New system... reinstall OS?

[e_dawg]

I just put together a new system with the following components:

Athlon XP 1800+
Tt Volcano 7+ HSF
A7N266-VM nForce 220D, integrated IGP-64 GF2MX, Dolby 5.1 audio, LAN
2x 256 MB Crucial PC2100 DDR
60 GB Seagate Cuda IV HD
Lite-On 40x burner
Enermax FS-710B case (Antec SX-1030B under a different name)
300 W Enermax P/S
2x Vantec 80 mm Stealth case fans
Startech SV-211 2-port KVM

I also migrated the following storage system components over from my old system:

9.1 GB Atlas 10k U160 HD
HP 8x SCSI burner
Plextor 40x SCSI reader
Adaptec 2930U2 U2W SCSI controller
30 GB Quaxtor FB+AS HD

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My question is do you think I need to re-install my OS and apps? I booted up W2k for the first time, on my way to doing a cleaning everything out and doing a clean reinstall when the Windows New Hardware wizard detected everything. Since I already had the ASUS driver CD in my CD-ROM, I thought it doesn't hurt to let it install everything. A dozen clicks and 2 reboots later, my system appears to be working absolutely fine... except faster and more graceful under load!

Well, there are two things that bother me: 1. my keyboard volume control no longer works (it may be due to the KVM, come to think of it); and 2. the integrated GF2MX does not offer my preferred screen resolution of 1152x864 @ 85 HZ. I am using the weird 1280x1024 resolution instead, where everything looks flattened out like in a funhouse mirror.

Otherwise, everything appears to work great. This isn't supposed to be like this, is it? Too easy... Would anyone strongly recommend that I wipe the drive and reinstall everything just in case? Are there reasons why most people do this, or is it because they couldn't get everything working right without reinstalling Windows?

 

[SteveC]

If everything is working fine, there's no need to do a clean install. Windows is much better as detecting completely new hardware than in the past. I've switched motherboards on systems before, and most of the time Windows detects everything once supplied with the correct drivers. As for the video, does it offer 1280x960? That's the resolution I use, and it's the standard 4:3 instead of the 5:4 of 1280x1024.

Steve

 

[e_dawg]

Steve, the GF2MX does not offer 1280x960 either. I was looking through all the possible modes in the Adapter control panel tab, but it doesn't offer anything in the 4:3 format around that resolution.

Anybody with KVM's notice their keyboard hotkey multimedia buttons don't work? Do you think it would be too much to ask that cordless mice would work well with the KVM? I don't like the cord on my corded and balled mouse, but every cordless/optical mouse I've tried seems to lack precision with fine pixel by pixel movements in Photoshop. Anybody with positive experiences with cordless optical mice?

 

[Tannin]

The rule of thumb is: if you are changing chipset brands, reinstall; if you are staying with the same brand of chipset but a later model, you can probably not bother. For example, if you are coming from an MVP3 to a KT133A, keep your OS, if you are changing from a KT133 to a KT-333, keep it; but if you are changing from an Intel BX to a KT-266A, reinstall.

This applies particularly to switching between Intel, SiS and VIA chipsets, and it's reasonable to regard an AMD chipset as a VIA (they seem to have a lot of similarities, perhaps because a lot of 750s used the VIA southbridge and all 760s do). Not sure where nVidia fits into that.

It also applies mainly to the Win9X family. With NT I'd probably reinstall no matter what, and with 2000 I'd try my luck - 2000's plug and play really does work most of the time. With XP Home or Win ME I'd say a reinstall would be nicer no matter what you are changing from or two, just so long as you are installing something nicer - which is easy, as there isn't anything that isn't nicer than XP Home or Win ME.

Of course, with a properly hardware-independant OS, so long as you retain the same video, sound and network cards, you just plug in that new hardware and go right on computing without the slightest fuss or bother. Changing motherboards with OS/2 or ECS is a joy: plug in, work. (DOS used to be the same, but you'd have to ask your father about DOS, E_dawg, or possibly your grandfather. It was a smidge before your time.)

(Err, Tannin, are you going to get back on topic now?)

(Nope.)

(Well you better just shut up then.)

(OK.)

 

[The JoJo]

I've done similar operations many times e_dawg, and with 2k I've never reinstalled because I have changed a component or the whole computer. Haven't needed to. As Tannin said, that PNP seems to work with 2K.

Of course, If you really want a lean and mean system with no extra baggage (old programs, huge register etc...), re-install. That'll get you some extra "snap". I wouldn't bother, but it's your call.

 

[e_dawg]

Heh, DOS. My introduction to the PC world (i.e., not Apples) was with an IBM PS/2 55sx -- a 386sx-16 with 4 MB or RAM and a 40 MB HD. You would be happy to know that it came with OS/2 (don't ask me which version... maybe 1.1? around 1989). You would be aghast, however, to hear that I removed it the second I could get my hands on a copy of MS-DOS 4.11. OS/2 was never used on that machine again.

I must say that I hated OS/2, too. Why? Well, I didn't have any software at the time. Not only was there a lack of OS/2 titles available at most stores, but just starting high school at the time, I didn't have any money either. My parents certainly wouldn't entertain the idea of buying hundreds of dollars worth of software and games over the next few years. So I did what any rational teenager would do -- install the most popular OS and swap software with all of my friends. Soon I had SimCity, Prince of Persia, Civilization, WP 5.0, Quattro Pro, Windows 3.0, MS Word for Windows, etc.

So yes, I remember DOS. Mind you, I didn't know a thing about DOS shell programming, DR-DOS, networking, or anything advanced at the time... about the most I could do was tweak the autotexec and config files and write batch files using edlin.

However, I quickly tired of this PC experiment, as I was unable to do half of the stuff I could do so easily with my Apple IIgs -- WYSIWIG word processing, desktop publishing, colour graphics, good looking fonts, etc. So, I switched back to Apple and got a Mac IIsi. I was cranking out school projects that blew everyone away with the impressive formatting and output (you have to remember that it was hard for most people to create anything but the standard 10 point courier font from WP 5.1, and stuff like text wrapping around integrated graphics and tables was puzzling at best for most of my friends).

I avoided PC's until 1997, shortly after Windows 95 brought computing to the masses and started the whole internet boom. And the rest, as they say, is history.

-----------

Now, despite the keyboard/screen resolution problems (and a recent mouse problem where the scroll wheel stopped working... re-installing Logitech MouseWare did the trick), the nForce chipset is doing a great job. One thing that I am very happy about is that my audio stream isn't mangled to death when reading/writing a large file on one of my IDE drives. Finally rid of that stupid VIA southbridge. Believe it or not, one of the reasons I bought the nForce mobo was that I wanted to get away from the VIA and ATI school of buggy engineering. If I bought a KT333 mobo, I would have bought the Radeon 8500LE video card with it too. After thinking twice about it, I am glad I gave nVidia a shot. The nForce has proven to be remarkably uneventful -- a good thing.

You know, I just may re-install Win2k in the near future. Not that I need to, but there is always something lingering in the back of my mind... it bugs me that I am not working on a fresh, clean install. It may not work any better... but at least I'll feel better not having taken the easy way out.

 

[e_dawg]

Just wanted to say that this Thermaltake Volcano 7+ HSF is amazing. With a mainboard temp of 36C, the XP1800+ idles at 43C and is 48C after an hour of 100% utilization with United Devices running. This is with the fan set to the lowest setting and using the cheap generic white thermal grease. It is virtually silent as far as I can tell. I can increase the fan speed (where it becomes Delta-like noisy), but there is no need as I am not overclocking nor am I close to 60C, which is the temp I feel stability decreases at.

This PC is quieter than my old one even without any noise treatment material applied yet. Excellent! The big noisemaker in my system by far is the aging Atlas 10k SCSI drive. A low pitched idle whine resonates through the case with seeks that sound like a coffee grinder seek... this is one bad dog of a hard drive. No comments from ex-1st gen Cheetah owners, please.

 

[Tannin]

Actually, E_Dawg, I agree with you. Uninstalling OS/2 1.X was a good idea. OS/2 didn't become usable until 2.1 arrived, maybe three or four years after that. On the other hand, switching from OS/2 1.X to DOS 4.X was not exactly an improvement. DOS 4 was horrible. DR-DOS killed it, as did Microsoft's copy-cat MS-DOS 5.0. No wonder you went back to the Dark Side!

 

[e_dawg]

Just wanted to let people know that the inoperative volume keys problem on my keyboard has been solved by installing the latest (still unreleased at present) 1.12 nForce chipset drivers from nVidia. In addition to fixing the problem with the volume keys, the sound quality is slightly improved and the audio control panel includes a 9 band graphic equalizer among other additional settings.

All I can say is that I have been nothing but impressed with the folks at nVidia for producing an amazing chipset on their first try. It is even more impressive that they have supported their chipset with timely and effective driver updates. How convenient it is to be able to download a single file that updates your video, sound, and networking drivers all at once.

Asus deserves an honorable mention for producing a quality mobo based on the nForce 220D chipset (A7N266-VM).

 

[Prof.Wizard]

My question is do you think I need to re-install my OS and apps? I booted up W2k for the first time, on my way to doing a cleaning everything out and doing a clean reinstall when the Windows New Hardware wizard detected everything. Since I already had the ASUS driver CD in my CD-ROM, I thought it doesn't hurt to let it install everything. A dozen clicks and 2 reboots later, my system appears to be working absolutely fine... except faster and more graceful under load!

Well, there are two things that bother me: 1. my keyboard volume control no longer works (it may be due to the KVM, come to think of it); and 2. the integrated GF2MX does not offer my preferred screen resolution of 1152x864 @ 85 HZ. I am using the weird 1280x1024 resolution instead, where everything looks flattened out like in a funhouse mirror.

Otherwise, everything appears to work great. This isn't supposed to be like this, is it? Too easy... Would anyone strongly recommend that I wipe the drive and reinstall everything just in case? Are there reasons why most people do this, or is it because they couldn't get everything working right without reinstalling Windows?

I think even those minor problems you mention in your second paragraph don't deserve a new installation of your OS/programs. I'm pleased that you've worked yourself out of them as well.

Don't know about you guys but I need a full week to completely bring back my PC in case everything is gone. I learned to live with small issues for the shake of my time and sanity*....


*yes I get mad about the serious ones!

 

[Mercutio]

... if that's the case, PW, you need to get a copy of ghost and a place to restore image files, and a basic working knowledge of my good friend, the .ZAP file. Software problems of any sort take exactly as long to fix as restoring a generic image for an OS/system chipset combo and running a Windows installer script to restore my applications (or just ghost with all your apps installed, but I don't like image files to be that big).

 

[Pradeep]

Steve, the GF2MX does not offer 1280x960 either. I was looking through all the possible modes in the Adapter control panel tab, but it doesn't offer anything in the 4:3 format around that resolution.

You may need to use Powerstrip or similar, to get the resolutions you want.

 

[e_dawg]

That was a good idea, Pradeep. I forgot about PowerStrip.

... unfortunately, it refuses to work at 1152x864 and requires the chipset drivers to be reinstalled. At other resolutions, it simply kills the video and forces a reboot into safe mode to uninstall PowerStrip.

 

[LiamC]

Ghost,

I recently tried to use Ghost to copy some partitions from one hard drive (34GXP) to another (60GXP - replaced by IBM after 2 months when the first died - talk about customer service :X).

The drives were partitioned as 2GB (WIN98SE), 4 or 5GB (W2K- NTFS) and remainder as data (FAT32). When I attempted to boot the W2K partition on the 60GXP, I got to the logon screen and then W2K got itself into a loop reading settings, saving settings, reading settings, saving settings.

Safe mode was the same
Boot using last known good config was the same
Nothing to do but re-install.

Anybody had this happen. Anybody know what I did wrong? My first go at using Ghost wasn't great

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

The drives were partitioned as 2GB (WIN98SE), 4 or 5GB (W2K- NTFS) and remainder as data (FAT32). When I attempted to boot the W2K partition on the 60GXP, I got to the logon screen and then W2K got itself into a loop reading settings, saving settings, reading settings, saving settings.

This is what Win2K does when the page file somehow gets changed to a different drive letter. The fix involves editing the registry, if I remember correctly, but that gets you into chicken-and-egg problems. I think there's an MS Knowledge Base article somewhere that talks about this problem, but I can't remember the location or number of that article...

 

[LiamC]

Thanks Barry. I'll hunt it up. I always put the swap on another drive and I did get the "corrupt or missing swap message". Now that I know what, I'll be able to fix it. Thanks again.