Best way to change out motherboard in XP

[rkoenn]

I have built a huge number of systems in my time but was wondering about suggestions concerning installing a new motherboard in my personal box. I have a new MSI NForce 2 board coming in next week. I am currently using an MSI KT4 board and therefor will be changing out boards. With my experience with XP Pro so far, I know I may end up with a registry full of unused hardware data when I do this. Can I, like with the old 9Xs, delete the enumerator or hardware part of the registry and let the system detect the hardware all over again? Is this feasible in XP Pro? Or, should I just let the system detect everything new again and not mess around in the registry? I can always do a new install of Windows but I did that just 3 weeks ago before I realized I would be getting the new board. All help and enlightment is greatly appreciated.

 

[Chesebert]

NT based systems have a hard time doing what you have been doing with win9x. Even with win9x it is not a garentee (l always loose some functinality). You might end up with a dead XP installation. when I say dead, I mean it won't even boot into the safe mode. But that's just what I have seen. Someone else might have a better experience with this.

gl upgrading!

I hate swapping boards!! I wish someone would come up with a nice little software that migrates the old to the new. I would actually go out and buy the damn software!

 

[chizow]

XP Pro is actually pretty good with mobo swap outs b/c you can boot from the installation CD and repair the installation. If you don't want to re-format and re-install to preserve your data and installed software, you can try this:

1) Go to hardware settings/device manager from my computer

2) Go through the devices and remove any devices controlled by your own chipset. Usually this includes but is not limited to your memory controllers, IDE bus drivers, USB controllers, AGP drivers etc.

3) Go into BIOS and set fail-safe defaults

4) Insert your WinXP CD into your CD drive and save settings/reboot

5) Go through the WinXP set-up and choose install WinXP on the current drive/repair the current installation.

Before you try this back up your data files just in case.

This worked for me going from an 8KHA+ to an A7N8X. Haven't had any issues. XP loaded up the default Nforce2 drivers, then I installed the latest ones no problem. All old devices were detected in seconds and I was running along as normal. Its still probably better to do a fresh format and install each time you change your mobo, but this'll minimize downtime.

Hope this helps,

Chiz

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: Chesebert
NT based systems have a hard time doing what you have been doing with win9x. Even with win9x it is not a garentee (l always loose some functinality). You might end up with a dead XP installation. when I say dead, I mean it won't even boot into the safe mode. But that's just what I have seen. Someone else might have a better experience with this.

gl upgrading!

I hate swapping boards!! I wish someone would come up with a nice little software that migrates the old to the new. I would actually go out and buy the damn software!

you havent used XP yet have you?

board swaps with XP work very well. you shouldn't have any issues.

 

[topaz22]

I had just swapped boards from a kt266a to a nforce2, and win xp did not like that at all, and I tried to boot off the cd and use the repair installation, but that didnt help at all. I think that the chipset drivers were still intact, because it would almost boot all the way... I ended up reinstalling, it was time for it anyway.

 

[vtqanh]

Haven't tried to swap my motherboard with XP yet. I've done it twice in the past with Win 2k Pro. Both times it gave me the blue screen and i had to reformat the boot drive

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: topaz22
I had just swapped boards from a kt266a to a nforce2, and win xp did not like that at all, and I tried to boot off the cd and use the repair installation, but that didnt help at all. I think that the chipset drivers were still intact, because it would almost boot all the way... I ended up reinstalling, it was time for it anyway.

Ack! I did the same upgrade right b4 X-mas. But I actually went ahead and removed all Via controllers and devices in hardware manager before doing so. Figured competitors would have their little "covert driver wars" at my expense if I didn't. Looks like I was right

Chiz

 

[Compddd]

I swapped out my mobo 2 days ago. WindowsXP wouldn't boot up at all, not into safe mode either. Flashed my bios to the newest version and everything came alive again. Guess I was lucky.

 

[John2583]

Backup your hard drive first, or at least important files. I did exactly what you're describing for a friend recently. He ordered some no name computer from a TV shopping channel(!) The motherboard was some micro ATX board, the computer would turn off randomly. So I helped him out. We picked out an Gigabyte K7 Triton400(GA-7VAX) We swapped it out with the old hard drive with WinXP installed and it booted up just fine. It found all the new hardware. It had a little trouble with the USB, but that is to be expected because it's USB 2.0. So at least give it a try.

 

[amdskip]

YMMV with this but back up, back up, back up is the best advice. Do the repair an installation from the cd. Sometimes it's best to start off with a fresh format.

 

[NesuD]

Swapping a motherboard without a clean windows install has been dubious for me at best. Most of the time the system wouldn't boot for me after the board swap and the few times it did the board never performed as it should have. In my experience the best method has always been a format and clean install of windows whenever i change out a board.

 

[Budman]

Doesnt anybody read the FAQs anymore?

Helping Windows Survive a Motherboard Upgrade

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: Budman
Doesnt anybody read the FAQs anymore?

Helping Windows Survive a Motherboard Upgrade

thanks Budman ! ..was looking for it while reading and saw your post..chizow has the handle on the different chip drivers issues..but like always being said..backup your stuffz

 

[topaz22]

Man, I wish that I had known about that FAQ.... i guess i was a little overzealous when the new MB came in.. and It had been 7 or 8 months since I did a fresh install, so I felt that it was due sometime soon, so if it didn't work, I'd just reinstall..

Give the fact that windows likes fresh installations every once in a while ( mainly win9x, i've not used win 2k/xp for very long ), I've gotten sort of used to it, though I've never reinstalled linux just because I thought that it would make things run better, and I've never had a problem swapping out mb's in linux or freebsd. I'm surprised that microsoft hasn't put a little button in their menu, "I'm going to swap out motherboards, please reset my drivers to factory." If I had just recently done a fresh install, I may have considered uninstalling my drivers prior to the swap.

I guess microsoft isn't to blame, it looks like via's drivers don't have any sanity checking to see if the devices are actually there, it just tries to access them....

 

[Budman]

People need to go look at the FAQ's more often,if they did I think 50% of the questions asked would'nt need to be posted.