I'm going to do the unspeakable...replace mobo without format

[RedRooster]

My aunt wants a new CPU. Her motherboard sucks and won't support more than 433(some no-name LX board). So I'm going to get her a newer motherboard(Asus BX)/CPU(800E), and try to install it in Windows 98 without formatting. I know, blasphemy, but it's the only option. I hate it too.

What I need from you, is to tell me what I have to delete in device manager before I take out the old one. Do I remove everything, or just everything that looks like it's related to the old motherboard? And that should halfways work then, right? Does anything else have to be uninstalled or changed in Windows?

 

[TunaBoo]

I would uninstall everything, and then reinstall it. But if you want to play risky, don't uninstall anything. More likely than not, it will boot up and you can start installing the new stuff. Just make sure to lower your resolution to 640 by 480 by 256 color first.

 

[kjmcdonald]

Disclaimer: I have never done this so even this may not work. It's my
best guess.

Boot into Safe Mode.
Go into Device Manager.
Remove all devices.
Shutdown cleanly.

Swap boards

Boot up new board
Go through the Driver diskettes and CD'd for your devices as W98
asks for them.

This is probably safest. You won't have anythign left over from
the old board.

It is possible though that you could just switch boards without
removing anything. Add in any drivers that are needed for the new
board, and then delete devices that look like they are no longer
used - That should work also but you may not get them all.

-Kyle

Ps. I have removed every device in a computer in safe mode
before without problems... But I booted back up with the same
MB and cards in it as were in it beforehand. YMMV.

 

[splice]

I did the not OS reinstall on my current system. I went from a KT133 to a AMD760. I didn't have any problem, win2K detected the changes and I installed the new drivers for the board. That was about 5 months ago, and it's running fine.

 

[RossGr]

It makes good sence to remove as much as you can but since the BX boards are closely related to an LX it may not be all that necessary.

Recently, I , just to see if it would work, let my ECS K7S5a Win98SE installation install a ASUS K7M, which is the AMD 760/ Via hybrid, It worked! It takes several passes of recognize hardware and restart, but it finally did it, it worked so well that when I changed out the ASUS (couldn't justify the cost!) for a Shuttle AK31 I just let it have its head and installed the new board, Works fine.

I think that a LX-> BX ought to be pretty easy, just have the correct OS CD handy for when it finally asks for it. When I have done it there is a period of time when the OS asks for the CD but cannot see the CD devise, I just choose to ignore and let it restart, and then it came back and picked up some more hardware, finally it worked.

Really you have nothing to lose, if it doesn't work you will have to format and install for scratch just like you would like to do anyway.

It seems like you are saying that for some reason you cannot do a format reinstall.~^ That is a bit scary because if for some reason this fails your are SOL.

GL

 

[kjmcdonald]

I aggree that just changing boards should work. I know windows will
add what it needs for the new devices it finds. I'm just not convinced
that it removes the stuff for the devices that are nolonger present.

I think it's possible that you may have stuff left in your device
manager that is leftover from both of your earlier boards. Then again
maybe not - It may depend on which board your coming from or which
you're going to, or I maybe worried about something that doesn't
matter Oh well.

-Kyle

 

[dszd0g]

There is actually a trick that some people use to avoid reinstalling Windows 95, 98, or 98SE. It doesn't always work, but worst case you had to reinstall anyways.

Your hardware configuration is stored in the registry. If you delete the tree that stores this information, Windows redetects all your hardware on the next boot.

[Insert Standard disclaimer about Regedit here ]

Go into regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

[Edit: Make a copy of your current Enum]

Delete everything under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum

I found more detailed instructions of this trick:

http://www.bigedtech.com/articles/149.php

This trick does not seem to be very well known. Hopefully, by me posting it here, it will be.

 

[xes]

A week or so ago I removed my abit bx6 rev2/ P3 750 , and slapped in an ECS K7S5A /xp1500+. I booted up, and windows ME detected new hardware etc.Once I had installed the latest mobo drivers etc everything worked beautifully.

 

[Colt45]

I've done it before too..
but that was a 486---> P133 ( at least i think i did.. )
but LX and BX are really similar aren't they?
LX is basically a BX that cant handle 100FSB isn't it? ( i think the max is 83? ), so i dont think there should be too much problem.
if anything is important, you probably should back it up though, just in case..

or test out the registry thing.. seems like that would work, but you k\never know..

good luck!

 

[busterG]

Make sure that you copy the Windows 98 CD to the hard drive before switching. As well as any motherboard drivers you may need. It has been my experience that the CR-ROM is not always available immediately after the first boot. Usually shows up for me on the 3rd boot I believe.

 

[WhoDeeny]

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but won't your registry and device manager settings all get replaced when windows gets reinstalled?

 

[TomC25]

<< Correct me if I'm wrong here, but won't your registry and device manager settings all get replaced when windows gets reinstalled? >>



I recently re-installed Win98 SE and it kept all my drivers for my devices and all my games and apps worked fine. I don't think a re-install wipes out the registry. You will have to specify to wipe out the registry or format.

 

[flexy]

its messy....but it works ! I am the living proof for it

I couldnt get a fresh clean install on my soyo dragon+ board...so i had tio use an existing installation and work off from there. Delete out all devices and let win98se install the new found ones...etc.....not nice....but do-able

 

[dszd0g]

<< Correct me if I'm wrong here, but won't your registry and device manager settings all get replaced when windows gets reinstalled? >>



Maybe I did not make it clear, but the trick I gave does not require reinstalling windows. You just delete the Enum registry tree and it will redetect all your new hardware on the next boot. So you delete it before shutting down to swap the hardware, when it boots up with the new hardware it detects it all again as if you just installed Windows.

 

Ive gone from
440BX to
kt133 to
kt133 to
kt133a to
kt266a to

No formatting, no problems.


Geez,I hate to see your registry !

 

[NelsonMuntz]

I just did this a few weeks ago for my folks. I took them from an old Intel chipset Pentium 233 MHz to a Shuttle AK31A with KT266A and a Duron 900 MHz and what I did was deleted everything in the system hardware on the old system and then put in the new equipment and used a boot disk to get to DOS with CD-ROM access and then reinstalled Windows 98SE and it worked great. All the new stuff got detected just fine. If you go this route, make sure you have drivers available for all of the peripherals you are bringing over from the old computer.

 

[CraigRT]

I switched from an 815 with no preperation which means no format, no uninstalling anything, ANYTHING.. simply swap out the mobo and put in the other one with the new CPU, and it booted up the first time, fine! so I haven't trashed it since.. that was simply amazing, the reason I didn't DO any preparation was because I was planning on formatting, but when everything booted up and worked fine, i decided to keep it!

 

[The Sauce]

I just got chewed out here by a bunch of numbnuts here for doing that with two KT266A boards. Fact is I have done it numerous times with BX boards and had no problems. Don't listen to 'em. Install the mobo and then just reinstall windows over your current installation...gran'ma will never know.

 

[Jiggz]

The trick is to replaced the disk controller with a standard dual controller and the if there are other devices related to the old mobo remove them. Switch mobo and then all the new devices will be detected and installed. I've always done it this way. And never messed up even once. This is with W2K and Win9X.

 

[Rebels7]

You can delete everything under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum or go to safe mode and remove everything under device manager. I always copy the windows cab files to a directory on the hard drive before doing this, just in case the IDE controllers do not work. If this happens, no access to the CD ROMS, and therefore no device loading. I have went from:

440BX
Apollo Pro 133
Apollo Pro 133a
Intel 815
Intel 845

without a re-format and very few problems. In fact until my latest install of Windows XP Pro, (which was done on a separate hard drive), I have not re-installed windows a single time!!!!!!

 

[Belegost]

Unspeakable... Then I guess I shouldn't mention that I haven't formatted between the last three mobos I've had...
Really, as long as you make sure to clean up anything in Safe Mode that didn't disappear when you changed boards, you should be fine.