Can You Upgrade Mobo And Not...........

[Dudelive]

EDIT: Answer, you can and somethings will work but before you are through you more than likely will format and do a clean install. I tried it without and was not worth the trouble, most things worked but to get all things working fast and smooth took a format............DON'T even try it otherwise.



Ok here goes.....Can you upgrade motherboard and cpu and NOT have to reinstall all the applications. Using XP Pro, Partitioned 40 gig HD. All the better half wants is a little more speed and NOT reinstall all her junk (she don't call it junk....just me).
She probably could do for a complete fresh reinstall, but she says NO.

Every program she installs is installed on her partition and she don't want to redo all the cookies, shortcuts, documents......just plug in the stuff like she did when on win98.

Just remember if momma ain't happy, ain't no body happy. I thinks she really does deserve an upgrade.

Thanks
Dudelive

[bwonders]

Just switch out the Mobo and try to boot if the chipset is the same or similar there is a good chance it will boot right into Windows. If not you will get a blue screen, but not a problem just boot from the XP install cd and perform a repair of the system. Doing this will leave all of her "crap" and all applications in place.

[Bads]

After changing a motherboard and a cpu, I have to boot from the XP cd and choose the repair option.

After a couple of minutes, I was in my system again. With all my programs

[Shiromagius]

I have switched out mobo and CPU just recently without a re-install or a repair. Everything should go smoothly, the only thing that is going to be new to XP are the controller drivers for the IDE/SATA channels. I switched things out, first went into BIOS and set that up the way I wanted it, and then tried booting normally. When I booted normally I froze, so I restarted and booted into Safe Mode. Got in there just fine and while in safe mode it installed all the new controllers and stuff for the new mobo. Then another normal boot and everything was good.

So I would reccomend swapping mobo and CPU, setup bios, then boot into safe mode to set things up, then boot normally... in that order Good luck!

[Dudelive]

Thanks for all the replies. I am thinking about this one for an upgrade.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...Tab=2&NoMapp=0

or the one here

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...ab=2&NoMapp=0]


Input as to good bad or what ever

Thanks
Dudelive

[lickablepig]

personally I would take the ABIT board over teh Soyo, Tiger Direct has the abit.NFS2 w/o raid, newegg has the abit NFS-S for 10.00 more than tiger's and has the raid 0/1, better audio, if i read it correctly and sata hdd support...

- Specifications -

Supported CPU: AMD Duron/Athlon/Athlon XP Processors
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce2 SPP + MCP-T
FSB: 400/333/266MHz
RAM: 3x DIMM for DDR333/266 Max 3GB, 2x DIMM for DDR400 Max 2GB
IDE: 2x ATA 133 up to 4 Devices
Slots: 1x AGP 8X/4X, 5x PCI
Ports: 2xPS/2,2xCOM,1xLPT,SPDIF Out,6xUSB2.0(Rear 2),1xLAN,Audio Ports
Onboard Audio: nVIDIA SoundStorm APU(Dolby 5.1) + 6-Channel AC97 CODEC
Onboard LAN: 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet
Onboard SATA/RAID: 2x Serial ATA, RAID 0/1
Onboard 1394: 2 Ports
Form Factor: ATX

Model#: NF7-S V2
Item#: N82E16813127166

Rating: Vote(s): 289 Review(s): 204
FedEx Saver Shipping $5.00

[PcDad]

If the chipset is the same, *usually* it will boot in safe mode and allow you to install the drivers, If it's different, a repair install is almost allways needed. Another work around is, before you change, boot into Windows on the old board, go to Device Manager and change the IDE controller to "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller"...This will allow Windows to boot with the new board. It will then detect the new controller and allow you to install the correct drivers. I've pulled this off with many different boards and chipsets, and it hasn't failed me yet VIA>SiS, VIA>NForce and Sis>VIA etc. "Should" work for most if the chipset is different. Good Luck

[Dudelive]

Well all went fine....booted up fine and all programs worked fine. Install the board software but the onboard ethernet adapter quit working after a short while. Installed a card adapter and still no network. After going nuts I installed win2k as a dual boot and all works fine. so I guess it means something went wrong with XP after a few minutes. So when I get the wife off of it I hopefull will be able to do a repair and NOT loose everything.

Thanks
Dudelive

[Sporg]

Well, my current machine runs after having upgraded to another MoBo, with new chipset , sound, and two new ethernet controllers.

The secret was first to uninstall any drivers that wasn't needed anymore (in this case for a SIS chipset, and a SBLive).

Then reboot in safe mode, go into Device Manager and remove _everything_!
Choose "No" to any requests for reboot.
("Just Say No!" )

Then you shut down, remove the old hardware, and install the new.
I have read that it is a good idea to keep the drives in the same order when doing this, it probably is.

Reboot, install new drivers as requested, and you should be up and running, with no remnants in your registry, and thus a much lesser risk of conflicts.

[rjz]

Sometimes in setup you must hit f5 or f6 when doing a repair or reinstall depending on your setup cd. This all depends on your hard drive controller and acpi settings.