Changing motherboard

SlyReaper · 27 Apr 2008 at 22:58

Just a quick question. If I swap out my motherboard for a newer model, do I have to worry about drivers and such-like?

I mean, will I have to uninstall all the drivers before doing the swap, and then installing the drivers that come with the new board after the swap? Or do the old drivers just go dormant, letting you install new ones on top of them without hassle?

SlyReaper · 27 Apr 2008 at 23:02

That could be a problem. My copy of Windows is OEM. Won't it throw a wobbly about having a different motherboard than it's used to?

SlyReaper · 27 Apr 2008 at 23:17

Actually I was thinking of going from a Gigabyte board to a Gigabyte board. The chipset will be different, but I think the onboard sound and network hardware will be the same.

SlyReaper · 27 Apr 2008 at 23:22

Currently have Intel 945PL chipset. If I upgrade, it would be to Intel P35.

SlyReaper · 27 Apr 2008 at 23:44

I have no moral qualms about breaking the EULA. I paid 50 bloody quid for the disk, and absolutely loathe that MS would stop me using it just because the PC configuration is different.

As for practicality, how likely is it that windows will fail to activate after swapping out the motherboard and reinstalling the OS? I'm sure I heard somewhere that OEM licenses have a little bit of leeway in them to allow for components breaking and being replaced.

The only things I've changed on this rig since installing Windows are an extra hard drive (which I can unplug during reinstall) and a new PSU (and I guess I could use the old PSU during install if Windows is able to detect the difference).

So if the motherboard is the only thing that's changed, will Windows still be able to activate?

SlyReaper · 27 Apr 2008 at 23:54

Damn. So I guess the idea is: don't replace the motherboard unless I'm prepared to buy a new copy of XP.

SlyReaper · 30 Apr 2008 at 01:34

gunner said:
you can also use "sysprep" to do a mini install which allows you to swap out the motherboard, then it reinstalls the OS with the new drivers.

Google: swap motherboard and sysprep

I have used it once recentley and it worked a treat - saved loads of time.

Be sure to make a copy of any drivers you don't have on CD first.

That looks really useful, but I'm not sure how it's supposed to work. Does it just remove all machine-specific drivers from your hard drive and then allow you to boot up? Or does it make an image which you have to burn to DVDs and then reinstall the OS from there?