Reinstalling or not reinstalling, that's the question.

[blacktankofhopelessness]

I've ordered an ASUS A7V888 for my rig so I'll be able to push my Athlon a little bit further through overclocking. The M/B I have now is also an ASUS, namely an A7V8X. My question know is this: Do I need a fresh install of Windows XP for everything to work properly, or will it be sufficient to uninstall and reinstall all the drivers for my components?

System (After upgrade of M/B)

ASUS A7V888
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
512MB RAM PC2700, Samsung
Powercolor Radeon 9800 Pro
Windows XP Professional SP1

 

[Wahsapa]

your suppose to

as another at member said "id really wish they had an 'uninstall' motherboard option"

 

[Rukkian]

I used to think that you would need to, however, here at work, when we were building images for xp, we built one on a new dell desktop, then sent it to a dell laptop, old ibm laptop and an old hp desktop and all worked and were then used for the images for their devices. I think the main reason people say you need to redo it is because you should do it every 6 months to a year just to clean everything up. If you have a clean, and stable os, back it up first, then try it. The worst thing that will happen is you will still have to start over, but chances are, it will work perfectly fine after a reboot or 2.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: Rukkian
I used to think that you would need to, however, here at work, when we were building images for xp, we built one on a new dell desktop, then sent it to a dell laptop, old ibm laptop and an old hp desktop and all worked and were then used for the images for their devices. I think the main reason people say you need to redo it is because you should do it every 6 months to a year just to clean everything up. If you have a clean, and stable os, back it up first, then try it. The worst thing that will happen is you will still have to start over, but chances are, it will work perfectly fine after a reboot or 2.

Remove IDE drivers before attempting this.

Older versions of windows were worse; I transplanted a 98se from a K6 to a P3, and all the old K6 hardware is still latently installed; it causes the odd screw-up, but the users (my parents) don't seem to care enough to want me to do a proper reformat.

 

[chocoruacal]

If one is smart, one has separate partitions for the OS and Data, thus making this question a moot point. Much easier to reinstall windows, then try and diagnose technical difficulties if one has to guess whether its the new system parts or the ghetto installation that is puking.

 

[blacktankofhopelessness]

All helpful pointers. Thanks!

I do have my Windows and Programs installed on one partition with my bigger partition containing Games, MP3's, movies and other stuff. I just feel it's such a hassle to install Windows and all my programs and update them all over again... But I guess that's the path I'm choosing after all.

Thanks again guys!

 

[Jeff7]

You might. Sometimes Windows will be able to boot up far enough to detect the new hardware.
Or, it could be like a recent upgrade I did - Epox 8KTA3 (VIA KT266A chipset) to a Biostar M7NCG 400 (nForce2 IGP). BSOD during bootup - it apparently won't work with the new IDE controller on the motherboard, so it just crashes. Microsoft's solution of course - install the old motherboard.
So, reinstall for that system.

To second Wahsapa's seconding of what someone else said - some kind of a "Prep system for Motherboard swap" button in Device Manager would be very handy.