Author Topic: How well does WinXP accept a new motherboard? (Read 787 times)

Wanker · « **on:** May 12, 2005, 08:54:15 AM »

Hi guys,

My erstwhile trusty Asus P4C800 Deluxe motherboard finally died on me last night after 1.5 years of loyal, trouble-free service.

If I can't find another P4C800 Deluxe while shopping today, I may be forced to buy a different brand or at least a different model.

Question: If I buy a different model motherboard and put all my existing hardware on it and boot it up, will WinXP Professional SP2 accept it with open arms and detect all the new hardware contained in the motherboard, like the chipset, onboard LAN/audio, etc? Or am I going to have to format and start from scratch? I'd rather not format the hard drive if I don't have to.

Normally, I consider tragic events like this as a stellar opportunity to upgrade and get a faster box, but frankly, this system is performing well in every game and still has another year's worth of life in her:

P4 2.4ghz @ 3.01 ghz
1 GB Kingston Hyper-X PC3200 RAM
Seagate 120GB SATA hard drive
128 MB ATI Radeon 9800 Pro

If you were me, what would you do? Just get another Asus P4C800 Deluxe, or maybe something a little newer along with a faster CPU?

If someone could answer the question about what how XP handles a new motherboard thrown into the picture, I'd appreciate it.

I do keep the system clean and defragged, so there is not a lot of extraneous files lying around. That's why I'm loathe to do a format/re-install if I don't have to.

Thanks!

JB73 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 12, 2005, 09:05:54 AM »

in a word

badly

1.5 years and it was "expected" to die? i have had mine for almost 2.5 and it better keep going a while. MB's don't just "wear out"

Makarov9 · « **Reply #2 on:** May 12, 2005, 10:03:09 AM »

banana,

From my experience XP has done a good job accepting new MB's. I've changed mine about 3 times over the past couple of years with the same install of XP. All totally different boards. I just clean out the old drivers and install the new...so far so good.

maddog · « **Reply #3 on:** May 12, 2005, 10:04:34 AM »

It has been my experience that a new motherboard requires a clean install.... I probably needed this anyway by this time..... I have heard that when windows comes up and fails (which it will) you can do a repair and it will re-adjust itself. I have never done this because, (as I mentioned) I needed a clean install anyway.

I have used Asus MBs forever but this last time went to a Gigabyte MB and its working flawlessly.... Installed the same way........ Took a while to figure out how to load raid drivers in "basic" mode so I could use the raid controller as "just" a SATA disk controller..... but once I did it works, again, flawlessly...

Good luck...

PS.... Playing taps for the dead MB keeps the Geek Gods on your side....

Buy the way I have an AMD64 4000 cooled by an Zalman (big fin one) and it keeps it surprizingly cool and quiet as advertised.... Temps in the 30s.... Impressed....

Wanker · « **Reply #4 on:** May 12, 2005, 10:11:31 AM »

Well, I've been reading about what Microsoft calls an "In-place upgrade(reinstallation) of Windows XP", and I think it's worth a shot if it comes to that.

I can't seem to find anyone selling the P4C800 Deluxe now, it seems to have been superceded by the P4C800E Deluxe, the only difference being an Intel gigbit onboard lan adapter instead of the 3com gigabit onboard lan adapter found on the "non-E" deluxe. I've decided to go for this MB and hope that XP likes it well enough.

If not, I'm prepared to do a fresh format.

See you guys back online when I get my system resurrected. Should be this weekend sometime.

Makarov9 · « **Reply #5 on:** May 12, 2005, 10:23:31 AM »

banana, if I remember right one time my system didn't boot after a MB swap. I did the "Repair", that MD mentioned, from the XP CD and it refreshed all the drivers to default. Of course you would have to re-install al security patches after.

Roscoroo · « **Reply #6 on:** May 12, 2005, 10:48:28 AM »

ive swapped my xp hard drive around several times on different mb's / cpu sizes .. it works ok within amd 32 bit processors .
im not shure about pent or amd 64 bit swaps though .

Grits · « **Reply #7 on:** May 12, 2005, 03:15:35 PM »

I swapped the MB in my system, both ASUS boards, and it went perfectly smoothly, XP found all the drivers easily. I did have to reactivate it, but other than that it was easy.

Seeker · « **Reply #8 on:** May 12, 2005, 04:19:00 PM »

There's a 90% chance it'll work.

There after; there's a 100% chance it'll perform less than optimaly.

It's a bit like swapping heads on an engine and not giving it a valve job.

Your best bet is to do it; to see if it works; then if it does work; back up all the data you want to keep and then do a full format and re-install.

It's easier in the long run; especially if you're a gamer; games don't like this sort of kludge work; while most office apps'll work OK.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #9 on:** May 12, 2005, 04:48:41 PM »

If you make use of the repair option (not the one that takes you to a DOS prompt) from the XP CD, you should not have any problems as all it does is install the default drivers for everything,

That said, you will need to install the new motherboard drvers immedaitely after reboot, then go through the MS Update site to re-install all the updates.

The things that get messed up are programs that replaced system libraries with thier own libraries.

That is pretty much a worse case scenario. First try and boot to safe mode. If you can get to safe mode, you can install the motherboard drivers and then boot up and all should be right with the world.

llama · « **Reply #10 on:** May 12, 2005, 07:02:58 PM »

I have had fairly good luck replacing one mainboard with a new one where they both had (mostly) the same chipsets. That's not to say that you can't make it work with wildly different chipsets, but when i have done it, the system was more prone to werid crashes and other oddities.

If you can get a new board with the same chipsets, your life will be much easier.

-Llama

tapakeg · « **Reply #11 on:** May 15, 2005, 09:02:11 PM »

You have a day left to bid, it's at 28 bucks now, brand new

motherboard

Tapakeg

Kev367th · « **Reply #12 on:** May 16, 2005, 05:00:41 PM »

1 golden rule if changing mobo with XP or 2000

BEFORE you swap the mobo-

Change the IDE drivers to Microsoft Standard IDE drivers, i.e. not specific chipset IDE.

If you use SATA pre-install the new SATA drivers using the add/remove hardware wizard.

Prevents the "inaccessible boot device" BSOD on startup.

If you use an onboard network chip, do the same pre-install the new drivers.

Then change the motherboard.

humble · « **Reply #13 on:** May 16, 2005, 06:26:17 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by tapakeg
You have a day left to bid, it's at 28 bucks now, brand new

motherboard

Tapakeg

Up to $102...people are just out of their minds I guess:)