Hello, I just joined TH because I hear good things about this site and the community looks great! But I'm sure it's nothing new that I come bearing a problem...
I'm looking to turn my cheap HP Compaq CQ5720F into a low-grade gaming PC until I can upgrade to a custom build but there's a huge problem... the board on it only has mini PCI 1x slots so I'm stuck with integrated graphics.
So now I have to buy a new motherboard to get a decent GPU. I'm going with a Gigabyte and a GeForce 450 but I recently found out HP tattoos their mobo's so that the PC will only run if it has the original board in place... I asked my friend what to do and he said your going to have to reinstall windows for it to work. HP only supplied me with restore discs, not the original windows installer discs so I'm really lost.
So I guess my main questions are: Will I need to download a Windows 7 installer ISO via torrent and burn it to a disc and do it that way? Will my current windows 7 serial even validate it or is it once and its no longer valid? And how will I get my PC to run the installer with the new motherboard in place if it won't work in the first place?
Will I even have to do all this!?!?!?
Please help!
Many thanks in advance!
I'm looking to turn my cheap HP Compaq CQ5720F into a low-grade gaming PC until I can upgrade to a custom build but there's a huge problem... the board on it only has mini PCI 1x slots so I'm stuck with integrated graphics.
So now I have to buy a new motherboard to get a decent GPU. I'm going with a Gigabyte and a GeForce 450 but I recently found out HP tattoos their mobo's so that the PC will only run if it has the original board in place... I asked my friend what to do and he said your going to have to reinstall windows for it to work. HP only supplied me with restore discs, not the original windows installer discs so I'm really lost.
So I guess my main questions are: Will I need to download a Windows 7 installer ISO via torrent and burn it to a disc and do it that way? Will my current windows 7 serial even validate it or is it once and its no longer valid? And how will I get my PC to run the installer with the new motherboard in place if it won't work in the first place?
Will I even have to do all this!?!?!?
Please help!
Many thanks in advance!