Can I swap motherboards without reinstalling Windows?

[davexl]

Dumb question, as I am going from one motherboard to another with the same chipset, and using Nvidia chipset drivers rather than Asus modded ones, will I need to reinstall XP?

I have heaps of GHOSTed backups, so I don't mind giving it a shot.

The Asus has been very dissapointing - too many problems.

 

[jose]

I would re-install, just to be safe..

With the DFI mobo you should do the following:

1: flash the mobo to the latest official bios.
2. install XP then use the latest nforce4 drivers .

 

[dorkbert]

You can use the "repair" option (the 2nd one, not the first!) from the Windows install CD. It in effect recopy some of the system files and overwrites some of the registry entries to default. That however also means that you have to reapply all the security patches...

 

[CraigRT]

You can easily swap the boards.

You are going from an nvidia chipset, to an nvidia chipset.

it's easier than people think.

When it comes to switching similar hardware, the mobo swap for example, will almost certainly come out fine in the end leaving windows installed. I did when I went from my S754 to my 939. I just made sure I updated all the nvidia drivers after the switch and the system runs just as flawless as before.

 

[wpshooter]

Originally posted by: jose
I would re-install, just to be safe..

With the DFI mobo you should do the following:

1: flash the mobo to the latest official bios.
2. install XP then use the latest nforce4 drivers .

Like he said you probably can, but to be on the safe side I would do complete installation from scratch.

 

[davexl]

Thanks guys for help.

I think seeing as I have nothing to lose I will try it, and if I hit problems I will reinstall.

 

[First]

It's easier when it's exactly the same chipset, or close to the same chipset. It really helps if it's the same motherboard maker too. It's when you switch to a completely different platform (S939 to S775) that you start encountering problems. Clean install is your friend, even if you have to reinstall all your programs, plug-ins, etc. Think of it this way; you're deleting viruses, spyware, etc. that you may have but don't know about.

 

[Zap]

I've managed to swap boards while keeping the Windows install. I've gone from an Asus P4S800 board (SiS 648 chipset) to an MSI 645E Max (SiS 645 chipset) and just had to reinstall sound drivers. Windows didn't do much besides lose the sound because of a different onboard sound chip. Yes, I went to an older chipset, and it worked fine.

 

[davexl]

We have the winners!

CraigRT and ZAP were right. Kept the XP installation, couple of driver changes and a few reboots - working perfectly.

Fixed heaps of problems, thanks all for the advice.

 

[Geomagick]

Interesting, I was thinking of making the very same swap although for quite different reasons. My A8N-SLI was one of the very first in the UK, long before the DFI's came out and I've blown some of the Silicon Image SATA controller up.

 

[davexl]

it was easy - the only tricky bit was I forgot to uninstall Asus Probe, and the driver crashed wndows explorer. Uninstalled and things went fine from there.

Of course, I could try it without fear due to a Acronis True Image of my C: drive ;-)