Question about swapping out motherboards...

[Low Level Owl]

I recently went from an ECS K7VZA to a DFI AD70-SC and for the hell of it, I didn't reinstall XP and I just restarted the machine. To my amazement, Windows XP started just fine. It redetected all my hardware and is working fine.

My question is, would it make a difference in terms of performance if I were to reinstall Windows or is there no need?

Both motherboards have VIA chipsets, the ECS had the KT-133 the DFI has the KT-266A.

[Ahcoraj]

I havent tried it with XP yet, but I do it all the time with 98 and notice no performance loss, in fact since I'm usually upgrading when i do it, i see a gain from the newer architecture.. I'd still go get and install the latest XP drivers from the board's manny's site.

[Gollo]

[quote]Originally posted by Low Level Owl:
<strong>I recently went from an ECS K7VZA to a DFI AD70-SC and for the hell of it, I didn't reinstall XP and I just restarted the machine. To my amazement, Windows XP started just fine. It redetected all my hardware and is working fine.

My question is, would it make a difference in terms of performance if I were to reinstall Windows or is there no need?

Both motherboards have VIA chipsets, the ECS had the KT-133 the DFI has the KT-266A.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Windows XP and 2k both are pretty good at detecting hardware so I don't think there is a need to reinstall windows. One thing I would do though is make sure I had the latest drivers for my motherboard (the new one). Cheers.

[Outcoded]

That'll be fine (though as the man says, check for new drivers).

I tend to reinstall when dealing with 9x/Moron's Edition, because it usually needs it anyway, but for 2k/XP, it ain't a problem.

[myramp]

if u had gone to a board with a diff chipset other than a VIA you would have had to reinstall or go through setup again for 2K not sure bout XP but im guessing it is hardware specific.

[PurpleDoc]

The way Windows 95 Windows 98 handle hardware on the motherboard is different than the way Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows X. P.. The HAL layer of the operating system in Windows NT, Windows 2000, and X. P. keep the hardware independent of the operating system. In Win95 and Win98 the hardware is loaded into the operating system. So generally speaking, doing a motherboard swap in an NT operating system is easier than in a win 9. X.

[Hippie_Tech]

I recently upgraded a friends machine from a 733MHz PIII with Intel BX chipset mobo to a XP 1700+ with a VIA KT266A chipset mobo. Windows XP found and installed everything. We did the chipset driver updates and the machine ran like a charm and he hasn't had a problem to date. He was very impressed with both the performance increase and with Windows XP doing it right the first try.

[TrackMan]

i swapped my hard drive from a tx pentium classic system into a cusl2 (intel 815e). it tried to laod windows 98 se, but none of the drivers worked. the ide drivers weren't loading so i couldn't load the new ones off the cd. so i needed a format.

[Low Level Owl]

Actually guys, I had one problem with it. I couldn't enable hibernation/standby mode. So I just ended up reinstalling XP. I don't know if it was due to the motherboard swap but I did notice a small performance jump with the fresh install. And the image is about 98% identical to the previous one.

[rscos]

actually guys, it's not too difficult just to swap out mobos on win9x either - just make sure you delete the old mobo resources after you swap it over. it's worked for me and a load of people I know.

[Fubarian]

[quote]Originally posted by rscos:
<strong>actually guys, it's not too difficult just to swap out mobos on win9x either - just make sure you delete the old mobo resources after you swap it over. it's worked for me and a load of people I know.</strong><hr></blockquote>

(For 9x)
or be pro-active and delete everything in safemode just before you switch motherboards. Windows 'remembers' ALL the old stuff and might lead to problems later.

2k I think is smart enough to figure it out -- might want to be careful with the hard drives, I had a bad, very bad run in with the ntldr saying -hey!? where's my hd on controller X?!- and wouldn't gimme windows back -- lost nothing but time rebuilding it.

[silencio]

I did the same thing. ..went from a P4T to a P4T-E and also upgraded the video card at the same time. I had to validate XP but it found the hardware and made the changes and is still running like a champ. I'm impressed.

[LTB_Dagger_Qc]

What we usually do the jobsite when people dont want to reinstall we just go in safe mode and delete everyting in the device manager. And at the rebbot just let windows "try" do reinstall everything. Just be sure to put the lastest drivers for everything. If all fails well you windows was made to be reinstalled anyway...


You need to format every 6 months anyway.. thanks to Bill !!!

[Matridom]

I did a massive upgrade on a system the other week.. going from a p3 550 BX to a AMD 1800XP+ with VIA and a new HDD. When XP rebooted i got memory dumps.. Had to reinstall...

I guess it depends on the hardware.

[Kenny P.]

You can do the same thing with Win9x/ME if you know how.

Backup your registry.

Run Regedit and delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum and shutdown. Swap motherboard. Startup. Reload all drivers. Enjoy!

Hope this helps!

Kenny P.
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