Impossible to switch MB without Reinstalling XP?

[Redfoot]

Howdy guys. I picked up a refurbed Dell, and I already know I want another MB (2 SATA, 1 IDE). I am guessing that if I swap everything to the new MB windows will not boot, am I correct? If not, any tricks you can share?

Also, when installing XP on a SATA drive, would the drivers needed come from the HDD or the Motherboard?

Thanks

-Redfoot

 

[imported_Kiwi]

You should be aware that very few of the high volume name brand PC's are truly ATX-standard in regard to power supplies and MB connectors. If you want to swap MB's, with a Dell, you may end up having to buy the replacement MB from Dell. I am aware that Dell occasionally makes available a "Gamer's Special" setup that does come with industry-standard parts - if you bought one of those, you're in luck.

When it comes to what changes will trip up the OS installation, I think Win98 was less picky, but also less flexible. I always take the precaution of cleaning out all MB drivers and all MB devices ahead of time when I want to try moving a Hdd with a working OS on it, any variety of Windows. With XP, while you may very well run into a reactivation requirement because the MB contains so many devices that have been used to create a system signature, you also have a "Repair" option on the XP CD that does a lot of this cleanup stuff semi-automatically.

 

[agnitrate]

Careful dude, although a Dell's ATX connector looks like an ATX connector and is even keyed the same way, it's NOT a regular ATX connector. They have a few wires switched around just for the hell of it. Do not put in a non-Dell mobo and expect it to work unless you swap out the power supply as well.

The drivers for your SATA drive should come on a disk w/ the HD if you bought it retail. Otherwise you could just download them online.

Good luck dude! :thumbsup:

-silver

 

[Redfoot]

Thanks for the responses.

I was planning on at least a complete mobo swap and case swap, but now I think I will go with the PSU as well and just do a complete wipe and put a clean version of windows on it.

Thanks guys!

-Redfoot

 

[GTiBri]

WinXP can do a mb swap and still go on. I know because my machine at home had the OS installed on a Asus A8V (via chipset) mb and it is currently running on a MSI K8N Neo2 platinum (nVidia chipset.)

The reason I tried this was because I had already had a different mb installed and it didn't work out with my ram. So I exchanged that mb for the A8V and it didn't like half of my ram. So I got the MSI board and was lazy and just swapped the mb without a reinstall.

It works fine. It may not be the fastest that it could be, but it runs rock solid.

Just my experience.

 

[Stern]

thought drivers come with the mobo because the controller is on the mobo? I've swapped mobo and didn't need to reinstall winxp pro sp1

 

[daveshel]

Generally speaking, a reinstall is necessary unless the new board uses the same (or same family) chip set as the old.

 

[superpandapower]

I think you should be ok just letting windows repair itself. I had to move from a MSI KT3 Ultra2 to my current NF7-S and it worked without a hitch. You might have to download some updates again, but everything should be working.

 

[Satyrist]

Generally, if you can uninstall the original chipset drivers, and change over to the standard 'microsoft' drivers for the specific chipset/motherboard driver component drivers, ide controllers, and uninstall the pci-to-pci bridge drivers, (which ought to force xp to search for the agp drivers anew) a motherboard swap ought to be quite possible.

Oh, and cleaning out the drivers in the /system32 folder, (or using a utility like drivercleaner) and unhooking your network cable from the computer when doing a procedure such as this, will also help migrating over a machine as well.

Said procedure has worked with me for Windows2000 motherboard swaps, it shouldn't fundamentally be extremely different for XP.