Upgrading hardware while keeping Windows XP

[Tim]

You've got no idea have you?
Sure a fresh install is a good idea in some circumstances. But if there is
no need for one it is a DUMB idea. Its as good as the hadware support fellow
that turns up to replace the users HDD that is failing, whips it out, shoves
a new one in and doesn't give a toss about the work the user has done that
day, or the fact that no one has ever impressed on DUMB user the importance
of backups. YOU are supposed to be the clued up one, not the user, so don't
tell a user to hack the registry in an unsupported manner.

You have no idea at all as to why and when one should do a repair.
Your advice is as bad as DaveW's.

Call 40 PC's a "Park".
We have parks of hundreds of thousand of acres.
A park is something BIG.
Now, 40 PC's? That's a postage stamp.

 

[CraigNJ]

Constructive info & experience-sharing is appreciated, but
inflamatory ranting and insulting isn't.

Even if a "repair" "should" work to merely get a PC operational, I
can't find any fault with the apparently reasonably-experienced
person's balanced view that although a fresh complete install isn't
always needed, it's the safest way to go (... IMO, for reasons that
aren't always apparent in advance, or simply for people who want a
completely clean system when they do a major upgrade of the hardware).

 

[Jdr]

I'm running Windows XP Home OEM on a Pentium 3 800 system

I'm thinking of upgrading to an Athlon64 3000 Venice skt 939 and either
A8N-E or A8N-SLI and a Radeon X300 or X600 PCI-E graphics card. I know to
backup all my data on the HDD before switching hardware. My question is
will I be OK with the current installation of Win XP Home OEM on the hard
drive or is it best (or even absolutely necessary) when upgrading the
mainboard, CPU and graphics card to do a complete reinstall of Windows XP?

I just performed this operation swapping main board
Ga-PE667 for Asus P4P800 as the closest technically speaking
to GA-PE667. I didn't have to reinstall any thing.
1) I attached the main board with one stick of memory
and the graphic card. Went to BIOS just see if the new main board is
properly recognised.
2) Added a second stick of memory .
3) added C:\ drive with OS Windows XP Home edition.
It started with no problems at all.
4) added the rest of peripherals.

Everything works fine.

 

[Leythos]

I just performed this operation swapping main board
Ga-PE667 for Asus P4P800 as the closest technically speaking
to GA-PE667. I didn't have to reinstall any thing.
1) I attached the main board with one stick of memory
and the graphic card. Went to BIOS just see if the new main board is
properly recognised.
2) Added a second stick of memory .
3) added C:\ drive with OS Windows XP Home edition.
It started with no problems at all.
4) added the rest of peripherals.

Everything works fine.

But your boards are so close to being the same that it's not surprising
that you had not problems.

When moving from one chipset to another, from one processor type to
another, etc... there can be many problems

 

[JDR]

But your boards are so close to being the same that it's not surprising
that you had not problems.

When moving from one chipset to another, from one processor type to
another, etc... there can be many problems

That's correct. That was my aim to find the nearest possibly
new main board to the old one. Now I'm getting ready to
another upgrade from Ga-PE667 to Asus P4C800-E.
I'll post the results here soon.

Jdr

 

[karl]

Just touch wood you don't run into any registration issues with it being an
'OEM XP', IIRC Microsoft consider a new mainboard a new computer. Had a
busted mainboard before and had to replace it with the same chipset in the
end (though this was a nasty Packard Bell preinstall job without the cd)

Karl