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  1. Hello, im in the process of upgrading my system, im currently using a QDI motherboard which can only run up to a p4 2ghz processor and about 2gb of ram. (currently using a P4 1.6GHZ 512mb ddr pc2700 ram) i just went out today and bought a ASUS P4C800E - Delux motherboard (which i love when i buy my P4 3.2E GHZ cpu).

    my question is im on Windows XP SP2 with all the nessary upates done. when i go to switch motherbards will windows still run after i change it. i have heard in the past that Windows will not boot up after changing your motherboard. I would rather advoid another format if i can, ( just did one 4 months ago)

    Anyone know if i should be fine or should i be ready to format anyways

    thanks
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  2. DVD Ninja budz's Avatar
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    you're going to have to reformat and reinstall XP w/SP2. windows will boot up but you'll get a error msg. with the new motherboard you'll have new drivers which is why you'll need to reformat and reinstall XP. i had to do that when i installed a new motherboard which was a ASUS P4P800SE.
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  3. Well cause this board is so old only thing i installed when i reformated before was the onboard audio drivers which im gonna uninstall, but i know about the drivers i installed them for the same motherboard for a friend.

    Without any old drivers for this board wont windows just let it go. ( i hate formating)
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  4. DVD Ninja budz's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Kaugustino
    Well cause this board is so old only thing i installed when i reformated before was the onboard audio drivers which im gonna uninstall, but i know about the drivers i installed them for the same motherboard for a friend.

    Without any old drivers for this board wont windows just let it go. ( i hate formating)
    Only way is to try it out without reformatting and see what happens.....back up your files before doing it.....good luck
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  5. Mod Neophyte redwudz's Avatar
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    Well, you probably can't hurt anything by giving it a try. I think you will have problems. If you were replacing the MB with a very similar one, maybe.

    Be sure you back up any important files before you try this. Have your new MB driver disc handy. If it fails, then just boot from the OS disc, repartition, reformat, reinstall.
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  6. I am defently backing up before i do anything. i went through that once before and lost everything when my first motherboard died. im glad i have a dvd burner on the way so it will make short work of my backing up

    thanks everyone
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  7. what happens with windows xp product activation when you install a new mother board and cpu? thats the thing i am worrying a little about when i eventually upgrade. I don't have an actual windows xp install disc, rather one of those discs that came with my computer that has product recovery cd.

    actually i just had a look at it, it seems as though it is a proper windows xp disc... hope it will work with hardware upgrade.
    Some people are only alive because it may be illegal to kill them
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  8. Member waheed's Avatar
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    if your windows xp recovery cd came with your PC, then im guessing its in form of an image to load up. it may not work with your new hardware. you may need to purchase another win xp disc.
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  9. actually, the computer did have a recovery partition on it, and you just needed to insert the windows xp disc as part of that recovery process. I put the cd in, and it autoran the windows xp setup, so i'm guessing it is a full windows xp disc, as it doesn't seem to have any hardware drives and stuff on it, or image files. So i think i may be alright, and i think also after reading further posts on this site, that you can use the activation feature several times before things start being awkward.
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  10. Always Watching guns1inger's Avatar
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    Install the new MB and reboot using the XP cd. It will, eventually, detect that you have XP installed, and offer to do a repair install. Follow it's advice. You may find, when you look at Manage System, that you have drivers you don't need installed, but XP is usually pretty good at cleaning these up. You will probably have to reactivate, but even this isn't a given.

    I don't recommend you do this too many times, but I have done it with both Win2k and XP and know it works.
    Read my blog here.
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  11. Member rkr1958's Avatar
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    When I built my new computer system I gave my wife my old one minus harddrives. I took her harddrive from her old computer and put it in my old one. Booted up and got the blue screen (running W2K). Next, I put the install boot disks and CD in, booted up and thought I'd give the repair a chance. It worked and has been running stable for 18-months now. Basicly, I took a harddrive that had W2k and others applications installed and stuck it in a entirely different computer w/different chipset, CPU (Intel P3 vs Duron) and was able to repair the W2K installation.
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  12. thats coool!! hopefully my upgrade will be as straightforward
    Some people are only alive because it may be illegal to kill them
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  13. i have heard in the past that Windows will not boot up after changing your motherboard. I would rather advoid another format if i can, ( just did one 4 months ago)
    No you certainly don't need to reformat and reinstall XP when changing out MBs
    This info used to be covered in this forum's FAQ page, since it's no longer around I'll repost it.

    Microsoft SYSPREP:

    There is a SYSPREP tool on the every XP CD.

    You will need to extract two files from the Windows XP CD, files are located at CD:SUPPORTTOOLS in a cab file called DEPLOY.CAB. The files are Sysprep.exe and Setupcl.exe. Extract these 2 files to the same folder.

    With the old motherboard still in the system:

    You run sysprep.exe and tell it to "RESEAL" Windows XP. Note that it will shutdown the PC when it completes the reseal process.

    Now pull out the old MB, install the new one and fire up the machine. It re-activates Windows XP and populates the device manager list.

    You do need to re-activate with the same key-code.
    The nice thing about this proceedure is that as long as the HD remains resealed, (not installed on another PC), the raw resealed drive can be cloned and installed on any PC.
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