Do I need to reinstall Vista on new system

[Sandan]

Ok here is the deal: I had Vista ultimate 32 bit installed on an Asrock 939 dual sata board using AMD 3800+ x2 939 socket cpu. I got a new motherboard and cpu...Asrock A780GXE/128 AM2 board and AMD 5050e dual processor cpu. Plugged everything in using same psu, same harddrive, and same 2 dvd drives. Booted up to see if I get a post which worked fine. Decided to see if it booted into Vista and to my surprise it did without a hitch. Vista found all my hardware installed drivers and drivers for the board. All I needed to do was install Ethernet drivers. It is working great...no exclamation marks in device manager. All my programs start up fine. Vista says 3 days to automatic activation (Guess this relates to new board and cpu). My question is should I format C and reinstall Vista? I know this is a judgment call but would like suggestions....Given I have same motherboard and cpu brands is this why I had no boot issues....Thanks.

 

[KeypoX]

What bothers me is, what if you start having issues BSODs and such. Then you dont know if this is the reason.

If you want try it and see what happens. Maybe even dual boot vista and run a benchmark maybe 3d mark, vista experience to see if you see a difference. Then if you want delete the new vista install and unpartition

 

[Nothinman]

What bothers me is, what if you start having issues BSODs and such. Then you dont know if this is the reason.

You should know, it's fairly easy to tell which driver is at fault when a BSOD happens.

 

[KeypoX]

But does it tell you if its a conflict or a problem with the driver.

 

[Nothinman]

Generally that kind of stuff only happens on bootup because a driver without any hardware to drive shouldn't stay loaded beyond it's hardware detection function.

 

[RebateMonger]

Yeah, if the PC is booting and you've installed the drivers for the new chipset, it's unlikely to give any problems.

 

[Sandan]

great..guess I will let it ride and see if issues come up...Thanks

 

[zerocool84]

I would always reinstall the OS with a major upgrade like a mobo but your call.

 

[Sandan]

Well its been up for a full day now with no problems at all. All my programs work. I even burned a CD with nero. I almost always reinstall but this is amazing I think that since I upgraded using the same Motherboard manufacturer which has the same bios I may be OK

 

[Nothinman]

I think that since I upgraded using the same Motherboard manufacturer which has the same bios I may be OK

The BIOS has very little to do with it, it's almost always a problem with storage drivers because Windows is pretty dumb and it's difficult to go in and tell it you've got a new storage controller after you change it.

 

[corkyg]

If it ain't broke, . . .don't fix it. Good show!

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: corkyg
If it ain't broke, . . .don't fix it.

Yeah.

Three days ago, I got curious and decided to load JMicron eSATA drivers on my Vista desktop. I already HAVE a fully functional SATA controller on that PC and I don't even USE my external SATA drives for desktop backups anymore. I use a Windows Home Server for all my desktop backups nowadays.

Well, something went wrong and those drivers trashed the PC. I was able to fully restore it with the previous night's backup, but I got a reminder that "If it ain't broke....don't fix it." isn't just a saying.

 

[Sandan]

Notinman...By storage driver are you referring to the physical hard drive and cd/dvd drives? I am using the same drives that I had before the upgrade hence the same drivers? Are the storage controllers based on the board manufacturer? So maybe the new Asrock board has the same storage controllers as the old one...Maybe I am way off here...not sure.