changingMotherBoard.........

as i see this is a very concurrent board where many user from newbies to avanced ones join and share ideas/files/knowledge ......... i've been asking this cuestion myself manytimes and searched about this without finding a solution for this....

i remember couple of years ago i had Windows XP Professional ...but unfortunely my board got burned and had to change ....... i still have the same hardware, HD, same memory, same processor but Xp didn't like the Motherboard and never load anymore.. neither in safe mode or anyway .... same happend after i change the board for some reason not long time ago ..then again XP never load .. i had to format the disk and re-install everything all over again ... Does anyone had experienced similar problem with this?? is there a possible reason or solution for this issue? .... i heared is Drivers matter... when XP reads the Old driver from previous motherboard .. i wonder why XP isn't better specially when microsoft knows about this bugs ...i know win9x loads under any board when starting up it just ask for drivers update ... XP ( is this the better OS microsoft promised ??) bullshit?

anyone knows how to fix this.... just in case happends again.. itwill make my time free from formatting and re-installing again ..i got an idea about deleting all refered driver files about the motherboard located in: C:\Windows\System32\Drivers .... i haven't try but maybe will load and update its driver database with the ones needed for the new board.

Regards

[axl936]

Hi !
This is not a problem..
I have changed 4 different motherboard with the same windows XP installation, without a problem..
When Xp find a different HW normally stop loading..

You can read this KB from microsoft
hxxp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;824125&Product=win2000

This is dedicated to win2000, but the procedure for win xp is the same..

this is worked fine for me 4 times !!
I hope that is good for you too !!
Bye!

If I understand this correctly you're trying to swap a motherboard without reinstalling the OS entirely?

Hmm. To be honest, that's not very advisable with Win2k/XP. It's a lot like trying to replace the foundation of a house while leaving the rest of it in place. It can be done, but it's ugly. All of the devices on your system tend to be dependant on bus drivers and the PnP model that tend to be specific to the chipset your motherboard uses. So when you swap it out, Bad Things happen. You could get away with it in 95 and 98 because device access is more primitive - there wasn't any kind of hardware abstraction layer, for one.

Usually the problem boils down to two things: the HAL and your mass storage device. Swapping motherboards will usually work OK *if* those two things match between the boards. But that's rarely the case. I've learned from doing the unspeakable with sysprep, that you can often work around these problems, but it's not pretty. Basically you need to find out which HAL dll your new motherboard needs. Then take your hard drive and get it on another Win2k/XP machine (or a linux box that can read NTFS) and find the appropriate HAL file in %systemroot%\servicepackfiles\i386. Copy the right one into %systemroot%\system32 and rename it hal.dll. Unless you're going from a really old pre-ACPI system to an ACPI system, you should be OK. Otherwise the entire hardware enumeration in the system registry hive will be fubared and there's really anything you can do about it.

As far as the mass storage controller goes, you might get lucky. If both controllers are of a similar type, you might be able to boot succesfully and then change out the driver in a proper fashion. But if it can't find the boot device, you might try copying the correct device driver (ex. viaide.sys) to the name of your original mass storage driver and hope for the best. That's a really kludgy way of doing it, but if it gets your system to boot, you can then install the driver correctly.

For future reference, the best way to replace a motherboard on a Win2k/XP machine is to use the sysprep tool. It's supposed to be for cloning a computer to another more or less identical machine, but you can use it to transplant an existing installation of Windows to a totally dissimilar machine despite what MS says. The latest versions for XP and 2000 allow you to include a collection of mass storage drivers, which lets the OS cleanly load a correct driver after it emerges from sysprep. Then all you have to deal with is the hal.dll problem, which is pretty easy to fix.

Basically, before you replace the board, run sysprep on your computer and include the hard disk controller driver for the new board. It's a little complicated for Windows 2000, but there's a manual for it somewhere on Microsoft's site. When sysprep shuts down your computer, replace the motherboard. Then boot it back up and go through the mini-setup wizard that will do a complete redetection of your hardware. As far as I know, that's the cleanest way to transplant a Win2k/XP installation to a new body.

heyyyy ...THANKS for replies.. it's time for reading deep about this.. Tbone your suggestion is the best but sometimes time is short for formatting... and re-install everything and configure your softwares.etc you know what i mean.. also could be done by cleaning the XP files and leaving the rest archives/download files, music ..etc untouched ...but also takes much time.

btw any other tips or suggestion about the topic are welcome as well...

Best Regards!

Before doing anything like format or something else
MAKE A VALID BACKUP FROM WPA.DBL
After repair or new installation copy file back.
OEM Ver$ 14kb filesize
Prof Corp Ver$ 3kb filesize

[Light_Shadow]

Yeap, sysprep is the way to go here. If you have the money or the program you could use the WinPE also (hxxp://www.microsoft.com/licensing/programs/sa/support/winpe.mspx). I've used that method to cut off my times when reinstalling systems (i work giving technical support/maintenance). It works specially well when used in conjunction with symantec ghost 8. Another handy utility to troubleshoot a dead system is the Bart PE programm. It is something like WinPE but it's targeted to reaparing the system rather than to installing. hxxp://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Regards

After repair or new installation copy file back.
OEM Ver$ 14kb filesize
Prof Corp Ver$ 3kb filesize

what purpose have this??

i'll check pebuilder

Crk, FYI

WPA.DBL is the activation key file for WinXP..
If you lost this, U'll have to re-activate the system again with M$..

If you using back the same hardwares (ie. just re-installing) than you can backup this and copy back to windows to make it deems activated... save you some calls to activate

The wpa file doesn't just store activted state for windows, it tracks hardware configuration when you installed XP, and the hardware configuration at the current time, and if you change your hardare too many times it will require you to reactivate Windows XP. The WPA isnt restored in system restore, so if you want to make any changes back it up, and you can revert to any hardware state and not deal with reactivating.

I had Windows XP that ran on 3 different chipsets without problems, they were: Celeron 300, Pentium 3 700, and Cyrex 300 boards, no BSOD.

Here is my 2 cents worth:

I agree with Viasek , Wpa.dbl is not worth the trouble. I have tried it after reading about it in PC Mag . It did't work. I had to Re-activate.
Member Tbone has given good explanation .

But your problem is not quite clear Mr CRK ?

Quote " i remember couple of years ago i had Windows XP Professional ...but unfortunely my board got burned and had to change ....... i still have the same hardware, HD, same memory, same processor but Xp didn't like the Motherboard and never load anymore.. neither in safe mode or anyway .... same happend after i change the board for some reason not long time ago ..then again XP never load .. i had to format the disk and re-install everything all over again ... Does anyone had experienced similar problem with this?? is there a possible reason or solution for this issue? .... i heared is Drivers matter... when XP reads the Old driver from previous motherboard .. i wonder why XP isn't better specially when microsoft knows about this bugs ...i know win9x loads under any board when starting up it just ask for drivers update ... XP ( is this the better OS microsoft promised ??) bullshit?
---------------

1. Your Motherboard got burned and you changed it , Leaving rest of the Hardware same .

I see no problem . It is safe to assume that you have installed a Brand new , or better , newer version of Motherboard than your old Motherboard.

Have you RUN the Hardware Compatibilty check from the XP CD ??

Win 98 requires that you supply all the drivers for the Hardware you have in your computer. Xp has most of the drivers from all major manufacturers . It installs all without asking. If it doesn't have some for new hardware it will prompt you for the driver and the location.

2. Could you be more specific about which make of motherboard you originally had and which one you have replaced it with. It may be that you have some Onboard Hardware on the motherboard for which the XP has no driver . You have to install it from the Motherboard Makers Install CD.


My case : Asus A7V motherboard with onboard promise Ultra ATA , 1Ghz Athlon, IDE controller , Plextor CD drive , Verizon extrnal DSL modem , Verizon supplied NET card, SBLI 5.1 sound card , IBM 30 GB hard drive , Asus 2GTS Video card , Floppy . Hitachi CM771 Monitor.

I assembled it in Nov ' 2000 and was using Win 98 se . It would crash once every day . I would re-install every thing every month or so, until I made Image with Norton Ghost and save time .

In July 2002 I bought win XP pro . I ran the Compatibility check from Cd . I was Notified that my Hardware was not compatible and advised Not to install Win XP on the system !

I downloaded 4.5 MB XP Hardware compatibilty guide from Microsoft , Listing almost every Hadware i never heatrd off . Useless.

Luckily Xp left a Log in C:\ drive . It found two Unknown Hardwares in the System .

1. Verizon External DSL modem . It came witha driver CD and I had to install it in Win 98 . I checked the Verizon Site and got UPdate for win XP.

2. Hitachi CM771 monitor ? That also came with driver CD . I checked the Hitachi site , CM771 has been discontinued , And latest Hitachi is out from making CRT Monitors . It is Out sourcing some chinese Manufatures for LCD's.

With this info I inserted the XP CD and Hit Install Button , opting for NTFS . 45 minutes and I had my system on without nary a prompt for any Drivers.
It had all. 3o days to activate .

I added Ram , another Hard drive , a Pioneer Dvd drive , replaced Plextor with Light on CD drive no problem .

Two months back I changed my Motherboard . I bought MSI KM2M . It has Onboard Lan, Onboard Vga (Faster than My Old Asus) ,Onboard Sound 6.1 , Usb2.0.
I changed my Cpu to Athlon XP 2400+ .

XP Instlled without a problem or prompt for the drivers. Sure I had to re-activate it .

It is best to have a clean install of OS and all Apps. Go ahead Format the HD with NTFS , Install XP and activate it. You can activate it any number of times you re-install OS . I have activated it a dozen of times , some times 3 days in row with out a hitch . WPA.DBL has you Configuration which is sent to MS and they knows it is the computer.

I find XP much better than Win 98se . There seems to be some other problem which you are experiencing . You should check with the Board Manufacturers site .

Hope it helps.

the board i got ,2 of them was a PCchips ones with audio,video,land,modem integrated which has an AMI Bios chipset, but the rest like HD, memory, processor, CD rom ... were the same and i changed for an Intel one that needs all PCI/AGP cards like video, sound..... and XP never load again.. couldn't insert any disk or anything .. didn't load neither in safe mode

Regards

@Crk..
try starting the pc in vga mode...it has worked for me...

WBR


Surej

[LouCypher]

XP Pro Corporate works fine for upgrades without requiring activation but if you have a VIA chipset uninstall the VIA 4in1 before swapping with a motherboard using a different chipset.

I have had bad expiriences with the old motherboard switch - i like to keep a clean house. so i tend to reformat every two months. i just keep all the non system data on separate HD's.

The first time i try'd the switch it didnt really work well... lets just say i will never do it again lol

XP Corp does indeed have the capability to hotswap as it where fixed parts of the hardware with out the system buggin out, but still... i recomend the old format way.

Cheers mates