Changing motherboards

AsLan · 19 Apr 2013 at 12:35

I am just about to change my motherboard from an Asus M4A88T-M to an ASUS M4A88T-V EVO/USB3. I needed the extra space on the ATX board.

Will I need to reinstall w7 from scratch or will I be okay just deleting the motherboard components in system manager, letting it find the new ones and then updating drivers.

On a similar note I may use the Asus M4A88T-M to replace a gigabyte motherboard in a win 8 machine. Will I need to reinstall win 8 as well. The win 8 was an upgrade from XP. If i reinstall will I need to load XP back first?

Nikumba · 19 Apr 2013 at 13:44

You should not need to delete anything, just swap the boards over and 9 times out of 10 Windows 7/8 will just get on with it.

Confused · 19 Apr 2013 at 13:52

The initial change will hardly be noticed by Windows - it's basically the same board.

I've found with Vista/7, so long as you stay with the same chipset manufacturer (ie Intel -> Intel), it'll probably just work.

It's certainly worth trying first off - so long as you've got a backup, you won't lose anything by trying - but you may gain a success

AsLan · 19 Apr 2013 at 13:53

Ok I'll try it. Your're responsible if it all fails

Scotteh · 19 Apr 2013 at 14:02

I always thought changing mobo is basically the only thing that screws over windows?

But yeah it's always worth trying, worst that can happen is it fails and you need to reformat which you were going to do anyway

AsLan · 19 Apr 2013 at 14:05

Good point.

bledd · 19 Apr 2013 at 14:17

Take a backup and be prepared for it to not boot at all.

That's the worst case scenario.

Some board swaps work without issue.

Personally, I always re-install.

AsLan · 19 Apr 2013 at 16:03

I normally reinstall as well, just trying to be lazy

Philtor · 20 Apr 2013 at 00:25

Uninstall chipset drivers from device manager, then shut down. Install new board, boot system and all should be well (he says)

anthony566 · 20 Apr 2013 at 01:16

I normally used this as an opportunity to do a fresh install :-)

that way you get back to a nice fast smooth boot ...

mrk · 20 Apr 2013 at 01:25

I have not reinstalled Windows since Windows 7 first came out. I've upgraded mobo 3 times since then and upgraded the OS drive from HDD to faster HDD to SSD to faster SSD.

You might imagine that this install must be filled with junk and is slow but you'd be surprised at how clean and managed it is

As for prepping your OS, yes your chipset maker is the same, the software/drivers will also be the same so simply a case of installing the USB3 drivers and you're good to go.

BUT! Make sure to configure the BIOS first, if your old mobo was running AHCI on then turn it on in the new mobo BIOS as well else you'll get BSODs. Frankly I'd copy all the settings over. Sometimes you can press print screen on the BIOS and you'll get a print out from a connected printer. Otherwise take pics with your smartphone

AsLan · 20 Apr 2013 at 10:49

I am running AHCI on the current one so thanks for the reminder. Just going to swap over. I've backed up all my data onto another drive so if there are any issues I'll reinstall.

bledd · 21 Apr 2013 at 16:21

mrk said:
Sometimes you can press print screen on the BIOS and you'll get a print out from a connected printer.

Never knew this!

Alas, I don't have a printer

AsLan · 21 Apr 2013 at 22:30

Swapped motherboards, loaded usb 3 drivers, and needed to use device manager to find drivers for x-fi. Everything seems to be working fine. Thanks for the help