Time for a motherboard switch! Ordered my board...

[KeithTalent]

Hey all! I just ordered my motherboard and CPU (ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA with an E6600).

It should be here in a day or two, but now I am a little unsure as to what needs to be done to swap my old board and CPU with the new stuff.

I will be going from an M2N-E & X2 3800+ to this new set, but I am a little concerned about doing the swap and losing valuable files/information.

I am running XP Pro; all other relevant (and irrelevant) information is in my rig page (see sig).

I also saw this guide on the web and was wondering if it is sufficient. Does anyone have any further tips for a noob like me?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Cheers,
KT
:beer:

 

[Puffnstuff]

In xp I've swapped out mb's but I was going from nf2 to nf4 and I first uninstalled all drivers for graphics and chipset as well as any mb specific stuff then shutdown and did the swap. Upon the next boot windows was loading up generic drivers and was able to load. I just tried this on vista going from nf4 ultra to 650i and it didn't work. I ended up doing a clean install and placing a call to ms since it refused to reactivate online or through the automated phone system.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: Puffnstuff
In xp I've swapped out mb's but I was going from nf2 to nf4 and I first uninstalled all drivers for graphics and chipset as well as any mb specific stuff then shutdown and did the swap. Upon the next boot windows was loading up generic drivers and was able to load. I just tried this on vista going from nf4 ultra to 650i and it didn't work. I ended up doing a clean install and placing a call to ms since it refused to reactivate online or through the automated phone system.

Well that sucks. I actually thought Vista was supposed to make it easier to swap hardware (can't remember where I read that)?

It sounds as if I should be ok in XP though (fingers crossed).

KT

 

[Binky]

Originally posted by: KeithTalent

I also saw this guide on the web and was wondering if it is sufficient. Does anyone have any further tips for a noob like me?

I've successfully used solution #2 as described in that guide several times.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: Binky

Originally posted by: KeithTalent

I also saw this guide on the web and was wondering if it is sufficient. Does anyone have any further tips for a noob like me?

I've successfully used solution #2 as described in that guide several times.

Awesome, thanks. That is the kind of confirmation I was looking for! :beer:

KT

 

[KeithTalent]

Ok, not sure what to do now. I'm going insane!!

I installed the new mobo and cpu, got all of my parts plugged in. Boots fine, I go into the BIOS and change a few quick things. Then I put in my WinXP disk to boot as per option 2 in the link above. The only problem is, once I leave the BIOS my keyboard will not work. So it gets to the point "press any key to boot from CD" and of course I can't do it! Then it just ends up going to Windows and causing all kinds of errors, which I can do nothing about since my keyboard nor mouse work. :|

So I am going to go to bed now, but hopefully someone can figure out a way to help me. Please, I beg you!! My keyboard is USB, but I do not have an old ps2 one to put in its place. I have no clue what to do here and I really do not want to reinstall.

Thanks,
KT

Edit: I think I may have figured it out. I enabled Legacy USB in the BIOS and now it seems to recognize the keyboard. Now to see how the repair option goes...

 

[davidb72]

I think you're on the right track about enabling USB in the bios. I have an old keyboard with PS/2 connector that I used when I built my system. I had the same problem with a USB mouse though.

I went out and bought a PS/2 mouse to eliminate that problem.

Good luck.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: davidb72
I think you're on the right track about enabling USB in the bios. I have an old keyboard with PS/2 connector that I used when I built my system. I had the same problem with a USB mouse though.

I went out and bought a PS/2 mouse to eliminate that problem.

Good luck.

Thanks very much! The mouse and keyboard seem to be working ok, but now I have a new problem.

Once the XP repair install gets to 'installing devices', it says 'this drive is not ready, please check to see if it is open, blah blah'. I kept clicking continue, then clicking cancel and it finally went away, but it seems as if the installation is hanging now.

Maybe I am going about this the wrong way? Do I need to do something else first?

Sorry for all of the stupid questions, but I am trying really hard to get this working without having to reformat.

Cheers,
KT

 

[Binky]

The key to the repair thing is these two lines...don't screw this part up!

* Select the ?Install? option. (Don't select repair! The first repair option only verifies XP files against the XP CD versions and makes no system setting changes).

* Setup will find the XP install that is already there and ask if you wish to repair it. Say yes.

Not sure if this will help with your problem.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: Binky
The key to the repair thing is these two lines...don't screw this part up!

* Select the ?Install? option. (Don't select repair! The first repair option only verifies XP files against the XP CD versions and makes no system setting changes).

* Setup will find the XP install that is already there and ask if you wish to repair it. Say yes.

Not sure if this will help with your problem.

Unfortunately that is exactly what I did, but it still is not working.

Thanks for trying though.

KT