Replacing MOBO ONLY - registry change in XP?

[shredisn@tdead]

Hi All,

I'm going to be replacing the mobo ONLY in a system. Everything stays the same HDDs (non-RAID), CPU, mem, blah blah...

Isn't there an WinXP registry setting I can change so that when it boots with the new mobo it'll all work and I'll just need to install the relevant new drivers?

I don't want to reinstall XP & setup the whole machine all over again!

[Lord Kordir]

It'll just work anyway

[shredisn@tdead]

Is that 100%?!


I did this many moons ago to an AMD Athlon 1700+ (Palomino) system and it was NOT happy. HOWEVER, I think that was running W2K...


Anyone else care to comment and back up the claim?!

[Sumanji]

There is one thing you have to do:

Uninstall the IDE drivers from your old mobo, otherwise the data on your HDD wont like the new chipset and stuff will go pearshaped. Ideally though a reformat is the best idea when you are making such a major change.

Suman

[Kezzer]

I would recommend a format for that but whatever tickles your fancy like.

[shredisn@tdead]

Oh crap. Formatting is the last thing I want to do...

If I've got an old HD lying around then I guess I can try and clone at least the boot partition and see what happens.

It's a Dell i850E mobo, getting swapped for a Asus P4T533-C which is also i850E. Might be plain sailing with a little luck, but I'm gonna have to backup. Sheesh.

[Spud1]

its very unlikey that it will work properly, you are much better off formatting or at least reinstalling XP

[Rave]

I always do a repair install. Worked fine for me every time, and it's much less hassle than reformatting.

Rich :¬)

[shredisn@tdead]

Yup, just Googled this one, and looks like a Repair Install will do the trick.

However, might have problems with XP activation... it is (or was!) a Dell PC, and not sure if Dell's require all that activation malarkey or if it's got a Corporate type install.

[Flibb]

Not sure if its still the case but Dell mobo's and PSU wernt standard ATX. And if you plugged a non dell mobo into a dell PSU the mobo went bang. Its something to do with voltages being changed around on the mobo plug, think there were other complications. This was the case with my XPS-T550 (PIII550, few years ago), ended up using it as an excuse to build my own rig
Flibb

[shredisn@tdead]

No worries there. That's exactly why the whole lot is getting transplanted into an Antec SLK3700BQE. Wanted to make the system quieter as the PSU is really loud, but then found out about the non-standard connections, as you point out. So everything is moving to a new home.

[Kezzer]

I always do a repair install. Worked fine for me every time, and it's much less hassle than reformatting.

Rich :¬)

Even if you do a backup after a fresh install and you change your motherboard you will still have issues as windows will be checking for your old motherboard.

[5lab]

you might have problems with other products too - office XP had a hernia when i reinstalled a mobo/cpu into me mums pc

[shredisn@tdead]

Is there util to backup registry settings etc, so that if I do need to reinstall XP (over the top, no format) then I can reapply them and it look good as "old"?!

Will the File And Settings Transfer Wizard do this kind of thing?

[Kezzer]

When you install windows it says to itself "ah this mobo and this and that blah blah" so if you change any hardware it would say "oh, where did that go *CRASH THANKS*"

If you get what i mean?

[shredisn@tdead]

mobo came today so will see what happens in the next few days! 8-)