HP laptop, system board swap....

[rubberman]

i have an HP Pavilion ze4610 with the AMD XP-M 2500+, 1.8ghz processor. Since HPs are crap, at least mine anyway, i plan to swap out the motherboard since the DC power adapter is loose for the third time, wont run on battery nor will it charge the battery. After researching, alot of HPs have the on board charging circuit go out leaving the laptop to be powered by the AC adpater. So on ebay they are selling some systemboards just for this model for $175. basically i will need to swap everything over to the new board which isn't a problem since i have taken it apart before. But my question is, after swapping the board in, will i have to reinstall windows? cause the wont my harddrive notice that its a different systemboard and fail to boot?

[Krispy Kritter]

If it is the same system board/chipset, it shouldn't be an issue. If it is different, it could work or it could not work. Sometimes XP will boot and see new hardware, then install the drivers itself and reboot. Other times you will get a hardware has changed error, and it will stop.

[Nelson37]

That is a common problem with many laptops, not at all limited to HP. This connector is user-inserted, multiple times, and often gets undue stress when the laptop is moved with the cable attached. The connector is also often mounted on a small, seperate board which is not as rigidly anchored as it should be.

Windows should be OK, though "it depends". Worst case would require a re-install, with all data saved, and a phone call to MS to re-activate may be necessary.