Ok quick check guys just in case I've been daft (more than possible as it had been a 16hr day...)

My sister took delivery of a new PC tower the other day - cheap and cheerful really as it's only for the odd document and surfing. Spec as below:

CPU: Intel Celeron Dual Core E3300

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit

Motherboard: Asus P5KPL-AM

Memory: 2GB DDR2 800mhz (1x 2GB)

Hard Drives: 160GB S-ATAII 3.0Gb/s

External Storage: 4GB Flash Drive USB2.0

Optical Drive: 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA

Graphics: Onboard Intel GMA3100

Sound: Onboard 5.1 Audio

Software: Microsoft® Works 9.0 Suite

Case: Piano Black ATX

So over I went to check it out and sort a few things including MS Office Install, Anti-Virus install, Hardware updates for existng keyboards and mouse etc., IDE HDD transfer from old machine to retain files, dial-up modem transfer from old machine (don't ask!)

So - all the software installed OK but not the HDD or modem. The HDD caused it to crash out to a blue screen error on boot up a number of times and I'm not sure why. I had the second IDE set as a slave (80Gb Seagate Barracuda ATA IV) but it did have the old Windows XP installation still on it. I assumed this wouldn't be a problem though given the new machine was set to boot up Windows 7 from the new SATA drive and I've never had a similar issue before when doing the same to other machines (just fired up and then copied files and re-formatted)

The modem dropped in OK but wouldn’t install properly, although it didn’t cause any major issues - it just wouldn’t work. I've now tried a USB dial up V92 56k modem and again no joy to-date.

So - what have I done wrong? - I admit I'd had a long day (was doing this at 10:00pm after a 06:00am start and a non-stop day) but didn't expect problems. Should I have checked BIOS settings during start-up etc. (I admit I forgot to do that) or have I potentially got a Windows 7 issue?

Or - given the last machine died from either an overheat or a power supply failure could the modem and old HDD be goosed? I'm planning on checking the latter via a caddy or another machine).

Thanks guys in anticipation...

Is the bios version/motherboard win 7 compatible?

Is the bios version/motherboard win 7 compatible?

according to the microsoft website - yes!

Win7 is a pain, I have 2 Gigabyte boards where the Win7 drivers break the Ethernet port and stop wireless from working, yet the ethernet port works under Ubuntu!!

Dealer told me it was a corrupted bios update, but the 2nd board had the same problems straight out of the box!!

OK so a bios update may be good place to start...

OK so a bios update may be good place to start...

I've got an Asrock MB,with ( at time 80GB,MAXTOR HDD) . When I got HDD, built system and XP Pro went on OK.Little while later, started to get HDD problems, which Powermax pit down to a failing ( almost new ) HDD.So back to dealer .Eventually got HDD back-NFF - but ot wouldn't install XP ,failed on some remote section ,with blue screen . After a lot of time, updated BIOS -and XP went on . Suspect they'd changed HDD for a new one, or run sort of remedial diagnostics , and said NFF ,to get postage on return .Just suspicious that of all the stiff ,son & i got from them ,only problem was with HDD in both cases .

And GG- running W7 as main system - no problems on Asrock

Edited 3 November, 201015 yr by VWD

What was the spec of the old machine? Was it quite old?

If the machine is quite old its quite likely that the modem out of the old machine has no driver support on Windows 7, which is likely why it doesn't work correctly, . Win modems are fairly cheap so you should be easily able to get you your hands on a one win Windows 7 drivers for about a tenner.

Most modern BIOSs , by default, give boot priority to IDE over SATA even if the IDE drive is set to slave, this is to allow booting from the DVD Drive if the HDD fails. This is probably the cause of the BSOD as the BIOS is tyring to boot off the old 80gb disk with the wrong low level drivers producing a BSOD when it tries to load Windows. Placing the old drive in a USB caddy will solve this issue, as the system will boot correctly off the SATA disk.

It may be possible, depending on your bios to give priority to SATA. Make sure that the "SATA or Add in Card" has priority over IDE in the BIOS boot sequence.

Hope this helps.

What was the spec of the old machine? Was it quite old?

If the machine is quite old its quite likely that the modem out of the old machine has no driver support on Windows 7, which is likely why it doesn't work correctly, . Win modems are fairly cheap so you should be easily able to get you your hands on a one win Windows 7 drivers for about a tenner.

Most modern BIOSs , by default, give boot priority to IDE over SATA even if the IDE drive is set to slave, this is to allow booting from the DVD Drive if the HDD fails. This is probably the cause of the BSOD as the BIOS is tyring to boot off the old 80gb disk with the wrong low level drivers producing a BSOD when it tries to load Windows. Placing the old drive in a USB caddy will solve this issue, as the system will boot correctly off the SATA disk.

It may be possible, depending on your bios to give priority to SATA. Make sure that the "SATA or Add in Card" has priority over IDE in the BIOS boot sequence.

Hope this helps.

Mike - thanks!

Yes the old machine that I took the IDE drive (Seagate Barracuda) and modem (unknown white box) from was quite a few years old but the HDD itself was only about 18 months old.

The old modem I can understand not working but I purchased a new USB one last weekend and am also struggling to get that up and running as well. It was supposed to be OK for Win 7 but I'm still struggling.

As for the HDD I'll check the Bios settings as that sounds a plausible cause and should still e OK if the SATA HDD fails as it's a SATA DVD. I've already checked out the cost of a caddy so that sounds like a good workaround.

I'm just not used to Win 7 so still finding my way around.

Thanks