Swaping motherboard & processor

[swatoke]

I purchased a new motherboard and processor to go in my wife's computer. I am going to swap out the old motherboard and processor. All of the hardware in her computer is compatible with the new motherboard. Do I have to format the hard drive and reinstall all of her software?

Thanks

 

[Breezie]

yeah most likely.

heard of something called plug and play OS but i don't think that's the case

 

[blodhi74]

is the chipset different ? ... if so yes a clean install is in order .... sorry ... specs please

 

[swatoke]

Yep the chip set is different. I have done this a few times in the past with format and clean install. Just thought there might be an easy way out.

Thanks

 

[blodhi74]

it all depends on the system chipset drivers if U are running WIN XP a clean install is in order

 

[buckmasterson]

I have done this 4 or 5 times. Only one time did I have to format & reinstall Windows. In that case I suspect the new motherboard, as it was flaky even after the restore.

The one big problem can be if your Bride's computer is a manufactored machine, the restore disk it came with most likely won't work any more. If this is the case, in the future you will need to use a straight Windows CD. It also may not work for the board's installation, so you may want to get your hands on the proper Windows CD for this.

I always go to device manager and remove everything first, then shut down. Then I replace the motherboard minus any modems, sound cards, Lan cards, ect... This helps keep things clean during the boot up as the new board is being detected.

When you first boot up you will have to set the bios of the new board, date, time, ect..., if the new board has onboard Lan, Modem, or Sound, be sure to disable them.

Then reboot and the installation should begin. You will notice it asks for drivers from your CD ROM, but you will not have a detected CD ROM the first boot. Point Windows to the system files for these. Once your IDE is detected, you can continue to reboot and use both the motherboard CD, and your Windows CD to complete the installation.

Once the board is loaded, install the video drivers, then install the rest of the cards one at a time.

The worst that can happen is you will have to do a restore.

 

[boomerang]

Look here.

Down near the bottom under Misc. Notes:, I have used the procedure spelled out in the first paragraph numerous times with 100% positive results.

 

[chocoruacal]

Originally posted by: swatoke
I purchased a new motherboard and processor to go in my wife's computer. I am going to swap out the old motherboard and processor. All of the hardware in her computer is compatible with the new motherboard. Do I have to format the hard drive and reinstall all of her software?

Thanks

Always list operating and system specs when you post. Generic response: yes, you'll have to reformat. When you try to boot you'll get a BSOD. Less generic response: if you have XP, do a repair installation. Bye bye old drivers no bye bye all your current data.

 

[drag]

I don't know about windows XP or 2000, but win98 it's fairly easy to swap out motherboard.

Before you do you boot up in safe mode and go to hardward devices and uninstall everything you can that has any association with the motherboard. Pobably uninstall the vid card, too. Just to be safe. Shutdown, swap out the stuff, boot back up in safe mode or regular mode and then let the hardware detection plugnpray stuff to get going.

Then after 30 reboots your finished.

(or if your using linux this is very simple thing if you know what your doing.)

This is one of those, why not? things

Swap out the hardware, try to boot up. If it BSOD or starts screwing up then go and format/reinstall everything. If it works then you just saved yourself the 3-5 hours or so to reinstall everything.

 

[SilverLock]

If the OS is XP or 2000 you could do a sysprep just before swapping stuff out. That should work 98% of the time. Just to be safe backup all the configuration settings and files she needs.

I just upgraded my wife as well, but it was to an entirely different box.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: boomerang
Look here.

Down near the bottom under Misc. Notes:, I have used the procedure spelled out in the first paragraph numerous times with 100% positive results.

I agree that this solution (using a Repair Installation to wipe out the hardware part of the registry) works well. I replaced my motherboard last month with this method, and it works just fine. I did have to reinstall some drivers a few times, but other than that I haven't had a hitch since.

 

[SilverLock]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: boomerang
Look here.

Down near the bottom under Misc. Notes:, I have used the procedure spelled out in the first paragraph numerous times with 100% positive results.

I agree that this solution (using a Repair Installation to wipe out the hardware part of the registry) works well. I replaced my motherboard last month with this method, and it works just fine. I did have to reinstall some drivers a few times, but other than that I haven't had a hitch since.

Why not just use SYSPREP?

 

[swatoke]

Thanks for all the replies. The old system was an MSI K7T266 Pro motherboard with an Athlon 1800+ processor. The new motherboard is an Abit VI7 with a P4 2.8Ghz. The Operating System is Windows XP home version.

 

[Matthias99]

Because I haven't used it before, and I have used the Windows installer? There's an excellent chance sysprep works fine as well; I was just reporting that I had been successful with the method recommended above.

 

[SilverLock]

Cool. I was just looking to see if you had a reason for disliking the sysprep process. Basically sysprep wipes the system of all the drivers and their registry settings - when you boot up it will reinstall everything; which is usually faster than a repair from my experience.