mobo - straight swap.

Should I be able to swap my motherboard out without messing windows up?

I'm oing from an NF7-S v2 to a DFI infinity, so the chipset is the same. I'm not worried about having to reinstall LAN drivers or anything like that, as long as I'm prepared for it.

would a repair install of XP be enough if the straight swap doesnt work? I dont want to do a full format + install.

 

I did that (change mobos) before, when I started windows it forced me to reactivate windows for some reason, and i used up my product keys 5 times, so i had to phone up and argue with microsoft that I was just changing the mobo. I won of course

Me: 1
Microsoft: 0

 

im about to change to a NF7-S lol, so u think it should be ok though?!

 

i think so, i'm just gonna do it. I cant see how it can go too wrong with 2 mobos with the same chipset.

 

I went from a nforce2 to a kt400 mobo with no probs... windows took care of itself. I was planing on a fresh install but all is well and that was 3 months a go.

 

Murphys Law

 

i still owe that guy a slap or two.

 

It'll all work fine, I still have an install of Windows that I made on an 8RDA+, then installed an NF7-S on, and then a DFI Lanparty into...and then when I got this new NF7-S I used that install for a bit on it too. The most you'll get is a load of "Found New Hardware" prompts and have to do a lot of clicking, on the 8RDA -> NF7-S changeover I didn't even have to do that. It works fine

 

Thanks Kam
It seems silly to have a dfi infiinity, 2x256 BH-5 and a XP2500-M sitting in a box here, while im using my 2nd choice parts to play doom3 on ....
(waiting for me to get round to cleaning + lapping all my WC stuff).

I might as well have a quick swap around while I pluck up the motivation to service the watercooling gear.

 

I don't recomend it, but normally if you have the same chipset, it isn't really a problem. I personally use a motherboard swap as a good time to clean out all the bit rot and worthless data I save for some reason that made sense six months ago. Now I wonder why I have a flash of a baby singing "I pooped my pants"

I've done this several times. The majority of the arguements goes like this:

Microsoft: Why are you reactivating?
Fronzel: I changed the motherboard.
Microsoft: Is this copy of XP used on another computer?
Fronzel: Nope.
Microsoft: OK! Your new code is...