Upgrading Motherboard in Windows XP

[eddiesb]

Is it necessary to re-install Win XP Pro whenever a new motherboard & processor is installed? I recently upgraded an Athlon system to a Pentium 4 board, and Win XP would give a blue screen during boot in normal or safe mode.

I ended up re-installing Win XP, and had to re-install all my programs even though they were still on the hard drive. I had another hard drive that had Win NT 4 installed on it, and it had no problems booting with the new board.

I just wanted to know for future reference, because I upgrade motherboards all the time.

Thanks,

Ed

 

[Toejam31]

You can usually get away with upgrading a processor if is from the same manufacturer ... but a mainboard, and switching from an AMD system to an Intel system? Not likely. There's also a good probability you'll have to reactivate the OS in this kind of situation, unless you have the Pro Corporate version.

For the best results, a clean installation of any operating system when switching out mainboards is a good idea, unless the hardware is very similar. When swapping out an AMD or VIA board to one from Intel (or vice versa) ... format and reinstall.

Toejam31

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