new motherboard

[Oscar1613]

my friend wants me to upgrade her computer for her. her computer is kinda old ('97) so im most likely gonna have to upgrade motherboard as well as the cpu (thinking along the lines of a soyo dragon+ and a 1500+ xp). is it possible to upgrade the motherboard without reinstalling windows and not run into problems so we dont have to reinstall all the programs? like is it possible to go into safe mode before switching the mobos and removing all the mobo stuff from system/device manager, delete some *.inf files, and do a reg clean without running into any probs that you would usually have if you just switched the mobos w/o reinstalling windows?

 

[Darius]

That is a tough sell, I has been done before, but it is highly unadvisable. You should really do a clean install.

 

[Oscar1613]

even if you get rid of all traces of the old mobo? what makes it so unstable anyway?

 

[Ionizer86]

I second the clean install, but back up the data first (to a network hdd or to a cd-r/rw).

In addition, take a look at the Athlon XP 1700+ now. Its price is only around $10 more than a 1500+. 1800+ is still a good $30 more than 1500+, so I think the value point has already moved from 1600+ to 1700+.

 

[KouklatheCat]

I have done many motherboard changes over the last several years on my computer and my friends. I have only had one MOBO change without a fresh install work. If they work it is usually only a matter of time before something goes goofy. I hate backing up my stuff, formatting my drive, installing windows and then getting everything back to the way I like it as much as the next. I would advise you to do a fresh install otherwise your friend will be calling you to fix her computer in a couple of months or weeks.

 

[Ionizer86]

I think it is the registry and all the undeleted program files, shared files in the windows folder, etc that makes it unstable. Anyway, it's been 4 years since your friend got her comp. She probably hasn't bothered to format it at all for those 4 years. So it'd be good to utilize this opportunity to wipe the hdd. I find that buying an HDD or putting in a mobo are some of the best opportunities for me to wipe the hdd (yes, you can decide not to wipe the hdd with a new one by ghosting all the files over).

 

[panhead49]

its really a hassle installing a new m/b without a fresh install as said above.....the new m/b, after install and boot will start looking to update everything........pci to agp bus.....list is endless
when your finally done ..you have a patched and cross pathed registry....it is slower and things can go wrong at any time.......i wonder if you could just erase windows dir. and then swap m/b's....
other wise just reload windows on a fresh formated parition

 

[Oscar1613]

a friend suggested removing the enum section from the registry before switching the mobos so windows would redetect all the hardware after we do the switch... would that work?

or, like Ionizer suggests, can we ghost the programs somehow and not the windows files if we get a new hd with it?

oh and thanks for the tip on the 1700+... depending on her current case, we might just get a new PS and get the 1700+, but if we have to buy a new case, we wont have enough budget to buy a better PS than what comes with the new case to power the 1700+ (only goes up to 1600+)

 

[Ionizer86]

Ghosting doesn't do much; everything, including the windows folder, registry, etc are copied perfectly to another HDD. Norton Ghost comes with some mobos.

Sharkyextreme shows you CPU costs so that you can make a good choice on a CPU. Don't forget that you can buy a 1700+ and see if the PSU will take it...it's ok to try to power up 1700+ or 1800+ chips on a 1600+ approved PSU as long as all is stable (AMD's requirements are strict, and some people need good PSUs to power up like 2 HDDs and 2 optical drives).

I'd also like to mention that a price drop from intel (and AMD) is coming up on Jan. 27 The non-flagship CPUs may not see a price drop, but the 1800+ to 2000+ should decline in price, IMHO.

A decent 350W Sparkle PSU runs about $60 or so.

 

[Strawberrymom]

reformating and why dont you sk her what shes going to be doing on it?

Why is it men think they need to go all out when a 600 dollar computer does the same job as a 1500 dollar one?

office or internet wont look any dift.

 

[Ionizer86]

Why is it men think they need to go all out when a 600 dollar computer does the same job as a 1500 dollar one?

Strawberrymom has a point. A $40 or so Duron 950 or Duron 1.0 will work fine as well. However, I have a counterpoint: DIYing is so cheap these days that we can build really nice rigs for ~$600-$700 (these rigs can have the power of those P4 2.0ghz Dell comps for much less $):

Athlon XP 1700+ . . . . . . . $110
Decent HSF. . . . . . . . . . . .$20
DRAGON+ . . . . . . . . . . . . .$150
256mb DDR . . . . . . . . . . . $80
Geforce 2 TI video card . . $100
Decent case and PSU . . . .$50
Maxtor 40gb ATA133 HDD $100

This all adds up to $610, so this is a $600 computer, basically. And yes, it does perform as well as or better than a $1500 Dell computer. Ahhh, the beauty of DIY!

The Dragon + comes with good sound and lan. I'm not adding shipping, tax, or monitor cost, because OEM computers also require shipping, tax, and you can configure them to come without a monitor. Reformatting is necessary because HDDs get so badly cluttered after prolonged use...the comp has been 4 years already.

Anyway, Oscar1613, good luck on the build

 

[NorcoO1]

This is what you do, I'm assuming she's running Win98. Right click my computer and go to the area where it shows you all the Compu ter devices. Now remove everything and shut down. Then move the hard drive over to the new comp, and it should re-detect everything. Good luck!

 

[Ionizer86]

Norco01, um...doesn't the comp ask to reboot every time a single device is removed? I'm not sure, but I think this is what happens. In any case, a reformat is the best idea. But then again, I've never installed a new HDD or new mobo without reformatting...

 

[NorcoO1]

I believe there's a way to remove everything at once, and so what if it asks you? There IS the No option. We do this all the time at my school when we create ghost images for when we want to re-ghost computers, and it works flawlessly.

 

[Pretty Cool]

I have done the registry/safe mode thing. Although it's not 100% perfect, you can boot the system and reduce the number of reinstalls. My suggestion would be to try it. Back you hard disk. Delete the Enum key or even the complete local machine entry. Remove everything from device manager in safe mode. Get rid of all the extra .inf's in windows/inf folder. Insert the new motherboard. Plug the hard drive in the system and boot the system. Have the drivers disks ready. You'll probably have to reboot a few times before all the hardware is recognized. Check the device manager to make sure. Then run and test all your applications. By now, you should be able to determine whether or not a complete reformat is necessary.

 

[Boonesmi]

the easiest way to remove everything from device manager is to just delete enum in regedit (do that right before shutting down the pc for the last time)
regedit/local machine/enum... delete the whole enum directory

then when you put the system back together with the new mobo and start up windows will redetect all your hardware (motherboard hardware and addin cards)


this does work, but its still better to just reformat one thing to remember is your dialup adapter often times has to be reinstalled before you can get your modem to work

 

[Oscar1613]

yeah, we are on a budget of about $650 and so far i can get everything equal to or less than that.... mostly b/c this is just an upgrade, not a whole new computer, so we dont have to buy a monitor,keyboard, mouse (tho i might get her an optical one), floppy drive, or cd rom. definitely not a $1500 operation

i guess we'll have to back everything up then try the enum thing and see if it works. if not we'll either totally reformat or try something else.

any more ideas/warnings about this type of operation?

 

[Ionizer86]

Oscar1613, since you have a budget of $650, it seems that I've been able to provide a decent general system. You already have a case, so that may be able to stay. If she's not playing games, you can drop the Geforce 2 Ti for a Geforce 2 GTS-V and save $40 there. That's $570, and after adding in shipping, taxes, and stuff, you'll be within budget

Perhaps, if you need any more help in developing a system drop by general hardware, make a thread, and you'll get lots of help from the people at AT

 

[Oscar1613]

well i already got most of the hardware picked out... since no one in her family plays games, she doesnt need much in terms of graphics power so we're either gonna keep her old video card (if its not an integrated mobo...) or get a radeon 32ddr (maybe even le...) since it generally has better 2d quality and is only about $60. but thanks for the hardware advice anyway.

 

[Oscar1613]

grrrrr.... had everything picked out and i was gonna go overto her house tomorrow to take a look at what we could use from the old computer, but her mom backs out saying they might as well just get a whole new system and order a dell instead:frown:

oh well... at least i know what to do in case i ever do upgrade a computer and need to save the programs on the hd...

</semi-rant>

 

[MoFunk]

Go over there and tell her..."dude you getting a Dell".

 

[Ionizer86]

Dude that sux, after all that planning out on a comp for ~$600, her mom wants to buy her a $1500 or so piec of ****?

The i845D still sux; even though it doesn't knock like 500mhz of performance off the P4 chip, it still takes out like 200mhz compared to an i850 setup. (I'm assuming they're buying an i845D system).

Convince her mom that you can do a job so much better for hundreds and hundreds of $$$ less. It's worth a try.... But why...why would the mom want to squander so much more $ on a comp?