Swapping motherboards and Windows XP?

[Otraotaku]

im planning on buying a new motherboard... but im pretty sure if i swap out a motherboard for another i wont be able to use the Windows XP on my hardrive... is this true in cases? and any (expereinced) alternative to keeping an OS and not paying another $$$ to M$?

[SOAPboy]

Might work..


Depends on chipset..

Most likely, youll have to reactivate windows, and reinstall chipset drivers..

[Otraotaku]

Might work..


Depends on chipset..

Most likely, youll have to reactivate windows, and reinstall chipset drivers..

so you mean, (if the manufacture of my old computer had windows installed i would be SOL?)

[SOAPboy]

Might work..


Depends on chipset..

Most likely, youll have to reactivate windows, and reinstall chipset drivers..

so you mean, (if the manufacture of my old computer had windows installed i would be SOL?)

No..
Im saying youll have to reactivate windows, and reinstall chipset drivers..

Absolute worst case, youll be reinstalling windows..

Pirate copy?

[Otraotaku]

Might work..


Depends on chipset..

Most likely, youll have to reactivate windows, and reinstall chipset drivers..

so you mean, (if the manufacture of my old computer had windows installed i would be SOL?)

No..
Im saying youll have to reactivate windows, and reinstall chipset drivers..

Absolute worst case, youll be reinstalling windows..

Pirate copy?

*Edit* no, its a manufactures Reinstall CD

[Harry Potter]

I think he was asking you if your copy of xp is pirate. (This may go post hell soon )

If it is, you don't have to worry about activation.

As far as re-installing when installing a new MB, definitely positively a great idea.

Unless you're replacing the MB with an identical model.

[Otraotaku]

I think he was asking you if your copy of xp is pirate. (This may go post hell soon )

If it is, you don't have to worry about activation.

As far as re-installing when installing a new MB, definitely positively a great idea.

Unless you're replacing the MB with an identical model.

im just very worried about having to get another copy of Windows XP after Purchasing almost 400$ worth of hardware... (and id like to have a backup plan if it does)

[SOAPboy]

If its an HP or Compaq, or sony, ect prebuilt PC reinstall disc, guess what, you have to buy windows again if you replace that motherboard..

[Otraotaku]

If its an HP or Compaq, or sony, ect prebuilt PC reinstall disc, guess what, you have to buy windows again if you replace that motherboard..

  thats kinda what i meant by manufactures... >.< looks like im gonna have to go down the dark path on this one... 

[SOAPboy]

Spend the 100 bucks man.. its worth it to be fully updated.. 

[Otraotaku]

Spend the 100 bucks man.. its worth it to be fully updated.. 

im still in HS, no car no job... (no more $)  heh

[SOAPboy]

Spend the 100 bucks man.. its worth it to be fully updated.. 

im still in HS, no car no job... (no more $)  heh

[missioncontrol]

once you get out of HS you have a job and car but still no $ ....

[AtomSmasher]

If you change the motherboard then you will not be able able to boot, you will get a blue screen of death everytime windows tries to startup.  The only time this won't happen is if you replace your motherboard with the same motherboard (as in your old mobo went bad so you got a new one), or it might still work if it has the same north and south bridge on the mobo, but I doubt thats what your doing.

In other words, if your goal is upgrading your computer, then yes, you will need to reinstall windows.

[USSEnterprise]

Actually, he doesn't have to reinstall Windows even if the motherboard is different. I did a similar thing on Windows 98! But I got through it. XP is generally better at handling driver conflicts than older versions. The first few boots will be a pain in the ass. But once Windows finally resets all the drivers, you should be good to go. I have had it work before. Like I said, though, it is a pain.

[AtomSmasher]

I've tried it 3 or 4 times on different computers and it never worked, always immediately went to blue screen of death, couldn't even get to the "boot to safe mode" menu.  Also at a job I had we had about a dozen computers and harddrive images backed up for each computer.  If you loaded the wrong image onto a computer then you would also get the BSOD.  It may be possible to make it work, maybe boot with a recovery disk and change the drivers around manually somehow, but it wouldn't be easy.

[jbox]

it's hit and miss. one has worked for me, a couple didn't. I find deleting every single device in the device manager before you swap over helps a bit.

[USSEnterprise]

it wouldn't be easy.

It definitley isn't easy. It took me 2 full days to get it running smoothly, but it saved me $100. One thing I recommend before tearing the computer apart, if you haven't already, is to go into device magager and delete as many drivers for devices as you can. The transition will be easier

[jbox]

<edit - didn't say anything useful (as usual), and it turned out to be not so funny once sober - sorry Enterprise >

In summary, since you have one legal license just get yourself a corporate edition from somewhere and be done with all this frickin' kerfuffle.

[SOAPboy]

Actually, he doesn't have to reinstall Windows even if the motherboard is different. I did a similar thing on Windows 98! But I got through it. XP is generally better at handling driver conflicts than older versions. The first few boots will be a pain in the ass. But once Windows finally resets all the drivers, you should be good to go. I have had it work before. Like I said, though, it is a pain.

This isnt win 98.. he will have to reactivate windows..

I've tried it 3 or 4 times on different computers and it never worked, always immediately went to blue screen of death, couldn't even get to the "boot to safe mode" menu.  Also at a job I had we had about a dozen computers and harddrive images backed up for each computer.  If you loaded the wrong image onto a computer then you would also get the BSOD.  It may be possible to make it work, maybe boot with a recovery disk and change the drivers around manually somehow, but it wouldn't be easy.

XP boots.. and itll run ok.. but far from great most of the time..

But saying if you swap the mobo you cant get it to boot is bs.. its possible..


Failsafe way of doing it.. Totally uninstall EVERY driver for your chipset, ide drivers, and onboard sound drivers.. power down, swap mobos, slap new one in..
Again, still have to activate again, but itll be a bit more stable that way..

[Harry Potter]

But saying if you swap the mobo you cant get it to boot is bs.. its possible..

You can get it to boot, but it'll be unstable as all hell at best. I tried this a few time and it wasn't worth it. Besides, re-installing takes a few hours. Using this slacker method will just cause more problems in the long run and he'll have to re-install anyway.

Failsafe way of doing it.. Totally uninstall EVERY driver for your chipset, ide drivers, and onboard sound drivers.. power down, swap mobos, slap new one in..
Again, still have to activate again, but itll be a bit more stable that way..

It's not those that matter. It's chipset drivers, APM drivers and any core system drivers that are important and these don't come on installation disks. They come with XP/2000/whatever.

[USSEnterprise]

This isnt win 98.. he will have to reactivate windows..

How old is your copy of XP? I thought you didn't have to activate XP until SP2 came out? Additionally, if you have 2000, thats just as good, if not better. Not Millenium, though.

[Harry Potter]

XP required activation from day one. Australia was the first to try this out. It was a miserable mess.

[SOAPboy]

But saying if you swap the mobo you cant get it to boot is bs.. its possible..

You can get it to boot, but it'll be unstable as all hell at best. I tried this a few time and it wasn't worth it. Besides, re-installing takes a few hours. Using this slacker method will just cause more problems in the long run and he'll have to re-install anyway.

Failsafe way of doing it.. Totally uninstall EVERY driver for your chipset, ide drivers, and onboard sound drivers.. power down, swap mobos, slap new one in..
Again, still have to activate again, but itll be a bit more stable that way..

It's not those that matter. It's chipset drivers, APM drivers and any core system drivers that are important and these don't come on installation disks. They come with XP/2000/whatever.

Did you even read what i said? lol

Chipset, Ide, ect.. all drivers related to the motherboard..

 

[SOAPboy]

This isnt win 98.. he will have to reactivate windows..

How old is your copy of XP? I thought you didn't have to activate XP until SP2 came out? Additionally, if you have 2000, thats just as good, if not better. Not Millenium, though.

Since beta theres been activation.. only copys that didnt have it were corp multi license copys..

[USSEnterprise]

Has anyone here ever tried ReactOS? Its made to be compatible w/ XP, but is legally free.

[AtomSmasher]

XP boots.. and itll run ok.. but far from great most of the time..

But saying if you swap the mobo you cant get it to boot is bs.. its possible..

Well I'm just telling what I've learned from my experience.  As I've said I've tried it a number of times and I've never gotten it even close to booting up.  Granted I never uninstalled all the old drivers first and didn't try very hard to install new drivers, but since I was never even able to make it to the boot to safe mode menu, I figured it wasn't worth my trouble and just reinstalled.

[SOAPboy]

XP boots.. and itll run ok.. but far from great most of the time..

But saying if you swap the mobo you cant get it to boot is bs.. its possible..

Well I'm just telling what I've learned from my experience.  As I've said I've tried it a number of times and I've never gotten it even close to booting up.  Granted I never uninstalled all the old drivers first and didn't try very hard to install new drivers, but since I was never even able to make it to the boot to safe mode menu, I figured it wasn't worth my trouble and just reinstalled.

Yeah, first time i ever did that i did the same thing..

Just gotta remember to uninstall drivers before you swap mobos

[mrhowell]

One of the nicer benefits of working in the K-12 environment,  unlimited software.  Windows XP, Server 2003, Netware w unlimited license,  Office 2003,  Pagemaker, Photoshop, etc.  If I could only get the school system to do a gaming class.  I need a copy of Call of Duty 2.  As for your problem, just make good backups of anything important like saved games and such.

[allroy1975]

I wrecked the BIOS on my MB about 2 weeks ago (i'm retarded) and I got a new mobo, different manufacture, different processor, booted up....worked fine

XP SP2.

that's just my experience though.

Allroy

[USSEnterprise]

I wrecked the BIOS on my MB about 2 weeks ago (i'm retarded) and I got a new mobo, different manufacture, different processor, booted up....worked fine

XP SP2.

that's just my experience though.

Allroy

You wrecked the BIOS? Did you try flashing it?

[SOAPboy]

I wrecked the BIOS on my MB about 2 weeks ago (i'm retarded) and I got a new mobo, different manufacture, different processor, booted up....worked fine

XP SP2.

that's just my experience though.

Allroy

Chipset might of been the same, or same brand

[Otraotaku]

which drivers are you  exactly talking about? and where from device manager?

[USSEnterprise]

I advise that you boot insto Safe Mode (F8) before doing this:

Start  >> Control Panel >> System >> Hardware Tab >> Device Manager

Expand all the devices. Right click on each and select uninstall.

When it asks you to confirm, click yes. If it tells you to restart, don't, and continue removing devices until most, if not all of them are gone.




Even though I am pretty sure this will work, I will not be held responsible if it ---smurfs--- up your computer

[Harry Potter]

But saying if you swap the mobo you cant get it to boot is bs.. its possible..

You can get it to boot, but it'll be unstable as all hell at best. I tried this a few time and it wasn't worth it. Besides, re-installing takes a few hours. Using this slacker method will just cause more problems in the long run and he'll have to re-install anyway.

Failsafe way of doing it.. Totally uninstall EVERY driver for your chipset, ide drivers, and onboard sound drivers.. power down, swap mobos, slap new one in..
Again, still have to activate again, but itll be a bit more stable that way..

It's not those that matter. It's chipset drivers, APM drivers and any core system drivers that are important and these don't come on installation disks. They come with XP/2000/whatever.

Did you even read what i said? lol

Chipset, Ide, ect.. all drivers related to the motherboard..

 

Core drivers (ie most chipset drivers) cannot be uninstalled without severe damage to the OS. Yes I did read. lol

[SOAPboy]

But saying if you swap the mobo you cant get it to boot is bs.. its possible..

You can get it to boot, but it'll be unstable as all hell at best. I tried this a few time and it wasn't worth it. Besides, re-installing takes a few hours. Using this slacker method will just cause more problems in the long run and he'll have to re-install anyway.

Failsafe way of doing it.. Totally uninstall EVERY driver for your chipset, ide drivers, and onboard sound drivers.. power down, swap mobos, slap new one in..
Again, still have to activate again, but itll be a bit more stable that way..

It's not those that matter. It's chipset drivers, APM drivers and any core system drivers that are important and these don't come on installation disks. They come with XP/2000/whatever.

Did you even read what i said? lol

Chipset, Ide, ect.. all drivers related to the motherboard..

 

Core drivers (ie most chipset drivers) cannot be uninstalled without severe damage to the OS. Yes I did read. lol

Sigh..

yes they can.. they were installed AFTER you installed the OS..  Not durring.. Only time this isnt true is if your running SATA drives with onboard sata..

[Otraotaku]

im going to go ahead and get my new pc parts... and pray to god i can back away from the consequences,... I also have a backup plan now  if ya know what i mean

[USSEnterprise]

That backup plan, if I catch your drift, has worked well for me in the past. Just look out for versions that aren't in another language. Installing Windows in Russian wasn't fun.

[AtomSmasher]

That backup plan, if I catch your drift, has worked well for me in the past. Just look out for versions that aren't in another language. Installing Windows in Russian wasn't fun.

Hehe, in the job I mentioned that had a dozen computers with hard drive images for each one, when I worked there they were switching to a unicode software design so their software should be compatible in all languages.  Well it became my job to install windows and create a harddrive images for each machine in the languages of chinese, spanish, and a third one I can't seem to remember.  Needless to say I got pretty good at installing windows with having no idea what the buttons say.

[rugby1]

there are ways around the activation in XP.... search for a program called RockXP....  When you activate windows online, it writes a file to your C:\Windows\System32 folder.  Rock XP lets you copy this file (from the old system) and then put it back in your System32 folder (on the new system)....   I have never tried it but in theory it should work....   

RockXP allows you to retrieve your XP product key that you used when you installed Windows XP, as well as keys for other Microsoft products. This can come very handy if you need to reinstall but have misplaced or lost the CD cover with the serial sticker. In addition, the program also lets you save the product activation to a file, and enables you to recover usernames and passwords contained in the Windows Secure Storage.

[Howard_Casto]

Swapping hardware is a sinch usually.  What you do is before you switch the mb, immedately boot into safemode.  Now all you want to do in here is uninstall all hardware via the device manager.  And I mean EVERYTHING.  Anything it'll let you remove, do so. This includes chipset drivers, busses bridges, processor drivers anything.

Now power down and install your hardware. 

Now boot into regular windows and xp will automatically detect all of your hardware as if it was installed the first time.  You may run into glitches during the install process, but once xp becomes bootable again you can sort out minor annoyances. 

Here's the catch...... this will probably be the last time you can do this type of upgrade.  Xp can only do full hardware changes (motherboard) a few times. 

[Harry Potter]

So basically, what you just suggested would take roughly the same amount of time as a full re-install but with a hell of a lot more hassles?

[Harry Potter]

Core drivers (ie most chipset drivers) cannot be uninstalled without severe damage to the OS.

Sigh..

yes they can.. they were installed AFTER you installed the OS..  Not durring.. Only time this isnt true is if your running SATA drives with onboard sata..

Is it more legible in bold writing mate? I didn't say it was imposssible, just unwise.

[DrewKaree]

Hey Bozxcv, mebbe try clapping with one hand.

[SOAPboy]

Core drivers (ie most chipset drivers) cannot be uninstalled without severe damage to the OS.

Sigh..

yes they can.. they were installed AFTER you installed the OS..  Not durring.. Only time this isnt true is if your running SATA drives with onboard sata..

Is it more legible in bold writing mate? I didn't say it was imposssible, just unwise.

I was saying its not going to damage the OS.. -_-

[Otraotaku]

uh.... um.. well i go to vocational for computers, and i asked around an no one really knew about the XP swap newer Mobo thing right off hand... but i have plenty of resources and minds to help me there so im gonna just bring the whole tower to school with me... ^.< its kinda ify what may happen but whatever happens, happens...

[Harry Potter]

Core drivers (ie most chipset drivers) cannot be uninstalled without severe damage to the OS.

Sigh..

yes they can.. they were installed AFTER you installed the OS..  Not durring.. Only time this isnt true is if your running SATA drives with onboard sata..

Is it more legible in bold writing mate? I didn't say it was imposssible, just unwise.

I was saying its not going to damage the OS.. -_-

How can I argue with that. You're right.

[DrewKaree]

What direction do I have to install a new hard drive?  I put it in upside down and welded it to the CDRom drive for stability.

Did it broke?

What if I just want to remove the northbridge chip and solder it onto another motherboard?  That's pretty easy and simple right?  Or at least tell me while unwise, it's still possible.   Please, feel free to ramble on about just HOW easy it will be if I have access to eleventy brazilian dollar fab lines.  I axed around on Gologle and some chick said it's possible.  I axed her to show pitchers and Her did.

[AtomSmasher]

I axed around on Gologle and some chick said it's possible.  I axed her to show pitchers and Her did.

That was you??  I look pretty good in drag, don't I?

[allroy1975]

I wrecked the BIOS on my MB about 2 weeks ago (i'm retarded) and I got a new mobo, different manufacture, different processor, booted up....worked fine

XP SP2.

that's just my experience though.

Allroy

You wrecked the BIOS? Did you try flashing it?

heh...that's how I smoked it.  I'm not sure what went wrong..but the PC wouldn't even make beeps after that.