KT3 Ultra2 bad or W2K problem? Help needed

[JIM9044]

This is my first computer build and it seemed to go okay. Got everything working yesterday with new MSI KT3 Ultra2, Athlon XP1800, ECS AG315P Graphics and WD Special Edition 80 GB drive. I installed all my favorite software on the new system and made it available to the net and my other computers and everything was running great.

But today the system will not boot W2K. It hangs in the W2K splash screen when the bar is around halfway through. I have tried removing all peripheral hardware (Ethernet NIC, USB2.0 bracket) as is generally recommended, but still get the same result. Safe mode hangs as well. I tried boot logging, removed the drive to another machine and checked for files created or modified today. The drive is perfectly accessible but nothing was created or modified today.

Also I tried to boot from the floppy drive but it hangs with "Searcihing for boot record from floppy" when I use either a Win 98 or W2K startup floppy.

One other thing I changed first thing today was that I noticed the hard drive was on the Secondary IDE and so I moved it to the Primary IDE. Also I forgot how it was set but I moved the jumper on the drive to indicate it was the only drive on that IDE channel. You can tell I have some "newbie" in me.

Anyway, is there a good way to determine if the KT3 Ultra2 is the problem. Or is there a W2K problem or is there some other software issue. What should my next step be in diagnosing the problem?

Thanks in advance.

 

[JIM9044]

Figured out some more about this problem.

Safe mode stop while loading AGP440.sys driver. What does this suggest to anyone?

Thanks.

 

[AppleTalking]

AGP440.sys?? That's the AGP driver for an Intel 440 chipset motherboard, which you obviously do not have. There may be some problem with Win2K here. I would try a fresh install (possibly a reformat and reinstall if you can replace your data) and see what happens. It may have something to do with the switching of the IDE channels, I don't know.

 

[AndrewPaulNet]

Do you have an old PCI graphics card you can pop in just to check for reference?
Pop it into the first slot and see if you can make your board init PC before agp and clear NVRAM....

Then see if windows boots. If it still freezes then check the file that it freezes on.
If it's still on that AGP file, try moving it to another directory temporarily and then boot again....

If nothing here works then I'd say you have a real problem. Get XP

Kidding....if this doesn't work then, sorry - I personally can't reccommend anything different than a fresh install of 2k.
And when it works the first time - update it as quickly as you can.

L8r....I tried.

 

[BD231]

I'm thinking it's a VIA chipset problem, the EPox KT333 board has an AGP program hanging problem.

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: bdog231
I'm thinking it's a VIA chipset problem, the EPox KT333 board has an AGP program hanging problem.

It does? I wasn't aware of any such problem... Care to elaborate? Link?