upgrading HDD / installing XP fails... Why? (Asus S5n)

tried partitioning the new drive into 120/40 and see

cheers ...

Hi jeryjery!

I am sorry to hear about your problems, but actually happy in a way because I had the SAME PROBLEM and I was getting very frustrated not finding any solutions on the Web.

I also had a S5N, and I LOVED it, even though it is 4+ years old, it really was still perfect, as light as the latest Netbooks, but bigger screen and better CPU (only problem is battery life, but whatever)...it really was a feat of construction!

Anyway, back to your question. I did the same thing as you, tried to restore back to the factory install of Windows XP. I didn't use a new hard drive, but still had the same problem. Windows installation would crash in the middle, I managed to slowly repeat the installation enough times and get it further and further each time until it eventually completed, but then I would get the same Blue Screen when Windows would try to start up for the first time. It was not always at the same time, but very soon after boot up.

Based on Google searching of the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL blue screen, and based on my hours and days of fighting this install, my conclusion/guess is this:

When Asus came out with this laptop, the hardware was somewhat new and not 100% supported by Windows XP. That is why if you look at the driver downloads for the S5N, there is a large "CPU Hotfix" package that you are supposed to install (I can't even download the whole thing, their server is so slow and then just drops my connection halfway. But that's another story). So I think that the version of Windows XP on the recovery disc or on the Hard Drive restore partition is slightly older than the actual install that came running on the laptop. They probably installed all the patches and whatever to make it run, but did not include it on the recovery image.

I tried restoring a couple of years ago, and ran into this blue screen problem and could not solve it, so I just installed a maybe-not-so-legal copy of Windows XP, which worked fine for years, but I kept getting the Windows Genuine Advantage warning, which was annoying. I just recently tried to do this again, and ended up killing my whole laptop by a bad BIOS flash (Note: DO NOT try to update the BIOS to v213 on their website! Stick with what you have. It's not worth killing your computer!)

What I suggest is that you take the time to figure out the slipstreaming process, and get a more recent Service Pack of XP slipstreamed onto your restore CD. I would imagine the CPU hotfixes or whatever should have made it into the Service Packs by now. I don't actually know how to do this, but I think it will be worth your time to learn. I really think the problem is that the Windows image they give you doesn't have those CPU hotfix patches (or whatever hardware patches) that the S5N hardware needs, which is causing the blue screens.

Feel free to write back or PM, I'd love to work with you on getting your S5N back up and running!

there's a good slipstreaming program called nlite that you can use to customize XP installations.

Hi Jeryjery,

GREAT to hear that you got your machine back up and running! Man, what a great machine! I can't wait to hear what you did!

However, I think it is too late for my guy. As I was desperately experimenting with everything I could think of, I flashed the BIOS to the latest version on the Asus website (v213). The flash went OK (supposedly), but when I rebooted, the machine was just dead. It turns on, and the fan comes on full blast, but there's not a single thing on the screen. I've tried all the F9 F2 Insert Ctrl tricks, nothing. I thought maybe I had to clear the CMOS, so I actually opened the whole thing up (I'm an expert now, if anyone needs help! ) and disconnected the CMOS battery and then tried again. No good. I'm pretty much resigned to it being completely dead now. I read on one website that if your BIOS chip is soldered onto the motherboard (which it is on the S5N), there is no way to reflash it to a good working version if the computer is dead.

estore.asus.com does sell a replacement motherboard for the S5N, but it is $309, plus who knows how much shipping. For that price, I just bought a new netbook.

But still, I'm dying to hear how you brought yours back to life. Maybe just maybe there is a solution for me out there too.

Thanks!

Can't wait

cheers ...

It may be too late to help you guys out but:

Here are my suggestions:

Get a Not-so-Legal-Windows SP3 ultimate edition. I cannot give you a link, since this is not legal but in E-mail maybe, or use your best friend: Google and Torrent sites.
Burn it
Install from that. It contains all the patches so far released to Windows XP.

If you are paranoic about an Illegal system sitting on your notebook and you bought the notebook with Windows XP you can easily legalize it.

A: Install the Pirated Edition
B: Download Microsoft's Product key Changer
C: Type in your genuine key, found at the bottom of your notebook
D: You are done.

Other Ideas:

I had a very similar case when I updated my Bios on my Acer. Win XP just loaded and crashed with BsoD. (Blue Screen of Death) After hours of thinking, I found out that the SATA parameter has been set from IDE to AHCI when updating Bios. Changing it back to IDE worked like a charm.

Don't try to use your factory disk! IT WON'T WORK! Complete notebook recovery disks are hardware dependent, which means that an Image was created of a SPECIFIC hard drive, with a number of sectors and very specific size. I ran into this problem as well. After Extension or change of hardware or even partition size, your recovery disk is useless, because of the different hard drive size, number of sectors and cylinders.

If you are a DIY guy and wanna do it, Get the pirate copy and download drivers from site, and you'll have a bloatware free system which I prefer.

If you are the lazy type just send it back and I'll guess support will figure it out.

Alternative Solutions for the time being:

Try Installing a Linux Distro, for starters I prefer Ubuntu 9.04. If you already formatted your hard drive, it does worth a try since you have nothing to lose.
If it works, Then your recovery disk is screwy or your windows install is outdated or smthng. If you get a kernel panic, BsoD equivalent only on linux, you are likely having hardware problems.

People say Linux sucks, I say Windows Sucks ... Big Time.

So just to summarize: Start from scratch! Try Windows SP3, Ultimate, if that fails, use a Linux Distro, If that fails, I guess you are outa luck! Try Booting from a live disk then

Never too late for anything. Thanks for chipping in.

cheers ...