older motherboard with intel chipset

Greetings technically gifted net-denizens,

I recently acquired an older Dell Dimension 2350 motherboard, along with what I believe is the original 48x CD-rom drive. It ended up in the scrap yard after first residing at the best-buy repair facility (I'm kinda reading between the lines here, it has a sticker on it which is dated August, 2010 and has their name on it) and from what info I've gathered so far, it was made some time around 2003 or 4.

I've probably spent enough time so far to reload the operating system (only tried MS product so far) about 30 times now, and have gathered info and files from both the Intel and the Dell support sites, I've done multiple reloads of XP pro w/sp2; but, I finally ended up with a kinda-successful install by using the restore discs for a E-machines system that I used to have (that was made around the same time, and had the same speed processor and a couple other similarities, including an Intel chipset).

I say it was a 'kinda successful install' because I can start it up in safe mode and do further set up to it, but it wants me to call MS product activation before it will boot in normal mode.

Anyway, I think the main problem is that the chipset needs to have some special software available to it on startup so it 'knows' how to interpret the OS - it's called 'infinst.exe' and from the literature is spose to be installed in certain location on the HDD before XP is loaded (plus, I think the BIOS tells the machine that the OS should be XP Home, not Pro). When I try to run the chipset setup utility available from either Intel or Dell, I get a message telling me that I don't have permission to do that or some such - I can create the directories specified, but when the program runs an error occurs and stops the installation.

Just wondering if someone here can shed some light as to what is going on, and maybe even describe the process that these Intel-specific machines required when putting in a new HDD (besides cloning from the old hdd).

So far I've been using various diagnostic utilitiy packages that are available around the 'net', including 'PartEd magic', 'YetAnotherBootDisc', 'UltimateBootCD 4.1.1', 'UBCDforWIN'; I've found that I can't run the chipset software from DOS, always get a message that "this progam must be run from windows".

So, anybody got any hints? As always, TIA.

Mike

Reply to
mike
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infinst.exe is just the Intel chipset driver. I've been dealing with Dell for 11 years and I've not seen a situation where XP Pro would not install on a Dell PC that came with XP Home installed. Only anti-piracy theme Dell has used was to protect their OEM operating system disc from being used to install on non-Dell computers.

--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
Reply to
Meat Plow

Don't you have any linux live CDs? These are very handy for trying out motherboards, or trying to do things that typical hack/spit M-soft products tend you give you a lot of grief over.

You might also try changing some of the settings in the BIOS setup. I dunno why a m-bd would be OS specific, but I suppose it's possible.

I encountered a FIC K8MC51G m-bd recently, that appears to have been made especially for the OEMs.. Emachines/Gateway/etc, and there don't appear to be any m-bd drivers available for it from FIC. Emachines' website has drivers for the chipset, modem, video for hardware specific to their machines.

-- Cheers, WB .............

Reply to
Wild_Bill

Well, so much for that theory then... So, how do you go about installing to a Dell puter with an Intel chipset? Or am I totally f'dup in thinking that there's extra work involved in getting a MS os working on an intel MB?

Mike

Reply to
mike

I guess I ought to try that, the reason I haven't so far is that when I put a hard drive in that already has ubuntu installed on it I got some really weird results, whereas it usually only takes a few extra minutes for linux to find it's way around and then boot into a usuable condition when put into a new (to me) machine.

I guess that was a bad guess, now... I did update the BIOS, and checked it out some, it's pretty spartan, and when the configuration of the machine changes, it actually stalls booting until you go into setup and make the changes and save it, I hadn't seen that before.

Dell seems to be pretty good that way too - now I wonder how MS is gonna handle it if I call up wanting to activate a Dell MB with E-machine components and product key... or should I even bother? Guess I'll see whether I can get Linux installed or not first.

Mike

Reply to
mike

Hey again, just me replying to myself with new info - I installed SP2 while in safe mode and now the puter boots into normal mode, but tells me I have to call for product activation in 30 days. How nice of them...

Reply to
mike

mike Inscribed thus:

It shouldn't be any different to any other M/B !

--
Best Regards:
                Baron.
Reply to
baron

On 25/11/2010 11:37, mike wr

Had you started with an actual Dell OEM OS installation CD instead of eMachines restore disc, it would automatically self activate from its knowledge of the BIOS signature. No manual entering of product keys necessary.

I think you are running into some post install junk that the eMachines CD is trying to push out. Note, a 'recovery/restore CD' and an 'OS installation CD' may not be the same thing.

--
Adrian C
Reply to
Adrian C

Backtracking.. first of all, I never expect used equipment to operate perfectly, much less when I encounter something that was discarded (found in a dump/ster).

I dunno if the BB store label was an indication that the unit was a customer return that couldn't be/wasn't economically practical to try to figue out, or that it was just a BB store product that some customer threw away.

When used equipment does turn out to be fully functional (as it often does), that's just a bonus.

Someone had already decided that it was trash, so expectations of it working properly could be unrealistic, you see.

Whe I mentioned a linux Live CD, I was referring to the linux OS not being installed, just run Live as thay will often do, from the CD drive (as almost all m-bds now boot from the CD). A HDD isn't even required.

Some linux Live versions will be more favorable with certain types of system hardware. Several years ago, I bought about 12 different flavors of linux OSs, most of 'em Live CDs (cheap, from from an eBay'er). I know they can be downloaded for "free" from numerous websites but I was on dialup service at the time.

Try a couple/few different linux Live CDs (no HDD or any other unneeded stuff), if there are problems with all attempts, there's very likely something wrong with the m-bd.

-- Cheers, WB .............

Reply to
Wild_Bill

I can recommend Mandriva Live as a Mandriva user for 5 years. Currently using Mandriva 2010 on a quad core AMD PhenomII 955 processor on an Asus Mainboard. Install was flawless. All drivers were on the install disk and additional software packages galore available for free download.

--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
Reply to
Meat Plow

From a diagnosis perspective, a Live CD of linux is very cost effective - free. Time consuming in that it may take 10-20 minutes to determine if the distro "likes" the hardware. Hard or difficult work.. zero.

I know from trying several Live CDs on an older laptop (that works fine), that some Live linux distros will run fine, and 1 or 2 may hang up.. that's why I suggested several different versions/distros for attempting to evaluate a m-bd.

Later, the infinite reasons why hack/spit M-soft products don't like the hardware and firmware can be addressed.. if the user even wants to know (user has unlimited time and a concern).

-- Cheers, WB .............

Reply to
Wild_Bill

Meat Plow Inscribed thus:

I run "Open SuSE 11.1" and thoroughly endorse the above comment. I have clients that run completely diskless machines except for a CD rom drive and a live CD.

--
Best Regards:
                Baron.
Reply to
baron

Well, I'm not sure why I had no luck trying to install xp pro with an oem disc, it just seemed to be in an endless loop where I'd start the install, then the machine would reboot and put me right back at square one - did this several times. Then I loaded a bios update, and tried to get infinst.exe (chipset drivers) to run, with no success and finally dug up the emachine restore discs and found that that installed a working system (just probably one that I can't get activated).

I have since put in a Live cd with an older ubuntu on it, and it seems to run that fine, so I spose this will make an ok linux box.

One thing I'm curious about, after several iterations of installing xp is that sometimes I'd have to enter at least one user's name, and sometimes I wouldn't, I found that with an oem disc and also with the restore discs - doesn't really matter, just seems odd to not be consistent while I'm fairly certain that I did the exact same thing during th installation.

Anyway, thanks to every one for your suggestions and comments, I think I'll check out one of the newer linux packages mentioned.

Mike

Reply to
mike

I'm a dumpster diver from way back, it's amazing what good stuff can be found from time to time

I suspect it was tossed as being too costly/out of date to repair, either by BB or by the owner after he got it back from BB - it had no memory no PSU and no hard drive but I had spares that I could plug in to check it out with.

Turned out good this time though, I seem always to be riding the trailing edge of technology so I don't really mind too bad that none of my puters are newer than 5 or six years old.

I did and it seems to work fine, thanks for the suggestion

Mike

Reply to
mike

Congrats on the good save.. persistence often brings rewards. Yep, I keep telling folks that the U.S. is the land of surplus, where there is more used and also new surplus stuff just laying around than many folks can imagine.

I know about riding on the trailing edge.. I still do that, too. It's generally a very inexpensive way to follow ones' various interests, finding lots of cheaper stuff along the way.

-- Cheers, WB .............

Reply to
Wild_Bill

Probably a daft question, but...

What is the device boot order set to in the BIOS? When the OS is installed and it reboots for the first time, the priority should be to the booting from hard drive - not the CD!

--
Adrian C
Reply to
Adrian C

mike Inscribed thus:

Some of the older mainboards have timing problems. The machine manufacturer patches the install to suit. As you have found BIOS updates can markedly change the behavior of the board.

If you look carefully at the Linux boot log you might see notes refering to "buggy this or that" or "workaround xxx". This can often give clues to the odd behavior when trying to install from a retail/OEM Win disk. Though Wins does a similar thing leaving a file on the drive to tell the next install attempt to "avoid" or "do this" this time around.

See previous para !

I've used Linux for years without any problems ! In fact it is probably the best diagnostics tool you could have. Try exploring a Windows machine from Linux ! You might be surprised at what you find squirreled away in there.

--
Best Regards:
                     Baron.
Reply to
Baron

Lazy guy that I am, I leave the cd-rom set to boot first and just make sure there's no cd in the drive when it's time to reboot.

Mike

Reply to
mike

That makes sense...

Excellent suggestion, I'm gonna have to reacquaint myself with where the logs are, and get familiar what 'normal' logs look like.

Thanks for the tips,

Mike

Reply to
mike

mike Inscribed thus:

Thats a pretty standard thing ! CD first, then USB/revmovable devices, then HDD. Unless you need it, disable "Boot from network" !

--
Best Regards:
                     Baron.
Reply to
Baron

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