Can I simply swap a mobo? Vista

[dccool879]

I guess it just seems too good to be true, can i just put in a different mobo without having to reinstall vista? or does it have some protection bs that will be like "hey your computer is too different!!" for my current mobo, i hadn't installed any drivers (i suppose vista picked up on everything.) I know XP gets angry, but not sure about vista

[hat]

Is it the same chipset?

[blkhogan]

I've done it in XP lots of time, it just makes you re-register the OS with the M$ police. Vista not to sure, haven't had the chance to try it. Would be interesting to see if it does alow you to.

[Solaris17]

I guess it just seems too good to be true, can i just put in a different mobo without having to reinstall vista? or does it have some protection bs that will be like "hey your computer is too different!!" for my current mobo, i hadn't installed any drivers (i suppose vista picked up on everything.) I know XP gets angry, but not sure about vista

i reccomend a reformat but in my case i have a totally new rig coming (amd->intel) so im just going to do a repair install so i can backup my stuff than ill format but if you dont want to deal with a format a repair install should work.

[cdawall]

i just swapped from my s754 on a via chipset to AM2 with an AMD chipset no issues no driver conflicts nothing

[sneekypeet]

i reccomend a reformat but in my case i have a totally new rig coming (amd->intel) so im just going to do a repair install so i can backup my stuff than ill format but if you dont want to deal with a format a repair install should work.

BTW im trying the other way....I went and removed all nvidia drivers....ran the appropriate cleaners. Now I went as far as the System32 and prefetch folders...wiped everything NV.
So come the end of this week we shall se what intel drivers do when I try to reboot her old OS!

[blkhogan]

BTW im trying the other way....I went and removed all nvidia drivers....ran the appropriate cleaners. Now I went as far as the System32 and prefetch folders...wiped everything NV.
So come the end of this week we shall se what intel drivers do when I try to reboot her old OS!

Good luck with that! Let us know what happens. If we dont hear from you we know your computer blew up and took you with it :rockout:

[sneekypeet]

Good luck with that! Let us know what happens. If we dont hear from you we know your computer blew up and took you with it :rockout:

Nah its on a secondary rig...lol

But I am backed up and ready just in case it goes bad!:D

[spearman914]

I think there is a high possibility that is no. But the only way to find out is to actually swap mobos and boot...

[sneekypeet]

I think there is a high possibility that is no. But the only way to find out is to actually swap mobos and boot...

Every time prior to this Ive gone by this addage. I always prepped and rewrote my OS as advised....Concider this an experiment against the rule.

I see all over the net of sucsesses doing this , so I figured I would try it out once!

[suraswami]

to find out easily here is what you can do. If you have a spare HDD (IDE to IDE, SATA to SATA) with same capacity you can use it to find if this possible. If Vista has something similar to XP pro's Automatic System Recovery create one. Make sure you have a floppy drive. Boot up the new machine with the spare drive, load the OS install but break it to say to recover and see if it works.

[JrRacinFan]

Wouldn't even bother trying it. If you partition your hard drives in a proper manner you wouldn't lose much, just installed applications. With that being said, I prefer a clean OS even if I put a new video card in or change cpu's.

[dccool879]

samesies, but i don't want to mess up my OS til school is over because i have lots of work on it

[marsey99]

wouldnt work for me when i tried going from nf650 to p35, i had removed the old drivers before hand but as soon as i booted up i bsod. got the windoz logo and scrolling bar but instead of welcoe was the bsod :( no biggie was all backed up but stilll would of been nice to save the hour or so installing with updates and apps and that.

gl with it tho.

[Error 404]

I stuck an old hard drive (taken from an old i486 PC) with Windows 95 on it, put it into my Celeron-400 rig, thinking I had slaved it. I was wrong, and it booted off of that hard drive.
95 managed to boot! It complained a lot about the hardware being odd, and installed a whole new bunch of drivers, but it worked.

Hopefully you'll get as much luck with Vista; it should work fine, in my opinion.

[gumpty]

I had the same issue a while back. My Asus mobo shat itself and had to be replaced. Old was an nVidia chipset, new was X38.

Had Vista Ultimate 64 and that stated that 'too much has changed' and gave me three days to re-activate my OS. Tried and tried but it insisted that the code had already been used. :banghead:

Then on the third day it finally worked for some reason. No problem at all after that. Apart from have to change all my drivers.

Sweet.:toast:

[btarunr]

You might come across that protection crap. I remember trying that on Windows 2000, when I swapped a ECS N2U-400A with an ASUS A7N8X, only to find I couldn't boot. I used two boards with the same chipset.

[DanishDevil]

Every time I swap a mobo, I reformat. That's just me, though. I like a nice clean machine :)

[tzitzibp]

Every time I swap a mobo, I reformat. That's just me, though. I like a nice clean machine :)

so do I... You ´ll find is the longest way, but 99% error free!

[cdawall]

if you leave the old drivers on there it works better just wipe them when you add the new ones

[sneekypeet]

Just to verify, I got the mobo in today.

After a slow boot to windows and installing all the new drivers, this OS is running fine with just removing the drivers prior to the swap!

[DaedalusHelios]

I guess it just seems too good to be true, can i just put in a different mobo without having to reinstall vista? or does it have some protection bs that will be like "hey your computer is too different!!" for my current mobo, i hadn't installed any drivers (i suppose vista picked up on everything.) I know XP gets angry, but not sure about vista


Hacked versions let you change hardware as much as you want. I am not sure about legit copies.

Not to say I have ever used a hacked copy. Thats just what I read on the internet.:D

[Haytch]

Ive swapped hardware around and operating systems, and regardless of whether it boots into the operating system or shows up with an angry sign or not, the outcome is always the same.

You have just corrupted your system and hence will never run efficiently or effectively again, untill reformat. Unless ofcourse your a strong believer that uninstalling drivers actually works, for which there really is no hope for such a user.

I strongly suggest a reformat after you backup your required data. ( You should have backed up prior to format anyways )

Vista has a much more broad driver range and is more compatible then the XP Operating system to a larger ranger of motherboards.

[bowman]

Worked just fine for me going from nForce 5 to AMD 790FX. Revalidation of Vista, yeah, that came up, wasn't a bother really.

[sneekypeet]

Ive swapped hardware around and operating systems, and regardless of whether it boots into the operating system or shows up with an angry sign or not, the outcome is always the same.

You have just corrupted your system and hence will never run efficiently or effectively again, untill reformat. Unless ofcourse your a strong believer that uninstalling drivers actually works, for which there really is no hope for such a user.

I strongly suggest a reformat after you backup your required data. ( You should have backed up prior to format anyways )

Vista has a much more broad driver range and is more compatible then the XP Operating system to a larger ranger of motherboards.

So there is no hope for me ...hmmmm, thats a new one on me!:wtf:BTW my system went from a 650i to a P35...absolutely no issues or corruption , or inefficiency....please show some proof to this claim, as its way out there!

[lemonadesoda]

Oh what a lot of hogwash here on this thread. (quote: "You gotta reinstall from scratch").

All you need to do if you move a HDD from once PC to another (system drive), or swap the mobo, is:

1./ Quick version: change the IDE controllers in device manager to "standard IDE". Then turn off the PC and so the swap.

2./ Longer and more robust version: Set IDE controllers to "standard IDE", then use "sysprep.exe -activated -nosidgen -clean". Shut down the PC. Move the HDD (or swap the mobo), then turn on.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302577
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sysprep
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457073.aspx
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Download_Area/ATW_Library/WinXP_Professional/WinXP__3-Setup-How_to_SYSPREP_a_Windows_XP_PC_setup.pdf

[FreedomEclipse]

Every time I swap a mobo, I reformat. That's just me, though. I like a nice clean machine :)

I have to do the same - even on XP because my XP BSODs - plus a fresh install of an O/S is quite refreshing before you load it full of adware, spyware & what ever trojan that you may pick up that wants to have more then a one night stand with your system files & then you have to go stick some junk on your system like norton & the whole thing comes to a crawl & you have to wipe the whole system again - oh joy.........

Disclaimer - F.Y.I

I does not use Norton - I also do not recommend or endorse the use of norton in any manner unless the installation is used as a Beer/Tea/Coffee coaster.

but if your really feeling artistic & you have a hot glue gun at your disposal then you can always make something out of it - glue it to your cat or something