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Hey everyone,
This might sound stupid, but I would have felt more stupid if I called the local computer store and asked this. Anyway, I was thinking of buying a new motherboard+cpu (and fan, heatsink), but I wanted to know if I needed to re-install Windows XP Pro or Windows 98 for it to work (its currently a dual-boot computer).
Thanks :)
You probably don't need to, but it'd be a good idea. Keeping around drivers for hardware that doesnt exist typically sounds like a bad idea.
Good Evening,
Well I didn't have to reinstall, but keep your cds right next to you, because it asked for mine a multitude of times (for drivers) since the hardware was different. It didn't take as long as a normal install however!
save all your favorites and docs first just incase...lol
good luck.
with windows 98 like Relyt said it will keep asking for drivers, but with windows xp it may not run, i read somewere xp wont run if there has been significant(mobo,cpu,ram,vid card etc) hardware changes changes, im not sure how many changes it is.
It's not that it won't run, it will just need to be reactivated. This should not be a problem if you have a legal copy of XP. Most likely with just a small change to the hardware it will not need a reactivation. I have added hard drives, changed video cards, and changed memory without needing to reactivate. Of course, none of this was at the same time, and that could have an effect on it also. I read up on activation a while ago but I can't remember everything the article said.
I have used this method to fix apparently dead machines in the past.
You will get some messages regarding the new hardware, but it should not be too much of a problem. Remember that the drivers are generally in the Win98 folder on your CD, not the drivers folder ;) (don't ask me, ask Bill Gates). The main issue will be with the new BIOS recognising the hardware and wanting the drivers, even though you already have them.........get it to look in c:\windows\system, and c:\windows\system32 and you should find most of them.
You will have to re-activate XP, as it considers a new MoBo/processor to be a new machine. I think that you have 30 days in which to do this. So long as you have not done this several times before, you should not have a problem.
Good luck
I have recently changed a motherboard on a machine running windows XP pro. Upon reboot, it required me to re-activate my copy. (bloody microsoft and their voice recognition activation system, i was offline at the time) Strange thing is that i've never gotten my cd-rom (48x cdr) to work correctly since (stuck in 16x write). It's a problem with the motherboard... I guess that's what i get for purchasing such a cheap drive. (i'll re-install one of these days)
All i'm saying is that it is possible, but some of your hardware might not work.
I've also heard that after a large number of hardware changes your copy of XP will no longer be activated. I think you need to change almost every component 3x or something. But that's because microsoft wants one copy of XP per machine. I've never had that happen to me, but who knows.
I'm just going to quote what I've said in another thread..
Quote:
Originally posted here by sumdumguy
with xp you can't just take the drive out and stick it in another box.
well, sometimes you can if the motherboard chipsets are the same.
here are two links that pretty much describe the same method of moving a drive to a new mobo even if the chipsets are different..it should work for you. I would follow the instructions to the letter. I've known folks who've just moved the drive and weren't able to recover even after putting the drive back in the original box.. they had to reload xp..
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xpfrm.html
http://www.theeldergeek.com/replace_motherboard.htm
edit : I should add that you'll probably want to back up your WPA file so that you won't need to activate again.. read this page.