Hardware Upgrade on XP Prof.

[Rupen Shah]

Dear All

Is there a way to upgrade the Processor and Motherboard on
an existing WinXP Prof. installed system, without having
to re-install the whole OS.

Rupen

 

[Edward]

Depends what you mean by 'upgrade' Rupen. Things like a faster CPU, adding
RAM etc, you should not have to interfere with the OS, provided you remain
within the limits of the motherboard's parameters. Go outside of these, and
it could all go pear-shaped.

Ed

 

[Lorne Smith]

You can usually change the processor with no problems, but XP is VERY
unlikely to work if you change the motherboard as these contain a LOT of
components all of which need the correct drivers. Usually when changing
this part you will need to perform a repair installation of XP which will
update the OS with the correct drivers for the mobo and leave your existing
files & applications intact, though you should ALWAYS backup first...

Lorne

 

[Alex Nichol]

Is there a way to upgrade the Processor and Motherboard on
an existing WinXP Prof. installed system, without having
to re-install the whole OS.

Once installed, do a repair installation. Go into BIOS setup to set
date/time, ensure the HD is detected correctly, and set boot CD before
HD. Set the BIOS to boot CD before Hard disk, then boot the XP CD,
start Setup (do not take 'Repair' at this stage), then after the license
agreement take 'Repair Installation'. This will retain your existing
software installations and most settings. But Updates will have to be
run again, especially SP1 (if your CD does not include it);

It is important to activate the basic XP Firewall before you ever
connect to the net to get the patches, so as to be protected against
things like the BLAST worm.

This should retain your activation status, though if you have never
registered you may have the setup suggest it now (don't bother). But
you may nevertheless find you have made so many changes that you need to
activate again by phoning in, but it is worth the try.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Normally, unless the new motherboard is virtually identical to the
old one (same chipset, same IDE controllers, same BIOS version, etc.),
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

As always when undertaking such a significant change, back up any
important data before starting.

This may also require re-activation. If it's been more than 120
days since you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most
likely be able to activate via the internet without problem. If it's
been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone call.


Bruce Chambers

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[Michael Stevens]

Dear All

Is there a way to upgrade the Processor and Motherboard on
an existing WinXP Prof. installed system, without having
to re-install the whole OS.

Rupen

Click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into the address box
if using the web based newsgroup.
Move XP to new hardware.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

--

Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
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