Looking for motherboard

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My motherbaoard has blown and am looking for a repalacement. It can be second-hand or refurbished - the chepaer the better.



It is to replace a motherboard in a Dell Dimension E 520 (LGA 775, Pentium D 915 2.8GHz processor, chipset probably G965, power supply output 305W. Form factor BTX



I am considering the DEll motherboard, but I'd like something cheaper, my machine is quite old.



Any references greatly received
Click to expand...


The two front usb ports appear to be working (flashing usb led on inserting). I haven't done anything.

I have not tried to boot from them, should I be able to? I think I did on the old mobo.

What is the difference between the rear and front usb ports?

The ones at the rear are in two blocks.

The usb symbol on the UBUNTU desktop appears to to be the one at the front. The one at the rear running the OS is not listed on the desktop. I find this confusing.

I have had a couple of mouse freezes, but they unfroze.

Best wishes.

Ps. I have not ploughed through the references you kindly provided as yet, but I will.

pps. I'll see what happens after I logout and login later
 
The two front usb ports appear to be working (flashing usb led on inserting). I haven't done anything.

I have not tried to boot from them, should I be able to? I think I did on the old mobo.

What is the difference between the rear and front usb ports?

The ones at the rear are in two blocks.

The usb symbol on the UBUNTU desktop appears to to be the one at the front. The one at the rear running the OS is not listed on the desktop. I find this confusing.

I have had a couple of mouse freezes, but they unfroze.

Best wishes.

Ps. I have not ploughed through the references you kindly provided as yet, but I will.

pps. I'll see what happens after I logout and login later
Click to expand...

The front USB ports, the manual shows a cable runs from the motherboard
surface, to an I/O plate in the front of the computer. Using a cable
to carry the USB signals, isn't always as good as the rear ports, where
the printed circuit board provides the electrical path.

It really depends on how clever the person designing the cable is,
and whether the hardware standards, make it easy to carry the signals
with just any old cable. (Ribbon cables might have impedances
in the range of 90 to 110 ohms say, and by using teflon insulated
cables, you might get nearer to the 90 ohm value.)

If you're still having problems with the USB, there are a
couple possibilities. There is a serious motherboard defect.
Or, maybe the problem can be solved by using a $10 PCI to USB
card, and adding some more ports to the back of the computer.
I can't tell from your symptoms right now, just how messed
up that thing is. A freezing mouse in Linux, doesn't
sound too good. I don't think I've ever had a freezing
mouse in Linux, whereas there is a defect in Xorg (Xwindows)
where you can lose control of the GUI. And in the good
old days, you might try control-alt-backspace and restart
Xorg, to escape from that. The worst failures on Linux,
comes from things like DBus, and losing communications
from an OS perspective with both mouse and keyboard,
as then, no control-alt-delete type fixes work. I've
had Linux failures, where the LEDs on my PS/2 keyboard
extinguish, and it doesn't matter what keys you press,
they have absolutely no effect on the OS at all. And
that's a subsystem failure, a failure to keep the
keyboard, logically connected to the OS. Really really
stinks, as an architecture...

Paul
 
My motherbaoard has blown and am looking for a repalacement. It can be second-hand or refurbished - the chepaer the better.



It is to replace a motherboard in a Dell Dimension E 520 (LGA 775, Pentium D 915 2.8GHz processor, chipset probably G965, power supply output 305W. Form factor BTX



I am considering the DEll motherboard, but I'd like something cheaper, mymachine is quite old.



Any references greatly received



PS. UK references
Click to expand...

USB ports (front and monitor) seem to be recognising a pendrive. When usingthe monitor usb's if I plug a usb drive in the led flashes, but I need to use the machine before it appears on the desktop. But they seem to work.

The freezing mouse did unfreeze, except on one occasion, but I may have been impatient. Perhaps UBUNTU was conducting some processing. I have 1 MB of memory (I could test this using the livedisk) and UBUNTU needs at least 768MB of RAM. I am also using a livecd.

I will soon need to decide on a OS installation. As you know, I tried a repair but had signature difficulties. I was wondering if it might be time to try a re-install of VISTA. In addition, I need to think if I might prefer UBUNTU.

On a related point, I have taken the hard disk out of an old computer that failed (not hard disk, as far as I know) years ago.

I have a free bay and could install it, but there might be cable problems.The old drive has a molex (4 pin), an 8 pin jumper (set to cable select - I think), and a 39 pin connector. I also have two old strap cables from the old machine. One has a blue end and a black end, with a connector in the middle. The other has two black ends and a connector in the middle. From what I remember inside the case there was a spare molex around the harddrive, but this drive is then connected to the motherboard. Cabling dies not seem compatible

I wonder if I can use this disk in my tower.

So, I am thinking about the OS and the possibility of using another hard-drive (but only because I have one). I don't need to undertake these tasks yet, but I am considering them.

Best wishes.
 
USB ports (front and monitor) seem to be recognising a pendrive. When using the monitor usb's if I plug a usb drive in the led flashes, but I need to use the machine before it appears on the desktop. But they seem to work.

The freezing mouse did unfreeze, except on one occasion, but I may have been impatient. Perhaps UBUNTU was conducting some processing. I have 1 MB of memory (I could test this using the livedisk) and UBUNTU needs at least 768MB of RAM. I am also using a livecd.

I will soon need to decide on a OS installation. As you know, I tried a repair but had signature difficulties. I was wondering if it might be time to try a re-install of VISTA. In addition, I need to think if I might prefer UBUNTU.

On a related point, I have taken the hard disk out of an old computer that failed (not hard disk, as far as I know) years ago.

I have a free bay and could install it, but there might be cable problems.The old drive has a molex (4 pin), an 8 pin jumper (set to cable select - I think), and a 39 pin connector. I also have two old strap cables from the old machine. One has a blue end and a black end, with a connector in the middle. The other has two black ends and a connector in the middle. From what I remember inside the case there was a spare molex around the harddrive, but this drive is then connected to the motherboard. Cabling dies not seem compatible

I wonder if I can use this disk in my tower.

So, I am thinking about the OS and the possibility of using another hard-drive (but only because I have one). I don't need to undertake these tasks yet, but I am considering them.

Best wishes.
Click to expand...

Floppy uses a 2x17 connector. IDE uses a 2x20 connector.
Check if you have an IDE connector - I think there is one
present. The Southbridge isn't modern enough, to have
given up on IDE (similar to mine, which still has
one IDE connector).

On the IDE cable, you would hope the two disk connectors,
are close to one another on one end, while the motherboard
end is by itself on the other end. A good cable, would
be the 80 wire kind. Compared to the 40 wire kind, the
wires on the 80 wire one, are "thinner looking". On the
80 wire one, every second conductor is a ground, and that
is done to improve signal integrity. The 80 wire is generally
set up to support cable select as a jumper option. The 80 wire
also supports the higher transfer rates. Apparently,
the software can sense what kind of cable is being used,
and disable the availability of the higher rates,
if the cable is not up to the job.

If you had a real Vista DVD, one matching the service pack
level and type of the current installation, you could
do a Repair Install, and have less to do later to it.
A Repair Install is supposed to preserve settings and user
data, so you don't have to reinstall all the programs. I
can do that here, on my Windows 7 system, because DVD images
of Windows 7 installer DVDs are available (from digitalriver).
But I don't know if the same is true for Vista. I don't know
what sources of legit discs are available there.

When you burn backup discs on a Dell, those contain some kind
of image of the OS, without being true installer discs. And
that's why I doubt you could do a repair install as such. But,
they do change the capabilities of these packages, from generation
to generation, so anything is possible. (At one time "factory
wipe" was the only option, but they may have "repair" as an
option now.)

*******

With Vista or later, there is a good-sized .wim file, with
the installation files in it. But "factory.wim" would not be
the same thing as the "install.wim" on a real Microsoft DVD.
And it's not clear here, whether the objective was
a factory wipe, or the person was trying to do a
repair install preserving data and setting.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...ore-help/62fa4436-e2e0-4f8b-b9ab-f5b7f47be673

Paul
 
On Tue, 4 Jun 2013 21:09:42 -0700 (PDT),
I will soon need to decide on a OS installation. As you know, I tried a repair but had signature difficulties. I was wondering if it might be time to try a re-install of VISTA. In addition, I need to think if I might prefer UBUNTU.
Click to expand...

Has it been asked if you have AHCI set in the BIOS and it was using PCI
previously?
 
My motherbaoard has blown and am looking for a repalacement. It can be second-hand or refurbished - the chepaer the better.



It is to replace a motherboard in a Dell Dimension E 520 (LGA 775, Pentium D 915 2.8GHz processor, chipset probably G965, power supply output 305W. Form factor BTX



I am considering the DEll motherboard, but I'd like something cheaper, my machine is quite old.



Any references greatly received



PS. UK references
Click to expand...

The cable.

The one that fits the old hard drive has 39 holes

The two 'close' together are about 6 inches apart. The cable is about 18 inches in length. The motherboard socket end is blue.

I don't think this will fit my motherboard. So it looks like I have not got the right cables or the connection on the mobo.

Vista Disk.

I have a Dell re-installation disk (i.e., the software is installed on the disk).

I believe that this disk has the same repair utility that I tried recently on the pc (signature problems). I expect that I would have to re-install with this disk.

The options for an OS on the hard-disk look like:

UBUNTU or
VISTA (if it re-installs) or
UBUNTU + VISTA (side by side), but Vista is not functioning.

Thanks

Ps. Previously I said that I was running a live cd. I have a live UbuntuCD. But I am running a live Ubuntu pendrive, from the rear of the tower.
 
My motherbaoard has blown and am looking for a repalacement. It can be second-hand or refurbished - the chepaer the better.



It is to replace a motherboard in a Dell Dimension E 520 (LGA 775, Pentium D 915 2.8GHz processor, chipset probably G965, power supply output 305W. Form factor BTX



I am considering the DEll motherboard, but I'd like something cheaper, my machine is quite old.



Any references greatly received



PS. UK references
Click to expand...

Rodney,

I do not follow (my fault, not yours)
 
My motherbaoard has blown and am looking for a repalacement. It can be second-hand or refurbished - the chepaer the better.



It is to replace a motherboard in a Dell Dimension E 520 (LGA 775, Pentium D 915 2.8GHz processor, chipset probably G965, power supply output 305W. Form factor BTX



I am considering the DEll motherboard, but I'd like something cheaper, my machine is quite old.



Any references greatly received



PS. UK references
Click to expand...

Forgot to mention

When I was talking of installation options. I mentioned VISTA alongside UBUNTU. It occurs to me that this might not be an option because I don't have a sufficiently large free partition.
 
Rodney,

I do not follow (my fault, not yours)
Click to expand...

He is referring to a BIOS setting.

On retail motherboards, there would be a BIOS section
for the Southbridge (SATA and/or IDE ports). Modern
systems can have IDE, AHCI, or RAID as setting options
for the SATA ports. If there is a mismatch between
the driver loaded in Vista, and the motherboard setting,
then it won't boot.

If the OS had been running, you could do a "driver re-arm"
by setting some registry entries. But it's too late for
that now. Now, it's a matter instead, of adjusting the
BIOS to match what Vista is expecting as a Southbridge setting
(IDE, AHCI, or RAID).

*******

This is covered in the manual, at least to the point of
showing how non-standard Dell can be. See the top of
page 29.

ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_dimension_desktops/dimension-e520_service%20manual_en-us.pdf

"SATA 0 through 5

Identifies the drives attached to the SATA connectors on
the system board, and lists the capacity for hard drives.

NOTE: SATA2 and SATA3 positions are not supported in
this system.

SATA Operation:

Identifies and defines the SATA controller settings for RAID.
You can set the SATA controller to

[RAID Autodetect/ATA]
or [RAID On]
"

If set to RAID autodetect, and there is no RAID present, it
might be defaulting to AHCI to operate the port. Since RAID
and AHCI typically use similar base drivers. In other words,
both the old and new motherboards are likely using AHCI.

So verify that [RAID Autodetect/ATA] is being used.
That's about all the control you have. With non-RAID
drives, it'll likely be doing AHCI or something. The
Dell BIOS, does not give you finer control than that.

Paul
 
Forgot to mention

When I was talking of installation options. I mentioned VISTA alongside UBUNTU. It occurs to me that this might not be an option because I don't have a sufficiently large free partition.
Click to expand...

You can shrink a partition, to make room for another.
Windows 7 supports that in the OS. I don't know if
Vista does or not. In Disk Management, you right-click
the partition, and see if "Shrink" is an option in the
popup menu.

A third-party, partition management tool can also shrink
a partition. Even GParted from your Linux pen drive,
could be used to do it. At least, as long as GParted is
known not to damage Vista/W7/W8 partitions.

Paul
 
My motherbaoard has blown and am looking for a repalacement. It can be second-hand or refurbished - the chepaer the better.



It is to replace a motherboard in a Dell Dimension E 520 (LGA 775, Pentium D 915 2.8GHz processor, chipset probably G965, power supply output 305W. Form factor BTX



I am considering the DEll motherboard, but I'd like something cheaper, my machine is quite old.



Any references greatly received



PS. UK references
Click to expand...

I'll check the BIOS.

If I try to boot to VISTA I am asked to press F1.

When I do the floppy light comes on and I get the message not a systems disk
 
I'll check the BIOS.

If I try to boot to VISTA I am asked to press F1.

When I do the floppy light comes on and I get the message not a systems disk
Click to expand...

From the user manual, via a search on "F1".

"NOTE:

The computer attempts to boot from all bootable devices, but
if no bootable device is found, the computer generates
an error message that states

No boot device available.

Press the <F1> key to retry the boot, or
press the <F2> key to enter the setup utility.
"

So it's still not finding something it can boot from.

Is the Vista hard disk detectable in the BIOS ?
Can you see the model number of the hard drive in the BIOS ?
That means the drive is connected to the motherboard OK.

If you boot from Ubuntu, is the Vista disk visible ?

If the disk is visible, you can try fixing it.

*******

When I got my laptop, I was prompted to burn two batches of
optical media. One operation, is backing up the entire
factory image of the OS. That takes about four DVDs or so.

But the other request, is to burn a recovery CD. That only
has 200MB of content. The recovery CD includes the ability
to boot to a command prompt. It's referred to as WinRE or
Recovery Environment.

http://www.forum-vista.net/imgupl/010709/10-reparer.png
http://www.forum-vista.net/imgupl/010709/11-optrecuperat.png
http://www.forum-vista.net/imgupl/010709/12-outilrecuperat.png

(Last item, in English... :-) )
http://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/ITKE/uploads/blogs.dir/79/files/2009/02/winre-screen.jpg

Once booted into Command Prompt, click the "Bootrec.exe Options"
section of this page. There are commands like /fixmbr,
/fixboot (puts partition boot sector back), and /rebuildbcd
(rebuilds a BCD file, similar to boot.ini on an older OS).
Those are some manual repair steps. Of course, if the
file system is damaged in some way, and the partition
won't mount in the recovery environment, then all bets
are off.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

*******

If you were really, totally without any of the proper DVDs
or CDs for the machine, you can try this. There is a torrent
link to a x32 and an x64 version of a Vista recovery CD. This is
the only torrent download I've ever tried. (I used a Linux LiveCD
and set up some torrent tool in there.) So this is a
way to get to the command prompt, and be able to run bootrec.
You want the version of CD, that matches the x32 or x64
installation. If you had a non-64-bit capable computer,
then downloading the x64 version wouldn't work out so well...

http://web.archive.org/web/20081229...og/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

Once done with that, create an MD5sum of the file, then use the
"search" on virustotal.com, to see if the file is known and clean.
Since the file is so large, you won't be able to scan it
on virustotal, but virustotal does have "known" checksums
stored, for files larger than it would normally scan.

You can also enter the MD5sum value in a search engine,
and look for comments about whether it was a clean
file or a disaster or not.

The actual file, should be an ISO9660, and less than 200MB.
Use a burning program such as Imgburn or Nero, to convert
the ISO9660, into a bootable CD. Don't just "drag and drop".
That won't work.

Paul
 
My motherbaoard has blown and am looking for a repalacement. It can be second-hand or refurbished - the chepaer the better.



It is to replace a motherboard in a Dell Dimension E 520 (LGA 775, Pentium D 915 2.8GHz processor, chipset probably G965, power supply output 305W. Form factor BTX



I am considering the DEll motherboard, but I'd like something cheaper, mymachine is quite old.



Any references greatly received



PS. UK references
Click to expand...

Regarding the BIOS.

It is set to RAID ON. It could also be set to RAID Audodetect/ATA

When I initially switch on the pc The BIOS screen tells me that an AHCI BIOS is installed. Do I have a conflict?

In the boot options (F12) I see the hard-disk serial number. If I try to boot from here I get those green travelling bars, and then a black screen with the mouse pointer in the middle of the screen.

Note, If I switch on the machine and let it try to boot, I am asked to press F1 to continue. If I press F1, the floppy led lights and I am told that Ihave a non-systems disk (drive empty).

UBUNTU

I can see all my hard disk files using this OS - everything is present.

I tried to repair the disk previously using the Dell utilities, but was unsuccessful.
I have the original Dell Vista OS disk. This has the OS that is currently installed.

I am wondering if I will need to re-install using this disk. As you know I have another Dell board installed, I believe that I may not be able to re-install. If not I will consider installing UBUNTU. I believe that it would be best to create a partition and have both OS's installed in case I can ever get VISTA working.

Freezing mouse.

It does freeze from time to time, but usually unfreezes after a time. I have noticed on the UBUNTU help forum that this appears common. There are all sorts of fixes, all of which appear to involve downloading programs from the repository. I can't do this because I am running UBUNTU from a live pendrive and any changes will only be temporary.

Best wishes.
 
Regarding the BIOS.

It is set to RAID ON. It could also be set to RAID Audodetect/ATA
Click to expand...

Set it to [RAID Audodetect/ATA] then!!!
I think that is your problem.

It should realize there is no RAID array present, pass AHCI info
to the OS, and the existing AHCI driver in Vista will boot.

That's my theory at the moment.

I mean, since the old and new motherboards have the same irritating
BIOS design, that's about the only option worth adjusting.
When I initially switch on the pc The BIOS screen tells me that an AHCI BIOS is installed. Do I have a conflict?
Click to expand...

For Vista/Win7/Win8, having a pre-built machine start in AHCI
operating mode for the disk controller, is a popular choice.

My laptop does that.
In the boot options (F12) I see the hard-disk serial number. If I try to boot from here I get those green travelling bars, and then a black screen with the mouse pointer in the middle of the screen.

Note, If I switch on the machine and let it try to boot, I am asked to press F1 to continue. If I press F1, the floppy led lights and I am told that I have a non-systems disk (drive empty).

UBUNTU

I can see all my hard disk files using this OS - everything is present.
Click to expand...

This is reassuring.
I tried to repair the disk previously using the Dell utilities, but was unsuccessful.
I have the original Dell Vista OS disk. This has the OS that is currently installed.

I am wondering if I will need to re-install using this disk. As you know I have another Dell board installed, I believe that I may not be able to re-install. If not I will consider installing UBUNTU. I believe that it would be best to create a partition and have both OS's installed in case I can ever get VISTA working.
Click to expand...

If you examine your Dell manual, it should tell you what function key to press,
to enter the factory restoration dialog. And from there, you can restore
the factory image of Vista.

The BIOS on both the old and new motherboards, contains a "SLIC" table.
That table contains the activation information, to make the provided OS
image, work for you. You should not need to go online to activate. It
should "just work".

If you'd stuck a "foreign" motherboard in there, like an Asus, then
restoring the factory image would get stuck during activation. It
would be prompting you for a license key, or whatever. Generally,
make life unpleasant for you.

But by using the Dell motherboard, with Dell SLIC table, it should
reinstall the factory image. If that's what you really want to do.
The SLIC table, is why you bought the Dell motherboard!

At this point, I think the BIOS setting change may be enough to get
you going.
Freezing mouse.

It does freeze from time to time, but usually unfreezes after a time. I have noticed on the UBUNTU help forum that this appears common. There are all sorts of fixes, all of which appear to involve downloading programs from the repository. I can't do this because I am running UBUNTU from a live pendrive and any changes will only be temporary.

Best wishes.
Click to expand...

There are several ways to run Ubuntu.

From the Live CD. With no persistent home directory.

Use a provided tool, to copy the operating system to a pen drive.
But still not use a persistent storage area.

But, if you *add* a persistent storage file to the pen drive, and
have room for it, the pen drive will store all your repository
related changes. And that's how I run mine.

The name of the persistent file on my pen drive is

casper-rw

4,060,086,272 bytes

That's the file that stores all the downloaded Ubuntu
programs for me. It is an image file, and is loopback
mounted when Ubuntu starts. If you were examining
the pen drive from Windows, you can't "see inside" the
casper-rw.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD/Persistence

"Using a Loopback File

[ This step makes a file, up to 4GB, on the pen drive.
The file is useless, unless it's at least 1GB. And
since the pen drive is FAT32, it has a 4GB upper limit
Change the 128 value, to 1024 to perhaps 4000, depending
on the space remaining on your pen drive. An 8GB pen
drive, is idea for live CDs with persistent storage. ]

dd if=/dev/zero of=/media/hda1/casper-rw bs=1M count=128

[ This formats the file as EXT3 file system. The file
system is not mounted yet. ]

mkfs.ext3 /media/hda1/casper-rw

That's it! You can now boot the Live CD as described below.
"

The idea is, the pen drive boot sequence, the Ubuntu code should
recognize the presence of casper-rw, and use it.

Now, later, if you ever want to know what is inside that
file, you'll need to loopback mount the pen drive file,
while running a Ubuntu CD. Boot the Ubuntu CD, then and
only then, plug in the pen drive. Mount the main partition
of the pen drive, which is FAT32. That would be the
/media/hda1 in the example above.

sudo mkdir /media/mypencasper

sudo mount -t ext3 -o loop /media/hda1/casper-rw /media/mypencasper

cd /media/mypencasper
ls -R <--- list contents of persistent file system

cd /
sudo umount /media/mypencasper <--- cleanup, before shutdown

HTH,
Paul
 
My motherbaoard has blown and am looking for a repalacement. It can be second-hand or refurbished - the chepaer the better.



It is to replace a motherboard in a Dell Dimension E 520 (LGA 775, Pentium D 915 2.8GHz processor, chipset probably G965, power supply output 305W. Form factor BTX



I am considering the DEll motherboard, but I'd like something cheaper, my machine is quite old.



Any references greatly received



PS. UK references
Click to expand...

I tried changing the SATA setting in the BIOS to Autodetect/ATA, but it did not help.

I saw strike F1. I did, floppy LED seen, then message non-system disk.

___________________

On striking F12, I noted that my disk serial number had been replaced by Onboard SATA hard disk.

Strike F1 to continue.

Launched startup repair. Message, cannot repair automatically.

I changed back to RAID ON (recommended). My hard disk serial number is now listed.

I suppose the next step is to try the Dell Vista Disk (Bootrec.exe)

Best wishes.
 
My motherbaoard has blown and am looking for a repalacement. It can be second-hand or refurbished - the chepaer the better.



It is to replace a motherboard in a Dell Dimension E 520 (LGA 775, Pentium D 915 2.8GHz processor, chipset probably G965, power supply output 305W. Form factor BTX



I am considering the DEll motherboard, but I'd like something cheaper, my machine is quite old.



Any references greatly received



PS. UK references
Click to expand...

UPDATE

Vista Disk

bootrec.exe /Fixboot

On booting get Press F1.
Pressed get LED light on floppy, messsage: Non system disk.

____________________

F12, see my hard disk. press f1. Start Windows Normally.
Green horizontal bars. Then black screen.

____________________

Back to VISTA Disk
bootrec.exe /FixMbr.
F1
Floppy light, Non Systems Disk
F12 Hard disk
F1. Start Windows Normally.
Green bars
Black screen.

_____________

Hard disk Diagnostics

Pass.

__________________

There are still a couple or repair options, and the option of a re-install.

Best wishes.
 
UPDATE

Vista Disk

bootrec.exe /Fixboot

On booting get Press F1.
Pressed get LED light on floppy, messsage: Non system disk.

____________________

F12, see my hard disk. press f1. Start Windows Normally.
Green horizontal bars. Then black screen.

____________________

Back to VISTA Disk
bootrec.exe /FixMbr.
F1
Floppy light, Non Systems Disk
F12 Hard disk
F1. Start Windows Normally.
Green bars
Black screen.

_____________

Hard disk Diagnostics

Pass.

__________________

There are still a couple or repair options, and the option of a re-install.

Best wishes.
Click to expand...

Can you start the hard drive in Safe Mode ?

http://bertk.mvps.org/html/safemodevista.html

If you enable boot logging, maybe you'll get some
idea what is broken. (ntbtlog.txt)

To read the ntbtlog.txt file later, you may need to
boot another OS to read the log file. And as a rule,
the log stops, just before the problematic file.
The name of the file will not be recorded for
you. Leaving you to guess what might come after
the last file that is logged.

Paul
 
My motherbaoard has blown and am looking for a repalacement. It can be second-hand or refurbished - the chepaer the better.



It is to replace a motherboard in a Dell Dimension E 520 (LGA 775, Pentium D 915 2.8GHz processor, chipset probably G965, power supply output 305W. Form factor BTX



I am considering the DEll motherboard, but I'd like something cheaper, my machine is quite old.



Any references greatly received



PS. UK references
Click to expand...

No, I can't start in safe mode.

At the end of the BIOS session, I tapped F8 repeatedly, but was asked to strike F1, floppy LED lit and the message: Non System Disk appeared.

I read the page that you provided.

I then tried hitting the Windowskey + R.

Again I ended up with F1

Best wishes
 
No, I can't start in safe mode.

At the end of the BIOS session, I tapped F8 repeatedly, but was asked to strike F1, floppy LED lit and the message: Non System Disk appeared.

I read the page that you provided.

I then tried hitting the Windowskey + R.

Again I ended up with F1

Best wishes
Click to expand...

Check the user manual for your Dell, and see
if the recovery features allow a Repair install.

On old computers, the factory restore erases *everything*.
That's why people hated to do factory restore. It meant
backing up the user data files first, before going ahead
with it.

On newer machines, more than one restoration option is
available. Since you have a Vista generation machine,
you may have more than one option for restoration to
a working state. Consult the manual for details. If
there is a Dell repair option, it may do less damage
than the tradition "factory nuke" operation.

When I look at this manual, it mentions WinXP. Did
you install Vista separately ? Or did Vista actually
come with the computer ? It's possible this manual
is not applicable to your situation.

ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_dimension_desktops/dimension-e520_owner%27s%20manual_en-us.pdf

Note that Vista/Win7/Win8 Repair installs are complicated,
by what happens after a Service Pack is added. Using a
Slipstream tool, to make a newer installer DVD, may not
work properly. You may be able to download a Vista DVD
of the appropriate Service Pack level, to match the
Service Pack level of the machine currently, then do
the Repair install. (For my Windows 7 laptop, currently
running SP1, I immediately downloaded an SP1 DVD from
digitalriver.com to match the Service Pack level, so I
am ready for a Repair install at a future date.)

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html

Note - you should have a backup image of the hard drive before
doing this. The attempt could screw up, in which case,
you want to be able to restore again. If all else
fails, I use "dd" (disk dump) to do a sector level image
of any drive I suspect is in danger from one of these
operations. That's in case no other PC is present/available,
to accept the hard drive and back it up from Windows.

Paul
 
My motherbaoard has blown and am looking for a repalacement. It can be second-hand or refurbished - the chepaer the better.



It is to replace a motherboard in a Dell Dimension E 520 (LGA 775, Pentium D 915 2.8GHz processor, chipset probably G965, power supply output 305W. Form factor BTX



I am considering the DEll motherboard, but I'd like something cheaper, my machine is quite old.



Any references greatly received



PS. UK references
Click to expand...

Its all very involved.

My Vista came pre-installed with the pc.

Page 57 does talk of XP.

My Vista CD is a re-installation DVD. The software is installed on the PC. I believe that it will re-install the OS. I have another disk (Drivers and utilities) for re-installation.

From memory, I think I have SP2 installed. I don't think the DVD I have incorporates SP2 (system bought before SP2).

I believe that I have a Dell Recovery Drive on the HD, but I can't locate it in UUBUNTU (I am new to this OS, but quite like it).

I will try the two further repairs on the VISTA CD that I have not yet attempted. After that I will need to consider a re-install.

Ideally, I would like to partition the drive to have the Dell Installation utility (small), then equal, Vista, and UBUNTU. But only if Vista works.

However, I may end up with UBUNTU as the only OS (one partition).

Best wishes.
 
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