherboard supplier (Alienware won't talk to me because my warrenty is up), and he said I needed to install the ATA driver. To do that, you need to put it on the floppy drive, and when the windows setup runs, it asks for you to hit f6 to install 3rd party drivers. That's all well and good, but my comptuer does not have a floppy drive!
So I'm stuck. I need to figure a way to let windows install see my ATA drivers. It can't see the hard drive without them. Does anyone have any ideas? I tried a memory stick, but it didn't work (all though it did ask to install windows on the memroy stick...). I'm at a loss here, and it's driving me crazy. Thanks!
Two weeks ago my motherboard finally died. The input power jack had a slight short in it, and it finally melted into a dead short. This fried several reisitors and other ICs that couldn't be repaired.
So I got a brand new motherboard and installed it. When I tried to boot it up, it kept crashing. I couldn't figure it out, so I decided to reinstall windows. It would install and then freeze up at random points during the process. I decided to see if one of my simms was shot, so I took one out and tried. It looked like one was better than the other, but I was still getting bootup freeze. So I took it to a shop and had them tested. Guess what? Both were shot!
I talked to a technician and he said they get quite a few M51 7700s in because they don't vent heat very well. The memory they use can't handle it, and they start to fail after a few months. If you computer is locking up during boot, have your memory checked- that's probably the problem. I replaced it with a single 1 gig simm that has a life time warrenty.
So I fired it up and it booted off the hard drive! Woo hoo! Now comes the problem.
Since I started to install windows earlier, apparently the install routine deleted my old config files. It asked me to get a confirmation code from microsoft. The network adapter wasn't working, so it gave a phone number to call. I called and a recording asked me for the long number Windows generated. I did, and the recording told me that the number was invalid!! The windows code is generated from my product registration code (on the sticker on the back of the computer), but since I only got half of an windows installation done, it didn't have the code!
So no problem, I'll just instal windows. I tried, but it can't see my hard drive! I contacted the motherboard supplier (Alienware won't talk to me because my warrenty is up), and he said I needed to install the ATA driver. To do that, you need to put it on the floppy drive, and when the windows setup runs, it asks for you to hit f6 to install 3rd party drivers. That's all well and good, but my comptuer does not have a floppy drive!
So I'm stuck. I need to figure a way to let windows install see my ATA drivers. It can't see the hard drive without them. Does anyone have any ideas? I tried a memory stick, but it didn't work (all though it did ask to install windows on the memroy stick...). I'm at a loss here, and it's driving me crazy. Thanks!
