swaping the mother board question

[Trevdog]

ok sorry if im putting this post in the wrong place. i have a tech question about changing out my mobo from a comcrap ata board to my asus m4a78t-e. What i really want to know is what to expect on the initial start up with the new board and what i should do? any and all anwers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

other components
AMD Phenom II x 4 945 Denab Quad Core @3.0GHz
4(2x 2GHz) G.SKILL DDR3 1333
Zalman 9900

P.S.
this is my first build

[sav5716]

Most of the time, you will need to reinstall your operating system when you change motherboards. There are some times when you don't, but from what I can see, if you're going to a completely different board you generally have to reinstall Windows. Boot it up and see if you can get into Windows. If not, reinstall.

[Fear of Oneself]

Originally Posted by Trevdog

ok sorry if im putting this post in the wrong place. i have a tech question about changing out my mobo from a comcrap ata board to my asus m4a78t-e. What i really want to know is what to expect on the initial start up with the new board and what i should do? any and all anwers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

other components
AMD Phenom II x 4 945 Denab Quad Core @3.0GHz
4(2x 2GHz) G.SKILL DDR3 1333
Zalman 9900

P.S.
this is my first build

assuming everything is compatible, it would start like anyother time, different BIOS screen of course, but you should be able to get into windows no problem. I've done it, and it didn't make any difference

[man03999]

If you have a new mobo i think you will have to reinstall the os.

[fuloran1]

Originally Posted by sav5716

Most of the time, you will need to reinstall your operating system when you change motherboards. There are some times when you don't, but from what I can see, if you're going to a completely different board you generally have to reinstall Windows. Boot it up and see if you can get into Windows. If not, reinstall.

Ya know, that isnt bad advice, but honestly, I have always just installed the new board and just left the os. I have never in probably 10 years had to reinstall an OS after a board change, well, i think maybe once, but thats it. With the hardware layer that vista has (if thats what you are running) you should have no problems. The test is simply if it boots into windows, if so, you should be fine. In fact, I just upgraded my vid card, memory, proc and board all at the same time, and had zero issues with the os. It booted right up as usual.

Keep in mind that if you are changing vid cards you should uninstall the old ones including the drivers first, but thats about it. Just put in the new board, boot to windows, install the board drivers, and you should be fine.

I also did probably 4 upgrades when i used XP without any issues as well.

[Trevdog]

well im planning on upgradeing to w7 64-bit soon so should i wait until i have that to swap boards or change and see what happens?

[fuloran1]

Originally Posted by Trevdog

well im planning on upgradeing to w7 64-bit soon so should i wait until i have that to swap boards or change and see what happens?

Just put the new board in. I would be willing to bet you have no issues.

[man03999]

Originally Posted by Trevdog

well im planning on upgradeing to w7 64-bit soon so should i wait until i have that to swap boards or change and see what happens?

Yea wait until you swap the motherboard and then do a fresh install of windows 7, this will take out lots of potential problems.

[Trevdog]

Cool beans sucks i wont get full advantage with 32bit os wut it will still be better then what im running now

[fuloran1]

Originally Posted by man03999

Yea wait until you swap the motherboard and then do a fresh install of windows 7, this will take out lots of potential problems.

What problems, the worst that will happen is he will need to reinstall the os, which I very much doubt will be necessary.