Changing motherboard will windows cope well??

[dc9mm3]

Right now i have a quad core Q6600 on a MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI motherboard which is bad. Wont boot or post. Had power supply checked and its fine.
Having a hard time finding the same motherboard at least at a reasonable price.

So if i changed the motherboard to another brand Will windows XP pro not get totaly screwded up. I have all files backed up to extrernal drive BUT dont want to have to reinstall OS and all of my programs again if i can avoid it.

Can windows cope with a new motherboard being installed? Should i stick to at least the same make motherboard (MSI) i would rather switch to an Asus brand but would really to be able to do this without a complet reload of windows and all the pprograms. Is it possable?

 

[michec]

Brand name shouldn't matter. What could matter is you switched from an Nvidia chipset to an Intel chipset. If you replaced with an Intel chipset motherboard, WinXP wouldn't be able to read your HDD because it has Nforce SATA drivers installed on it. If your replacement motherboard is another 650i motherboard (or another nForce based motherboard), you should be fine.

Also, you can re-install WinXP without having to re-install all your programs. During installation, WinXP will ask if you want to repair or install - select install. After you choose your existing install directory, it will ask if you want to install or repair. Choose repair this time and WinXP will re-install the basic stuff so you can boot into Windows, however, your previously installed programs will still be intact.

 

[dc9mm3]

Thank you for your anwsers. So as long as i stick to a 650I and nvdia chipset i will be ok?

But i am assuming windows XP pro will need to be reinstalled the way you descibe it above. Will the programs i have installed be able to run then?

Iam just hoping not to have to reinstall all the programs as that will be very time consuming.

 

[dc9mm3]

Ok i found this motherboard ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard. So it has the nfocre chipset but its a newer nversion a 750i were my old board was a 650i chipset. Will this work?

 

[core2kid]

When I switched motherboards, I didn't need to reinstall (though when I did it made it so much faster because it removed all the old hardware crap) All I had to do was either run a repair on the OS or to change the drivers from the IDE / ATA /ATAPI Controllers to default. Then loading up the new mobo worked fine.

 

[Assimilator1]

I've just upgraded from an MSI Nforce 650 mbrd to an Asus Intel P45 chipset mbrd, as michec already said if you do a 'repair' install all your installed programs should work, worked fine for me anyway.

You don't have to stick to an Nvidia chipset.

(Btw I assume your saying that your old MSI mbrd has died as my one ran my Q6600 just fine, I only upgraded it because it doesn't overclock quads very well & it doesn't officially support Yorkfields).

Look here for detailed instructions on how to do a 'repair' install for upgrading mbrds.

 

[Gillbot]

A simple changeover does not always work. I suggest backing up your drive to be safe. Since you cannot currently access your system to run sysprep, I'd suggest a clean install but at a minimum back up your drive before the hardware change.

 

[dc9mm3]

Thanks guys. I allready have everything important backed up to 2 seperate external drives. Iam just hoping i dont have to go through a complete reinstall of all my programs. Going now to check out the link about repairing OS. Wish me luck. I hopefuly will have the new motherboard by friday. I really hate using my laptop that iam using now.

The OS XP pro i have to reinstall has service pack 2 on it. I had allready installed service Pack 3 on the broken computer, i wonder if that will cause any issues. I guess i will find out soon enough.

 

[Assimilator1]

If the CD you have is SP2 then trying to use that to 'repair install' windows is likely to cause problems. What you want to do is 'slip stream' SP3 onto a new disc, see here on how to do it.

Originally posted by: Gillbot
A simple changeover does not always work. I suggest backing up your drive to be safe. Since you cannot currently access your system to run sysprep, I'd suggest a clean install but at a minimum back up your drive before the hardware change.

Good point :thumbsup:, I'll 2nd that .

 

[Absolution75]

Make sure you uninstall all of your drivers that you've installed since the initial windows install. Like someone said before, the most important thing is making sure your SATA controllers are set to the general sata controller driver.

I just went from a nVidia 680i to intel P45

 

[Assimilator1]

I didn't even bother to do that , seems to work OK though, maybe I was just lucky . Although I'm currently running of an IDE drive for XP.