Do I have to reinstall WinXP if I change the MB and CPU?

[awdrifter]

I just get a new Sempron 3000 cpu and a ECS motherboard. I currently has a Duron 1800 cpu. If I just put the new motherboard and cpu in, do I have to reformat my comp? Will it still work properly if I just plug everything else back in without reformatting? Thanks.

[burnsy]

no, because the drivers from the old MB will conflict with the new MB. i've tried that before, and just had to do a reformat.

on second thought, maybe you could just overwrite xp, saving all your other files. you'd have to make a dos bootable floppy, or boot directly from your XP cd.

[Viper007Bond]

I believe you'll be fine, you'll just have to reactivate Windows. It was only in the old days IIRC that doing stuff like that would screw up Windows.

[awdrifter]

Cool, I'll give it a try. I have a lot of programs installed, so I don't want to reformat if I don't have to. Thanks.

[swek]

I say you'll encounter problems. I remember doing it once and Windows XP acted a little strange afterwards. Same goes for graphic cards. When I switched from ATI to Nvidia I had to reinstall the system in order to make it work. But hey, it's at least worth a try.

[awdrifter]

Yeah, I'll give it a try. If it doesn't workout I'll reinstall. Thanks for the info.

[AxlxA]

awdrifter, was this sempron 3000+ and ecs mobo from Fry's?

I was looking into it too but hesitating because i dotn know if the sempron is the 64bit processor and also the mobo is discouraging me w/ its out dated AGP.

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by swek

I say you'll encounter problems. I remember doing it once and Windows XP acted a little strange afterwards. Same goes for graphic cards. When I switched from ATI to Nvidia I had to reinstall the system in order to make it work. But hey, it's at least worth a try.

Driver Cleaner FTW.

[awdrifter]

Originally Posted by AxlxA

awdrifter, was this sempron 3000+ and ecs mobo from Fry's?

I was looking into it too but hesitating because i dotn know if the sempron is the 64bit processor and also the mobo is discouraging me w/ its out dated AGP.

Yes, it's the one at Fry's. The MB is compatible with Athlon 64, but I don't think the Sempron is 64bit. I burnt out my Athlon 2400 when I tried to overclock it, so I need a new comp quick, that's why I picked this since it's pretty cheap. The graphix card I have is a PNY nVidia 5500 128mb, so it's pretty old, but it still does fine for my purpose. And there are still some decent AGP graphix card out there if I ever upgrade.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

I did it once and had to reinstall. It's probably for the best.

[jeffy777]

Originally Posted by BerserkerCatSplat

I did it once and had to reinstall. It's probably for the best.

That's been my experience as well.

[Z102]

I think it depends on the chipsets of the two mainboards. If they're both the same (say VIA), XP won't have much problems (save for reactivation, since it's a major hardware change). But if the chipsets differ (say you change from VIA to SiS), you're basically screwed: Windows will BSOD on boot, and then restart, BSOD and then restart (repeat ad nauseam). Not even Safe Mode will let you boot. Of course, I read somewhere that the correct way to do a mainboard swap is NOT "taking the old one, installing the new one and hope everything goes ok", but booting Windows, removing all the drivers from the old mainboard, and THEN swapping MBs. That way, there should be no issues. Of course, I've never been able to test this, since it's faster to do it the other way round

[jayjaya29]

It is in your best intrest to wipe everything clean and start new, both in compatibility terms and performance terms.

[geeman]

Usually a repair install is enough. So if your Windows does not work right after new parts, try booting with XP CD and choose the repair option (repair install, not the recovery console, I am not sure but you may have to select install on the first selection). Only if after that it still is not working you should reinstall Windows completely.
btw, if some drivers seem to cause trouble you could try DriverCleaner.

[hokiethang]

Originally Posted by jayjaya29

It is in your best intrest to wipe everything clean and start new, both in compatibility terms and performance terms.

That's my policy, start over anyway. But then again I don't really ever get attached to anything on my systems, so reinstalling isn't a big deal for me. (I usually do it once every 3 months or so on Windows, and a year or so on OS X).

[awdrifter]

Just an update. I installed the new cpu and MB without reformatting, most of the programs that I tried works, so I guess I got lucky. I OC'd the CPU to 2.09ghz (from 1.8ghz), bumped the DIMM voltage up to 2.70v (from 2.60v). The system is running great so far. Is this setting safe? Can I go higher? On the BIOS it only let me set the fsb speed to 232. It doesn't appear to have any jumpers on the board that I can physically set for higher speed. Is there anyway to go even higher? My motherboard is a ECS K8M800-M2. Thanks.

[haha604]

You can overclock to quite a bit higher than 2.09ghz. I would check your CPU temperature first though.

[awdrifter]

right now it's running at around 30 deg C, so it's still pretty cool.

[jayjaya29]

What about under load. Go run folding at home or another CPU-intensive program and see how hot the chip will get.

[awdrifter]

I will try that later when I need to convert videos. But I've read on other forums that 232 is the highest fsb this board can go, so I won't be over clocking it any higher than this. Thanks for the reply.