Re: Asus P4R800-Vm MB Upgrade?

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance




"Paul" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:gdc74i$it9$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
OldKenGoat wrote:
What problems will I encounter if I replace my Asus P4R800-VM with this
board?
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=709&l4=0&model=2269&modelmenu=1


Typically, you'd need to do a "repair install", as that would give
a chance to correct any driver differences for the boot drive.

The P4R800-VM has two IDE ribbon cables and an IXP200 Southbridge.
I don't see any special drivers for it, implying the I/O mapped
Microsoft driver is being used.

The P5Q Pro motherboard from Asus, has the ICH10R Southbridge. It
has 6 SATA ports and zero IDE ribbon cables. To fix that, Asus
added the Marvell 88SE6111 PATA chip, giving one IDE ribbon cable
and room for two IDE drives. The chip would be PCI mapped, instead
of I/O mapped. As far as I know, the Microsoft default PCI mapped
IDE driver, became available in WinXP SP1, so if it was my
computer, I'd probably want to slipstream at least SP1, if
my WinXP installation disk was an "original" with no service
pack. Many WinXP disks will already be at some Service Pack
level (like the one I just ordered, is at SP3).

A repair install, leaves your applications intact, your settings
and email should be untouched. Virtually all the hardware will
be different in your new computer, so there'll be lots of
"new hardware found" messages on first boot.

Some people here, would insist you do a clean install, and
that has merits as well. Sometimes a repair install is
not issue free, and doesn't work right.

The only trick with trying the repair install, is not entering
the recovery console by mistake.

http://helpdesk.its.uiowa.edu/windows/instructions/repairinstall.htm

This is what I'd do - your mileage may vary.

1) Buy a new hard drive. Assuming you have your old computer still
running, you'd want another IDE drive (as the old motherboard has
no SATA). If you bought a Seagate IDE drive, for example, you
could go to the Seagate site, and in their download section, is
a tool to copy your old drive. Make an exact copy of the old drive.
Use the copy, as the drive for your new computer. If anything goes
wrong with the repair install, your old drive is still intact, and
you can try again. Even if it means reinstalling the old motherboard
again. Because of the potential need to move backwards, I usually
put the new motherboard on my kitchen table, with the power supply,
drives and all the rest. If things "go south" on me, it only takes
a couple minutes to swap back to the old motherboard. Once the
new hardware is all set up, I finish the job by putting the stuff
back in a computer case. The only danger of "working on the kitchen
table", is the video card is not securely fastened to anything.
Be extremely careful not to tug on it! Lock yourself away in a
room, if you have kids, because they'll snag the cabling for sure.

2) Connect the new drive to the new motherboard. In terms of BIOS
settings, if you're still using an IDE drive at this point, the
Marvell is enabled by default, and there are no other settings
for it.

If, by some magic, you instead managed to copy your old drive to
a SATA drive, you'd want to go into the BIOS and select a mode for
the ICH10R. Connect the drive to "SATA1" or "SATA2" for the least
amount of drama. The BIOS uses a default of "Configure SATA as" [IDE],
which would use a default PCI mapped driver like your (Marvell
connected) IDE drive would have. Selecting a setting of AHCI or RAID,
would require pressing F6 at the appropriate time during the repair
install, and offering a driver for it, so the OS can boot later.

3) Set the boot order to floppy/CDROM/HDD, so that when the (slipstreamed)
install CD is inserted, the machine boots from the CD.

4) Follow the repair install instructions. Press F6 and offer a driver
if one is needed. If you "keep it simple", no driver should be needed.

5) Install any later Service Packs (any ones not on your install CD).
If you used to have a version of IE which was later than the one on
the installer CD, you'd have to reinstall that at some point as well.
But your apps should be unaffected.

6) Once the Service Pack situation is to the level you're happy with,
install the hardware drivers. The advice I've seen, suggests some
drivers are service pack sensitive, so it may help to have the
service pack there, before finishing the (non boot related)
driver issues.

Looking at the manual, my guess is the storage on P5Q Pro looks like this.

ICH10R SuperIO Marvell 88SE6111
| | | | | | | | |
6 sata drives Floppy PATA SATA
IDE/AHCI/RAID | \
modes available 1 ribbon \
cable SIL5723
| | |
2 PATA SATA_E1 SATA_E2
drives

The SIL5723 is described here, and at this point, I don't see any
reason to bother with it. There should be enough other resources
for a basic install. Even if you have to put a new SATA CDROM
or DVDROM on the ICH10R.

http://www.siliconimage.com/products/product.aspx?id=103

If the P4R800-VM is part of some prebuilt computer, with a
recovery partition and no real WinXP installer CD, well
forget the description above... You'd be "on your own" in
that case.

I'll be doing a motherboard replacement in a couple weeks
(if the parts ever get here), so I'll be going through the
same kind of exercise. My new motherboard is an el-cheapo,
so I think I'm going to have more of an adventure.

Best guess,
Paul

Thanks, Paul, for your very helpful advice. Some of the info is over my head
but it looks like I can muck my way through it. My primary concern is
whether my present RAM will be compatible with the new board if I buy it.
I'm on Soc Sec so my budget is TIGHT and I don't want to have to buy new
RAM. Also, other buyers have expressed a concerned that the Newegg barebones
board has been known to be DOA. Have you any thoughts on that? Here's my
system summary in case you need the info:
2:21 PM 10/18/2008
Computer:
Computer Type ACPI Multiprocessor
PC
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP
Home Edition
OS Service Pack Service Pack 3
Internet Explorer 7.0.5730.13 (IE 7.0)
DirectX 4.09.00.0904
(DirectX 9.0c)
Date / Time 2008-10-18 / 13:33
Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4,
3200 MHz (16 x 200)
Motherboard Name Asus P4R800-VM (3
PCI, 1 AGP, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN)
Motherboard Chipset ATI Radeon 9100 IGP
System Memory 2048 MB (PC3200 DDR
SDRAM)
DIMM1: Corsair XMS CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR
SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz)
DIMM2: Corsair XMS CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR
SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz)
DIMM3: Corsair XMS CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR
SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz)
DIMM4: Corsair XMS CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR
SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz)
BIOS Type AMI (06/08/04)
Communication Port Communications Port
(COM1)
Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)
Display:
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce FX
5500 (256 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce FX
5500
Monitor Dell 1704FPT
(Digital) [17" LCD] (Y429955IBGG3)
Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Analog Devices
AD1888 @ ATI SB200 - AC'97 Audio Controller
Storage:
IDE Controller Standard Dual
Channel PCI IDE Controller
Storage Controller SCSI/RAID Host
Controller
Storage Controller Silicon Image SiI
3112 SATARaid Controller
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive Generic External USB
Device (465 GB, USB)
Disk Drive Generic USB Flash
Disk USB Device (980 MB, USB)
Disk Drive Maxtor 4 G120J6 USB
Device (120 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Disk Drive Maxtor 6 B300S0 SCSI
Disk Device (300 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA)
Disk Drive Maxtor 6E040L0 (40
GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Disk Drive MD00400-BABW (37
GB, IDE)
Disk Drive USB Flash Memory USB
Device (54 MB, USB)
Disk Drive WDC WD36 0GD-00FNA0
SCSI Disk Device (36 GB, 10000 RPM, SATA)
Optical Drive _NEC DVD_RW ND-3540A
(DVD+R9:8x, DVD-R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-ROM:16x,
CD:48x/32x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)
Optical Drive CB2825I PPA100D SCSI
CdRom Device
Optical Drive TSSTcorp CDRWDVD
TS-H492C (DVD:16x, CD:52x/32x/52x DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
SMART Hard Disks Status OK
Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 39197 MB (26932 MB
free)
D: (NTFS) 38162 MB (33021 MB
free)
F: (NTFS) 35299 MB (27602 MB
free)
I: (NTFS) 465.8 GB (426.3 GB
free)
L: (NTFS) 279.5 GB (109.9 GB
free)
Q: (NTFS) 114.5 GB (60.1 GB
free)
Total Size 969.7 GB (681.7 GB
free)
Input:
Keyboard Easy Internet
Keyboard
Keyboard HID Keyboard Device
Keyboard HID Keyboard Device
Keyboard HID Keyboard Device
Mouse HID-compliant Mouse
Mouse Logitech-compatible
Mouse PS/2
Network:
Network Adapter 3Com 3C920B-EMB-WNM
Integrated Fast Ethernet Controller
Modem USB Modem
Peripherals:
USB1 Controller ATI SB200 - USB
Controller
USB1 Controller ATI SB200 - USB
Controller
USB1 Controller NEC uPD720101 USB
OpenHCI Controller
USB1 Controller NEC uPD720101 USB
OpenHCI Controller
USB2 Controller ATI SB200 - USB 2.0
Controller
USB2 Controller NEC uPD720101 USB
2.0 Enhanced Host Controller (v1.0)
USB Device Generic USB Hub
USB Device Logitech Mic (Pro
9000)
USB Device Logitech QuickCam
Pro 9000
USB Device Logitech USB Camera
(Pro 9000)
USB Device Unknown Device
USB Device USB Human Interface
Device
USB Device USB Mass Storage
Device
USB Device USB Mass Storage
Device
USB Device USB Mass Storage
Device
USB Device USB Mass Storage
Device
USB Device USB Modem


.



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