Swapping motherboards and WinXP Activation consequences

[William Low]

I put together my own computer from separate components several years ago,
and now I would like to put in a new motherboard, CPU and memory but keep
the rest the same (at least pretty much).

I had a retail copy of Windows XP Pro originally installed.

If I make what the Activation thing might consider to be radical changes to
my computers components, will that raise some sort of activation flag (it
has been successfully "activated" from years ago).

***Also what is the minimum memory you'd suggest (and not overkill) that I
should be quite happy with using XP, MS Office apps, photo & movie editing
but no games to speak of. I currently have 384 RAM and 1 gig CPU but my
computer seems sluggish to me.


Thanks.

 

[Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User]

Activation should not be a problem with a full retail version..

Re. specs.. photo and movie editing require BIG memory.. look to 1.5gb or
more..

384mb was never really enough for sprightly XP performance, especially if
run with XP theme active..

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I put together my own computer from separate components several years ago,
and now I would like to put in a new motherboard, CPU and memory but keep
the rest the same (at least pretty much).

I had a retail copy of Windows XP Pro originally installed.

If I make what the Activation thing might consider to be radical changes to
my computers components, will that raise some sort of activation flag (it
has been successfully "activated" from years ago).

Normally, and assuming a retail license (many factory-installed OEM
installations are BIOS-locked to a specific chipset and therefore *not*
transferable to a new motherboard - check yours before starting), unless
the new motherboard is virtually identical (same chipset, same IDE
controllers, same BIOS version, etc.) to the one on which the WinXP
installation was originally performed, you'll need to perform a repair
(a.k.a. in-place upgrade) installation, at the very least:

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341

Changing a Motherboard or Moving a Hard Drive with WinXP Installed
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

The "why" is quite simple, really: You've pulled the proverbial
hardware rug out from under the OS. (If you don't like -- or get -- the
rug analogy, think of it as picking up a Cape Cod style home and then
setting it down onto a Ranch style foundation. It just isn't going to
fit.) WinXP, like Win2K before it, is not nearly as "promiscuous" as
Win9x when it comes to accepting any old hardware configuration you
throw at it. On installation it "tailors" itself to the specific
hardware found. This is one of the reasons that the entire WinNT/2K/XP
OS family is so much more stable than the Win9x group.

***Also what is the minimum memory you'd suggest (and not overkill) that I
should be quite happy with using XP, MS Office apps, photo & movie editing
but no games to speak of. I currently have 384 RAM and 1 gig CPU but my
computer seems sluggish to me.

For the video editing, you'll probably want 512 Mb of RAM, at a
*minimum*, and I'd strongly recommend a total of 1 Gb RAM. And will the
new motherboard really come with a 1GHz CPU? That seems awfully slow to
be installed (or supported by) a new motherboard.



--

Bruce Chambers

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