New Motherboard

[101RRS]

My motherboard has been been giving me grief for some time, so I have decided to go to the computer markets in the morning to get a new one.

When I put it in and put the computer together again - will it just boot up OK or will the OS (XP Pro) say - hey I have changed things (new CMOS/BIOS etc) and not play - so that I will have to reload the OS.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Garry

[langy]

There is some documentation at microsoft and other forums to the effect that XP and other OS don't like having different Plug and play settings ( the general idea anyway, the precise explanation is a bit long). This results in XP booting up and halfway thru the boot resetting, resulting in a continuous loop.
I know this because..well, the normal answer. I went from a Athlon MB to a Intel (P4 @ 3ghz) MB, and had the dreaded loop occur.
However, using another, older spec Intel board, running PC133 memory and a 1.6ghz P4, the system booted up fine and after a small bit of discovering, it was stable.

So if you buy the same spec MB, it's a 50/50 bet as to whether it will work or not.

[incisor]

usually at worst all you need do is a repair install and it will keep your existing programmes etc and you wont lose data. you just boot off your xp cd, and take the "R" repair option that appears on the pick which hard drive menu where you normally select drive or partition etc, you'll need your serial number.

you will probably need to re activate windows. it is a straight forward thing if you use the telephone method, select option 2, input id, if it fails select opton 1 then 1 again and you will get a new one.

you can have some windows update problems afterwards but it gives you plenty of time to backup and prepare and plan for a full clean install.

[loanrangie]

MBR ( master boot record ) will need to be updated before it will boot, i use Seagate seatools which is a free download from Seagate, will work with other brand drives too. Think about if you plab to upgrade sometime soon as well as most of the cheap ram is now DDR2 and older DDR stuff is double the price, for about $160 you can get a new AMD2 4200 cpu and m/board which will at least future proof your pc for a little while longer.

[101RRS]

I bought a new mother board - different brand but similar capabiity.

Seems I was concerned over nothing - put in the new board - started it up and it went straight into windows - picked up the new hardware and installed off the new motherboard CD - all works fine.

Well - for once at least everything works right:)

Thanks for the help though - things do not usually work out so well.

Cheers

Garry

[loanrangie]

I bought a new mother board - different brand but similar capabiity.

Seems I was concerned over nothing - put in the new board - started it up and it went straight into windows - picked up the new hardware and installed off the new motherboard CD - all works fine.

Well - for once at least everything works right:)

Thanks for the help though - things do not usually work out so well.

Cheers

Garry

Good outcome, maybe uses the same albeit updated bios ?

[Pedro_The_Swift]

I bought a new mother board - different brand but similar capabiity.

Seems I was concerned over nothing - put in the new board - started it up and it went straight into windows - picked up the new hardware and installed off the new motherboard CD - all works fine.

Well - for once at least everything works right:)

Thanks for the help though - things do not usually work out so well.

Cheers

Garry

unbelievable:eek:

every single time I've changed MB's (and i've done a few) windows has pooped its pants.

mind you,,, if theres a way to stuff windows up,, I'll find it,,
then do it twice
just to be sure,,