Upgrading Motherboards

[cwos]

Is it true that you can sometimes get away with upgrading your motherboard without having to reinstall windows?

 

[crazyeddie]

Only if you're running W95/W98/WMe

If you're running W2000 or XP, you might be able to replace with the same board or general chipset. If the hardware changes noticably, you're done.

 

[Daddyjaxx]

I've tried booting into XP after replacing a Soltek with an Asus, both ways, with the same chipset and it BSOD and reboots. You'll have to format and reload I'm afraid.

 

[MTSteel]

You should be able to reseal XP using sysprep and install the new board.

 

[MTSteel]

Here is info from one site

Solution 5; Microsoft SYSPREP:

I have swapped motherboards several times. The key is preparation of the old system before taking out the old motherboard.

There is a SYSPREP tool on the XP CD.

You may need to extract files from the Windows XP CD, files are located at CD:\SUPPORT\TOOLS\ in a cab file called DEPLOY.CAB. The files are Sysprep.exe and Setupcl.exe.

With the old motherboard still intact:

You run sysprep and "RESEAL" Windows XP.

Then you put the new board in, and it re-activates Windows XP and populates the device manager list.

You do need to re-activate with the same key-code, and if you exhaust that number of activations, it will prompt you to call

Microsoft and you get a new release key at no cost from them over the phone.

If you have hardware conflicts with the new motherboard and any device, you will have extensive problems noticeable by memory dumps.

For detailed info. go to :

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q302577

 

[crazyeddie]

Wow, great information here MTSteel! I'm doing a motherboard upgrade tonight and your timing couldn't be better!

 

[Daddyjaxx]

Excellent info. That will save a bunch of time. It used to be 30 minutes to swap out the motherboard and 4 hours reinstalling all the software.