Making the most of Windows Vista Ultimate - motherboard upgrade?

[Guest]

Hello. I am new to Vista. I was a long-time user of XP. I bought and
installed Vista U and and found that allthough it worked, my vista experience
rating was only 1.0. I was unable to use the 3d effects that come with aero
as well as some screen savers. I thought I'd be clever and buy a new video
card that was 3d enabled. That was my second mistake. Once I got the video
card I realized that it didn't fit my motherboard. My third mistake was to
buy a new motherboard. When I got the new motherboard, I found that my RAM
didn't fit the new ddr2 slots, and my cpu was of a different pin type. My
next mistakes were to sell my motherboard on ebay and buy new RAM and a new
Pentium D processor. When I finally got the darn thing put back together I
tried booting from the hardrive that I installed windows vista on in the
first place and the computer crashes out. I did a little searching on the
web a lot late and apparently, correct me if I'm wrong, but my first mistake
was buying the OEM software from a 3rd party source because out there in the
fine print, microsoft considers every piece of hardware, except the
motherboard, fair-game for swapping out.

So my question is: Am I stuck with this 200 dollar coaster or can i install
this on my computer again somehow?

I've had no luck getting help from Microsoft because the web interface asks
for the product number (or i guess 60 dollars up front) before I can send the
question to them. The product number is inside the help -->about dialog,
which at the moment I'm having trouble getting to.

Any guidance or help would be very appreciated.

thanks.

 

[pete]

Wipe the drive
Reinstall Vista Ultimate OEM
Activate........it will give you a number to call.
Explain that your mobo broke and you needed to replace it.
Load the drivers that came with your Mobo off the mobo CD
peter

 

[Guest]

I'm really sorry that your having a lot of problems. There too many varibles
that could be wrong, even down to your power supply. The best thing to do
make sure to check if all your components are Vista certified and if they are
make sure they are not defective. This may take some help from your vendor. I
have no idea where that list is. Maybe somebody here can give you a link.
Good luck,
Larry

 

[Guest]

I will try that. Thanks.

Wipe the drive
Reinstall Vista Ultimate OEM
Activate........it will give you a number to call.
Explain that your mobo broke and you needed to replace it.
Load the drivers that came with your Mobo off the mobo CD
peter