New motherboard questions

animeguitarist · 7 Jun 2007 at 18:53

I am conisdering getting a new mother board for my pc. My current one is from an offthe shelf pc. I will be swapping my old board for a new one.

I won't change anything else, hard drives RAM, etc. will be the same.

Once everything is connected, will it boot up as normal or will i hav to confiure anything onscreen, will i hav to add some new software and anything of the sort.

As you can tell i am new at this, so forgive me if i'm a little slow with the tech stuff. Help would be very much apreciated.

JeffHoon · 7 Jun 2007 at 19:20

I'm not a 100% sure, but i think your operating system (Windows?) might notice that you have changed your mobo and may need reactivating.

animeguitarist · 7 Jun 2007 at 19:28

Does that mean I will have to re-install anything. Ooh yeah, will i hav to do something wif BIOS (dont know much wen it comes to that).

by the way thank you for your help.

JeffHoon · 7 Jun 2007 at 20:21

I think it might need a re-install if the hardware isn't configured correctly, but i haven't tried what you are suggesting. Is your computer a branded one (i.e. Time,Dell etc...)?

animeguitarist · 7 Jun 2007 at 21:43

I think so, its an advent (lol, from pc world)

JeffHoon · 7 Jun 2007 at 21:50

It probably means you have an OEM (Limited License) version of Windows and you might not be able to install it with your new mobo (as it is new hardware). In other words you might have to buy a new copy. I would try and reinstall windows with your new mobo setup and see if that works. Why are you chucking your old mobo by the way?

animeguitarist · 8 Jun 2007 at 00:45

am getting rid of me old motherboard because it is really small so i cant fit many cards in (PCI), it only has two expansion slots and cos i replaced the on-board graphics with a card, the card only barely fits in because the stupid commponents on the mobo (capacitors) are in the way.

Do i really need to reinstall windows? i thought ad hav to configure the new board or mess with new BIOS but i never thought of window having to be re-installed.

IN fact i cant re-install windows cos it came pre-installed on the pc. no disk

JeffHoon · 8 Jun 2007 at 06:47

Well all i can suggest is that you try and boot windows from your hard drive, using your new mobo, and see if it works. I don't think it will run though, which will mean a fresh copy of windows

animeguitarist · 8 Jun 2007 at 22:35

aww, man. lol, that means that i will have to get vista. You see, I have Windows XP media centre edition. However, most shops including overclockers do not stock media center because Microsoft is really pushing for everyone to get Vista.

I was hoping to wait a while before I get Vista, just to make sure all the problems have been worked out. Although if I get vista I can run Directx 10. That is a plus, i guess.

Thank you so much for your help so far.

Cob · 8 Jun 2007 at 22:46

You'll likely find that a full size motherboard won't fit in an Advent case either. They're usually quite compact and are designed for the small micro-ATX motherboards that pre-built PC's tend to come with.

JeffHoon · 8 Jun 2007 at 22:47

how long have you had the computer? you may be able to get pc world to give you an xp cd.

animeguitarist · 9 Jun 2007 at 16:11

I've had my PC two years now.

However, I know that a new mother board will fit because I changed the case, my new case is an "X-clio twin engine gaming case" trust me there is plenty of room in that baby

Before you ask why I got the case, I swapped the case because i got a new graphics card "radeon x1950 pro" and because of that a got a new psu. but all the wires made it overheat slightly so i got that case.

JeffHoon · 9 Jun 2007 at 22:33

might be worth asking pc world for your xp installation cd. if you bought the computer from them then i think they might legally have to give you a cd copy of windows that came with it. try it on, all they can say is no. also i would ask for your license key, so that you can use any xp cd to install your version of windows.

animeguitarist · 10 Jun 2007 at 18:08

JeffHoon said:
might be worth asking pc world for your xp installation cd. if you bought the computer from them then i think they might legally have to give you a cd copy of windows that came with it. try it on, all they can say is no. also i would ask for your license key, so that you can use any xp cd to install your version of windows.

yeah, that seems like a really good idea, thanks al try it. Either that or I might get Vista. Who knows, lol, but thanks, if i can get the cd and the lisence key al stick wif xp.

cheers guys