Does changing to a different CPU require reformat?

[djglenn]

Title says it all....

Looking at changing my lil bros amd 64 3200+ to a x2 cpu. (s939)

I have never done this before on a working PC, and only have ever touched a CPU on new builds.

Would this change require a reformat / change of bios, or any other crazy change that I have not thought of....

Thanks.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I have upgraded my CPU several times over the last few years and I have not needed to re-install either XP or Vista. I think if you change your motherboard OTH you may need to though.

[shaithis]

It should not require a re-install but you may need to do 1 thing first....

If when you go into Device Manager and expand at the "Computer" tree at the top and it does not say "Multiprocessor PC", then you need to do Properties > Driver > Update driver etc and choose the "ACPI Multiprocessor PC" driver.

Without that driver, Windows will only see 1 core.

[CX23882-19]

Unless you've done something silly to your PC configuration (e.g. changing the HAL to "Standard PC" rather than ACPI, as recommended on some "tweaking" websites), there is no reason that you would have to reinstall Windows XP or Vista after making this change. I went from an Athlon 64 3200+ on an nForce3 AGP board, to an Athlon BE-2350 on an AMD 690G PCIe board (so both the CPU and the motherboard/chipset were very different) and I didn't have to reinstall Windows. I hate to update and install a load of drivers, sure, and I had to reactivate Windows XP, but I didn't have to reinstall and there were zero stability issues.

You may have to reactive Windows, depending on how many other components have been changed since activation, and on Vista the only other thing to be aware of is DRM in DirectShow which may crash Windows Media Player and other media-apps with a Indiv01.key error. This is easily corrected by deleting some files, and you only need to do it if you have problems.

As for the BIOS, you may or may not need to update it. Take a look at the BIOS release notes on the motherboard manufacturer's website.

[redders6600]

Most likely you won't have to reinstall. Sometimes I have been asked to put in my windows cd and let a few things update - and as mentioned you may have to re-register your copy of windows.

[mohoshin]

Title says it all....

Looking at changing my lil bros amd 64 3200+ to a x2 cpu. (s939)

I have never done this before on a working PC, and only have ever touched a CPU on new builds.

Would this change require a reformat / change of bios, or any other crazy change that I have not thought of....

Thanks.

The only thing you need to do is go to the Bios and make sure the clock speed and multipliers are set correctly. Then save the changes.

[djglenn]

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

[scaryjim]

Yeah, just for changing a CPU you certainly won't need to reinstall or re-register Windows. The reason changing a motherboard does is because modern motherboards are highly integrated and tend to contain most of the components that WPA uses to determine whether you're still using the same computer when it starts up (you can change up to about 3 items without re-registering, I think, so just a CPU should be fine ).