Motherboard / CPU swap with WinXP home

[yellowvespa]

Hello,
and good evening. I've been running an Abit TH7II with a 2.4 P4 (Rambus and an 850 chipset) and I want to upgrade to an Intel MB (845PE chipset) with a 2.53 CPU and DDR. My question is: Will I be able to just swap out the MB/CPU/memory or will it fight me?

Thank you

 

[Lord Evermore]

You can swap it out. However do NOT let it boot into Windows after the swap. At best you'll get a blue-screen of death. At worst you might corrupt things.

Instead, boot to the XP CD when it gets to your installation choices it should show that you already have Windows installed and ask if you want to repair the installation, or install new. Choose the repair option. This will refresh the OS by wiping out all drivers and updates, but will leave all your applications and shortcuts and files intact. You do pretty much have to go through the entire installation procedure but it's better than having to reinstall all your apps and games. When you get it installed and logged in, you'll need to install all the drivers for the new motherboard, and download all Windows Updates again.

 

[yellowvespa]

Thank you Lord Evermore for the detailed answer. Please .. let me get you to clarify one thing for me. Are you saying that if I do this right, all my saved e-mail and programs and photo files that I have saved in the last year will still be there??

kindest regards and a hand shake thank you,
Frank

 

[Lord Evermore]

Yep. All the repair does is wipe out drivers and the customizations of the interface. Of course it does revert all the bundled apps like Windows Media Player, but those are updated through Windows Update. It'll also change file type settings, so if you use a non-MS application to play videos or audio or anything, you'll need to reset that through that software. But other than that, all your personal files and applications will still work.

 

[yellowvespa]

Thank you. One last thing ... I've been looking over the help section for XP (on my computer) and can't find an answer. How do I ensure that I get it to boot to the CD ?? or will putting the CD in prior to removing the old MB be all that I need to do so when I boot it goes to boot off of the CD .. jeez .. I flashed the bios on this MB and wasn't this worried then as I am now about not screwing this up which is why I'm asking so many questions .. don't mean to be a thorn.

Thanks

 

[Lord Evermore]

The BIOS has to be set so that the CDROM is listed as a boot device before the hard drive. How you do this varies by BIOS brands but it's usually in the "chipset" options.

It'd be really hard for you to screw it up so bad it can't be recovered. Well okay not REALLY hard, just don't do anything stupid and it's fine.

 

[anandfan]

1) To be sure to boot from CDROM: After you install your new motherboard, just enter BIOS setup on the first boot (usually use DEL key) and change the boot options. Heck,just to be sure you don't accidentally boot the HD the first time, just unplug the IDE cable from the drive until you get the boot option changed. Be sure to power down/unplug the power cable between cable connects/disconnects.

2) Nobody has mentioned activation yet. I think these changes might trigger an activation request. I've heard conflicting stories about how many activations MS will allow before branding you a pirate. I know in the future, I will run the max days allowed without activation so I can shake down the hardware/software better. That way, I can make changes in hardware config until I get it right then activate.

RANT: As if upgrading a system wasn't challenging enough, now I have to worry about exceeding the allowed activations. I really love to tinker with different hw combos and MS wants to call me a pirate for that. I've got 3 boxes running here and 4 legal copies of XP.

 

[yellowvespa]

Ok .. I'm sure someone out there wants to know how it all went down ... so here are the details:

1) installed the new motherboard, CPU and DDR
2) before booting I disconnected the hard drive
3) booted her up and went to bios and set the CD-Rom as primary start
4) rebooted and went right to the CD-Rom .. I'm think'n .. "so far so good"
5) my hard drive isn't hooked up !! .. shut down and hook the hard drive up
6) Reboot but now the bios sees the hard drive and made it primary .. OH CHIT .. pulled the plug
7) rebooted and went to bios and sure enough .. hard drive is now primary .. reset to CD-Rom
8) rebooted into CD-Rom start and it sure does ask me if I want to repair the current installation .. I pick R and it takes me to a DOS looking Recovery Desk .. Hmmmm what on earth do I do here?? all commands and I don't speak command.
9) try it several times and no luck .. just the recovery desk (or what ever it's called)
10) after an hour I give up and click OK to install instead of repair and guess what ....??? I go to another window that asks if I want to repair the current installation ... Hmmm .. dumb .. Yes, YES YES.
11) "Now we're cooking with gas" ... ... The repair starts but it sure looks like an install to me .. and then ... and then...
12) I get the standard install screen saying that I will be enjoying Windows XP in 39 minutes .. DARN .. it's doing an install .. but I can't do a thing about it now ...
13) I let it continue and 25 minutes later I'm going into my "welcome" screen .. I can tell my resolution is 800x600 (or smaller), the screen is flickering because the refresh rate os only 60Hz .. Darn .. this thing did an install and I lost everything ....
14) More insults .. I get the activation screen and I click "later" .. I then get a baby blue screen and nothing .... 30 seconds later I get the activation screen again .. I click later ("no") and bang .. that darn blue screen again ..
15) 30 seconds later I get the activation screen again and this time I click on "yes by phone" .. I call up and she grills me but in a nice way .. heck .. I an old fart and I think what did the trick was when I had to get my glasses to read her the product code on the CD and then the one on the screen ... but she activated it .....
16) Finally .. she boots into my desktop and BING BANG BATA BOOM .. EVERYTHING IS STILL THERE .. I mean everything .. I had to install all the drivers and move everything around on the desktop to where it belonged and reset resolution and such but it all went fine and I'm up and running already as if nothing happened ...
17) ate some chicken wings.....

Thank you Lord Evermore and Anandfan for the help ....

 

[Lord Evermore]

Yeah. One thing Microsoft did right. Too bad it took them 8 years.