Upgrade to a newer Motherboard

[admin@home]

Hello,
I have an older Pentium 4 motherboard that has been acting up and can only
run with one memory module installed. I want to buy a newer more reliable
motherboard but am wondering about swapping over the Hard Drive with Windows
XP Pro w/ SP3 on it. I understand that the newer and different brand MB will
require newer / different drivers . Can I just set it up in the CMOS
settings for the HD and boot up or will I need to do a reinstall / boot of
the WinXP CD to get the correct drivers loaded and all or will it bomb out
anyways. I have a host of apps and all that I don't want to mess with
reloading. Thanks in advance for any help

 

[Chuck]

There is no easy answer to your question.
First, I'd do a complete backup to other media or even another HD.
Next make a "Slipstream" XP CD/DVD, and make sure that it works.
Since you seem to be intending to use the same CPU, at least the HAL
will be correct for both MBDs. As to drivers, You will need to look at
the differences between the new and old MBDs to determine which drivers
will likely change or be needed. You may also want to backup the
registry as a separate item. To avoid complete application reinstall,
it's possible (with a lot of research and effort to merge sections of
the old registry with a new "clean" registry.

Whatever you do, make sure that you have the means to get from whatever
XP version you have install CD/DVDs for to XP 3. Microsoft has not made
this process as simple and easy as it should be, particularly when you
have an older XP install version, such as RTM or "Gold". the pre SP2
versions can have complications, such as needing a SATA driver during
the initial install process.


On 8/1/2010 11:22 PM, admin@home wrote:
> Hello,
> I have an older Pentium 4 motherboard that has been acting up and can only
> run with one memory module installed. I want to buy a newer more reliable
> motherboard but am wondering about swapping over the Hard Drive with Windows
> XP Pro w/ SP3 on it. I understand that the newer and different brand MB will
> require newer / different drivers . Can I just set it up in the CMOS
> settings for the HD and boot up or will I need to do a reinstall / boot of
> the WinXP CD to get the correct drivers loaded and all or will it bomb out
> anyways. I have a host of apps and all that I don't want to mess with
> reloading. Thanks in advance for any help

 

[Justin]

In article <19EBB813-C19E-4EDB-921F-F86CC470A5B8@microsoft.com>,
admin@home <admin@home@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> I have an older Pentium 4 motherboard that has been acting up and can only
> run with one memory module installed. I want to buy a newer more reliable
> motherboard but am wondering about swapping over the Hard Drive with Windows
> XP Pro w/ SP3 on it. I understand that the newer and different brand MB will
> require newer / different drivers . Can I just set it up in the CMOS
> settings for the HD and boot up or will I need to do a reinstall / boot of
> the WinXP CD to get the correct drivers loaded and all or will it bomb out
> anyways. I have a host of apps and all that I don't want to mess with
> reloading. Thanks in advance for any help


Absolutely positively not.
You can't just swap the drive into a machine with a different board and
expect it to work. Even if you do somehow get it working I would worry
about stability issues.

If you upgrade the board you will want to reinstall the OS from scratch
to get the best results.

I realize you have a bunch of apps you don't want to reload but doing
just that is the best course of action.

 

[Paul]

admin@home wrote:
> Hello,
> I have an older Pentium 4 motherboard that has been acting up and can only
> run with one memory module installed. I want to buy a newer more reliable
> motherboard but am wondering about swapping over the Hard Drive with Windows
> XP Pro w/ SP3 on it. I understand that the newer and different brand MB will
> require newer / different drivers . Can I just set it up in the CMOS
> settings for the HD and boot up or will I need to do a reinstall / boot of
> the WinXP CD to get the correct drivers loaded and all or will it bomb out
> anyways. I have a host of apps and all that I don't want to mess with
> reloading. Thanks in advance for any help

I've done that transition once with WinXP. (And a few times with Win2K.)
I've used various methods to do the transition. This is what I did for
WinXP.

I went from a board with VIA chipset (8237S Southbridge) to a board
with Intel ICH9R Southbridge. Both were socket LGA775, and the same
processor was used on both.

The trick I used, is I installed a Promise Ultra133 TX2 IDE controller
card in the computer, before changing motherboards. I installed the card
in the old motherboard first. Then, installed a driver for it. Then,
unplugged the WinXP drive from the motherboard connector, and moved it to the
new card.

Once the motherboard was changed out, I used the same PCI card to
control the disk. I plugged the disk and PCI controller, into the
new motherboard.

The OS came up, because it already had the driver for the Ultra133
in it. So it didn't have a problem booting. The New Hardware eizard
put a whole bunch of dialogs up, and it took a couple hours of
tracking down additional drivers and the like, lots of reboots,
before the job was finished.

At first, I thought I was screwed, because my USB mouse didn't work at
the beginning. But somehow, I managed to get the USB mouse to work
eventually, so I could control the computer. The new motherboard
didn't have a PS/2 mouse port, and if I'd had a PS/2 mouse port,
there would have been no problems at all.

Once everything had settled down, and all the new motherboard drivers
were in place, I could move the hard drive over to a motherboard
connector, and remove the Ultra133 TX2 card.

And WinXP still needed to be activated, but it didn't require a phone
call. It worked via the Internet. Some other people have been stuck in
situations, where activation was a problem. (Or they couldn't even
get the new system to the point, that they could do anything with it,
due to some kind of activation issue.) But I was lucky, and connecting
over the Internet was enough.

The motherboard has a new Ethernet chip on it, which counts against
activation. But the same hard drive, with the same serial number and
volume ID was used. So a lot of the things remained the same, from
an activation perspective. It still needed to be activated though.
(I mess around with the system a fair bit, so it's hard to say
how many other things were counting against me.)

http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm

# Display Adapter <--- same
# SCSI Adapter
# IDE Adapter (effectively the motherboard) <--- different
# Network Adapter (NIC) and its MAC Address <--- different
# RAM Amount Range (i.e., 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc.) <--- same
# Processor Type <--- same
# Processor Serial Number (only on P3?)
# Hard Drive Device <--- same
# Hard Drive Volume Serial Number (VSN) <--- same
# CD-ROM / CD-RW / DVD-ROM <--- same

On an older system, I was able to move Win2K from one system to
another, because both used Intel Southbridges, and the build-in
Win2K driver for the disk, worked with both.

In all cases, I always do a complete backup (clone) of the disk,
before booting the new hardware. On one occasion, I needed to use
that backup, to restore the disk, because the process didn't go well.
So not all of these kinds of adventures, go smoothly.

You can also do a Repair Install. That uses your Windows installer
CD. During the procedure, there is an opportunity to press F6 and
offer a floppy with a disk controller driver on it. Such a floppy
would have a TXTSETUP.OEM file at the top level. Some motherboards
kits will make such a floppy, using the motherboard CD. Or you can
prepare the floppy in advance, if you know ahead of time what driver
package is needed.

So it can be done with minimal fuss, a bit of fuss, or if you
like to level your system regularly, you can always reinstall
everything from scratch if you want. And F6 would work there. Like
if you needed an AHCI driver for your SATA disk controller,
WinXP doesn't have that built-in, so you'd need the F6 thing
to provide a driver during installation.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Patok]

Paul wrote:
>
> And WinXP still needed to be activated, but it didn't require a phone
> call. It worked via the Internet. Some other people have been stuck in
> situations, where activation was a problem. (Or they couldn't even
> get the new system to the point, that they could do anything with it,
> due to some kind of activation issue.) But I was lucky, and connecting
> over the Internet was enough.

What is this "activation" you're talking about? When does it happen?
Maybe I misremember or don't pay attention. I've done a bit of WinXP
reinstalls, and don't remember any activations, over the phone or over
the internet. I just enter the product key when it asks, and that's
that. You don't mean the "Genuine Advantage" validation that happens
online, I hope.

--
You'd be crazy to e-mail me with the crazy. But leave the div alone.
--
Whoever bans a book, shall be banished. Whoever burns a book, shall burn.

 

[Peter]

On 08/02/2010 05:22 AM, admin@home wrote:
> Hello,
> I have an older Pentium 4 motherboard that has been acting up and can only
> run with one memory module installed. I want to buy a newer more reliable
> motherboard but am wondering about swapping over the Hard Drive with Windows
> XP Pro w/ SP3 on it. I understand that the newer and different brand MB will
> require newer / different drivers . Can I just set it up in the CMOS
> settings for the HD and boot up or will I need to do a reinstall / boot of
> the WinXP CD to get the correct drivers loaded and all or will it bomb out
> anyways. I have a host of apps and all that I don't want to mess with
> reloading. Thanks in advance for any help

It will take less time to bite the bullet and reinstall XP and all your
programs.

--
Peter

 

[Paul]

Patok wrote:
> Paul wrote:
>>
>> And WinXP still needed to be activated, but it didn't require a phone
>> call. It worked via the Internet. Some other people have been stuck in
>> situations, where activation was a problem. (Or they couldn't even
>> get the new system to the point, that they could do anything with it,
>> due to some kind of activation issue.) But I was lucky, and connecting
>> over the Internet was enough.
>
> What is this "activation" you're talking about? When does it happen?
> Maybe I misremember or don't pay attention. I've done a bit of WinXP
> reinstalls, and don't remember any activations, over the phone or over
> the internet. I just enter the product key when it asks, and that's
> that. You don't mean the "Genuine Advantage" validation that happens
> online, I hope.
>

I don't remember the exact stream of events. (It's not like I'm doing
this every day. I've only changed motherboards the one time on this
copy of WinXP.)

If I can remember any more details, I'll post back.

Paul

 

[Mark Adams]

"Patok" wrote:

> Paul wrote:
> >
> > And WinXP still needed to be activated, but it didn't require a phone
> > call. It worked via the Internet. Some other people have been stuck in
> > situations, where activation was a problem. (Or they couldn't even
> > get the new system to the point, that they could do anything with it,
> > due to some kind of activation issue.) But I was lucky, and connecting
> > over the Internet was enough.
>
> What is this "activation" you're talking about? When does it happen?
> Maybe I misremember or don't pay attention. I've done a bit of WinXP
> reinstalls, and don't remember any activations, over the phone or over
> the internet. I just enter the product key when it asks, and that's
> that. You don't mean the "Genuine Advantage" validation that happens
> online, I hope.
>


See the following KB article for a description of product activation:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307890

If you have done "reinstalls" from a recovery partition or a recovery disk;
these are pre-activated and you won't be required to do so. Activation will
be required for a reinstall from an install disk. note that an "install disk"
and a "recovery disk" are not the same thing.

Windows keeps track of the hardware changes you make to your computer.
Different components have differing scores toward activation. Change enough
stuff and Windows will require reactivation. A motherboard change is a
guaranteed reactivation. If it's been more than 120 days since you last
activated, it'll activate just fine over the internet. If it doesn't
activate, you will be given a phone number to call for phone activation.

No. Activation is not the same as WGA.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892130


> --
> You'd be crazy to e-mail me with the crazy. But leave the div alone.
> --
> Whoever bans a book, shall be banished. Whoever burns a book, shall burn.
> .
>

 

[Patok]

Mark Adams wrote:
>
>
> "Patok" wrote:
>
>> Paul wrote:
>>> And WinXP still needed to be activated, but it didn't require a phone
>>> call. It worked via the Internet. Some other people have been stuck in
>>> situations, where activation was a problem. (Or they couldn't even
>>> get the new system to the point, that they could do anything with it,
>>> due to some kind of activation issue.) But I was lucky, and connecting
>>> over the Internet was enough.
>> What is this "activation" you're talking about? When does it happen?
>> Maybe I misremember or don't pay attention. I've done a bit of WinXP
>> reinstalls, and don't remember any activations, over the phone or over
>> the internet. I just enter the product key when it asks, and that's
>> that. You don't mean the "Genuine Advantage" validation that happens
>> online, I hope.
>
>
> See the following KB article for a description of product activation:
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307890
>
> If you have done "reinstalls" from a recovery partition or a recovery disk;
> these are pre-activated and you won't be required to do so. Activation will
> be required for a reinstall from an install disk. note that an "install disk"
> and a "recovery disk" are not the same thing.

Oh, OK, thanks, the link explains it. As far as I remember, I've
never installed or reinstalled XP from a retail disk. It has always been
from either the OEM disks that came with the computers, or from an
educational volume license agreement disk. The article says these are
pre-activated. In addition, I don't think I've ever done a hardware
change on an installed system large enough to require re-activation,
even if it was a retail XP, so I don't know what would happen in that case.

--
You'd be crazy to e-mail me with the crazy. But leave the div alone.
--
Whoever bans a book, shall be banished. Whoever burns a book, shall burn.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

On Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:18:08 -0400, Patok <crazy.div.patok@gmail.com>
wrote:


> What is this "activation" you're talking about? When does it happen?
> Maybe I misremember or don't pay attention. I've done a bit of WinXP
> reinstalls, and don't remember any activations, over the phone or over
> the internet. I just enter the product key when it asks, and that's
> that.


"That's that" are exactly the right words. Yes, that's what entering
the product key is--activation.



--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

 

[philo]

On 08/01/2010 10:22 PM, admin@home wrote:
> Hello,
> I have an older Pentium 4 motherboard that has been acting up and can only
> run with one memory module installed. I want to buy a newer more reliable
> motherboard but am wondering about swapping over the Hard Drive with Windows
> XP Pro w/ SP3 on it. I understand that the newer and different brand MB will
> require newer / different drivers . Can I just set it up in the CMOS
> settings for the HD and boot up or will I need to do a reinstall / boot of
> the WinXP CD to get the correct drivers loaded and all or will it bomb out
> anyways. I have a host of apps and all that I don't want to mess with
> reloading. Thanks in advance for any help


I've done such many times

you will need to perform a 'repair install'

plenty of info on Google

btw: be sure to back up all your data first

Though a repair install usually works. there is of course no guarantee

 

[Paul]

Paul wrote:
> Patok wrote:
>> Paul wrote:
>>>
>>> And WinXP still needed to be activated, but it didn't require a phone
>>> call. It worked via the Internet. Some other people have been stuck in
>>> situations, where activation was a problem. (Or they couldn't even
>>> get the new system to the point, that they could do anything with it,
>>> due to some kind of activation issue.) But I was lucky, and connecting
>>> over the Internet was enough.
>>
>> What is this "activation" you're talking about? When does it happen?
>> Maybe I misremember or don't pay attention. I've done a bit of WinXP
>> reinstalls, and don't remember any activations, over the phone or over
>> the internet. I just enter the product key when it asks, and that's
>> that. You don't mean the "Genuine Advantage" validation that happens
>> online, I hope.
>>
>
> I don't remember the exact stream of events. (It's not like I'm doing
> this every day. I've only changed motherboards the one time on this
> copy of WinXP.)
>
> If I can remember any more details, I'll post back.
>
> Paul

OK, I found a means to reproduce the experience, of a major hardware
change.

I pulled my current WinXP partition ahd hard drive, into VirtualPC 2007,
using the disk2vhd program from sysinternals.com . I'd tried another
method to do it, and it was taking hours of hacking to get anywhere.
The disk2vhd program made this process easy. And the tick box, to
solve the HAL issue, is excellence in design (icing on the cake).
The HAL issue is caused by my current computer being dual core,
while VirtualPC 2007 emulates a uniprocessor. This program puts
the correct options in boot.ini, to fix it.

Disk2vhd v1.62
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Disk2vhd Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
/KERNEL=ntkrpuni.exe /HAL=halacpi.dll

When WinXP starts up for the first time, inside the VirtualPC 2007
environment, this is the message it prints on the screen. This is
what I saw, when I changed out my motherboard months ago. It's a
72 hour warning.

"Since Windows was first activated on this computer, the hardware on
the computer has changed significantly. Due to these changes, Windows
must be reactivated within 3 days. Do you want to reactivate Windows now?"

Of course, I didn't click the button. I only needed to see that message,
as proof I hadn't been seeing things.

Now, when I activated, it worked over the Internet and no phone call
was needed. I have heard of people getting stuck when that happens,
where the install is basically frozen, and they can't advance to a
point to click any buttons etc. So it doesn't always work out that well.

Paul

 

[Doum]

=?Utf-8?B?YWRtaW5AaG9tZQ==?= <admin@home@discussions.microsoft.com>
écrivait news:19EBB813-C19E-4EDB-921F-F86CC470A5B8@microsoft.com:

> Hello,
> I have an older Pentium 4 motherboard that has been acting up and can
> only run with one memory module installed. I want to buy a newer more
> reliable motherboard but am wondering about swapping over the Hard
> Drive with Windows XP Pro w/ SP3 on it. I understand that the newer
> and different brand MB will require newer / different drivers . Can I
> just set it up in the CMOS settings for the HD and boot up or will I
> need to do a reinstall / boot of the WinXP CD to get the correct
> drivers loaded and all or will it bomb out anyways. I have a host of
> apps and all that I don't want to mess with reloading. Thanks in
> advance for any help

To add to what others said, I did this recently and after the repair
install I was stuck because Windows wouldn't start before being activated.
After some search, I discovered the "sysprep" command to be used from the
recovery console which restored the activation process like a new
installation, ie : Windows starts and gives me 30 days to activate. This
whole thing was a little confusing, but it finally worked.

So, do a search on "sysprep" before proceeding.

HTH