replace brand name pc mainboard

First let me say that you got that backwards. The mobos in the HP, Dell etc. are really "generic" not the other way around. They are OEM mobos made by companies that also make name brand mobos but they are made specifically for the company and would be considered generic. The mobos sold by the mobo companies directly and carry their "name brand" would be the name brand mobo.

That said, yes you can swap a generic OEM mobo for a name brand mobo. There shouldn't be any problems, assuming it's not a 10 year old PC. Dell went through a period when they intentionally mis-wired their power supplies so that people would be forced to replace them with overpriced Dell PSUs. If you bought an aftermarket PSU and plugged it in, then it would fry your whole system. Nice aye?

So you should check on a case by case basis, but you shouldn't have any problem. You will however need a new copy of the operating system, because those are specifically designed for the original OEM mobo.

You also might have issues with the mobo fitting properly in the case e.g., standoff locations and rear I/O shield clearance.

You also need to make sure that the new mobo has the necessary number of appropriate connections for the other components e.g., SATA, IDE etc., and will take the CPU and RAM from the old mobo.

sorry . .best bet

No, that's not exactly what I said. Give me a link to your PC model and tell me exactly what happened and I'll try to give you a hand.

I was looking for a link.

This one? Dell Dimension 2400 (Pentium 4 2.66 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 120 GB HDD)

That's a socket 478 with an 845GV chipset and DDR RAM. It's going to be hard to find cheap. I did a search and they are asking ridiculous prices for what is, by today's standards, considered junk.

If you can find a new 478 with DDR and integrated graphics real cheap like $50-$60 and you have no cash for a new system it may be worth it to try. If you damaged the mobo how do you know you didn't damage something else, even the CPU?

My advice would be to save your cash and get a cheap PSU, core 2 duo, mobo w/ integrated graphics and DDR2 RAM. You can even pick up a cheap case for $30 to put it in. Reuse the CD and HD. I don't see how they have 2 optical drives and an HD that are all IDE (PATA) when they only have one IDE connector which is a max of 2 channels. the new mobos only have one IDE channel as well because they are trying to phase it out so one HD and one optical. Save more cash and step up to a better mobo and a VGA card etc. etc.

I don't know what else to tell you.

no silly ur talking bout umm 2.3k dollars !

j/k

wow ur lucky my dell has the mobo place on the other side so lets say the video cards fan would be down on your well mines facing up so it touches sum kind of heatsink above it so i can't replace it with a new card well not a 2 slot one..

let me know how ur issue ends up