Re: Seeking upgrade advise for motherboard change with oem windows

Bruce, you seem to really hit the nail on the head, the problem i really seem
to have is that i dont have a disc to "repair" xp. I understand that with the
disc i would have a "controlled" upgrade, without one would i be leaving
myself open to the will of the gods ? / microsoft or are they the same ???
The chipsets are different on the mobos, currently ms6382 based on via vt8366
and viavt8233 replacement board ms7061 is based on via km400 and via vt8237
so different bios/drivers etc needed. Will look into your links but if you
have any further thoughts :)

"Bruce Chambers" wrote:

Welsh Wizard wrote:
Hi,

Having tinkered with upgrading pci cards, various accessories and wireless
internet for my aging pc i wanted to upgrade my current motherboard to allow
a faster processor etc. Having read the Knowledgebase forums i am now quite
unsure about it all as its given me more q's than answers !!

My computer is 5 yrs old and as i'm studying for a computer maintenance
course i wanted to use my pc as some practical practice for me, without
breaking it !

The operating system is an OEM version of windows xp home saved on a hard
disc partition i believe, and i have a reload/backup cd for it. The original
motherboard became faulty 2/3 yrs ago and was replaced under warrantly by the
seller TIME Computers (who have since gone bust) , the product key for
windows on the case is different to the findings of the belarc program- i
asume it's because of the motherboard change ? The belarc program has given
me the "current" windows product id and windows product key.



With a motherboard change, you'll need to have a full installation CD
(*NOT* a recovery CD) with which to perform a repair installation.


My current processor is an athlon 1400, slow and struggles a lot, very slow
by todays standards and is the reason for the motherboard upgrade as the
current board can only be upgraded to 1800 , so hardly seems worth it.

I wanted to stay with an MSI "a" socket motherboard like my current one,
and i have bought one in readyness but am now worried that i am not in a
position to do an upgrade due to microsoft rules over oem xp, or that i may
have difficulties with product keys etc although the computer does seem to be
restarting itself quite often recently, the same problem as the old
motherboard before it was replaced !



Microsoft's "rules over OEM" are irrelevant, at this point. You'll
need to be able to perform a repair installation, so you have to have a
real OEM installation CD, not a recovery CD.


Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, do i go for the change in
motherboard or am i creating BIG problems if i do ?

Many thanks

Paul



Normally, and assuming a retail license (many factory-installed OEM
installations are BIOS-locked to a specific chipset and therefore are
*not* transferable to a new motherboard - check yours before starting),
unless the new motherboard is virtually identical (same chipset, same
IDE controllers, same BIOS version, etc.) to the one on which the WinXP
installation was originally performed, you'll need to perform a repair
(a.k.a. in-place upgrade) installation, at the very least:

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341

Changing a Motherboard or Moving a Hard Drive with WinXP Installed
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

The "why" is quite simple, really, and has nothing to do with
licensing issues, per se; it's a purely technical matter, at this point.
You've pulled the proverbial hardware rug out from under the OS. (If
you don't like -- or get -- the rug analogy, think of it as picking up a
Cape Cod style home and then setting it down onto a Ranch style
foundation. It just isn't going to fit.) WinXP, like Win2K before it,
is not nearly as "promiscuous" as Win9x when it comes to accepting any
old hardware configuration you throw at it. On installation it
"tailors" itself to the specific hardware found. This is one of the
reasons that the entire WinNT/2K/XP OS family is so much more stable
than the Win9x group.

As always when undertaking such a significant change, back up any
important data before starting.

This will also probably require re-activation, unless you have a
Volume Licensed version of WinXP Pro installed. If it's been more than
120 days since you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most
likely be able to activate via the Internet without problem. If it's
been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone call.


--

Bruce Chambers

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.

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