New motherboard to be fitted.

[ray]

I have to replace a motherboard that has been physically damaged.
The present system is Pentium 4 with a 478 pin CPU.
I am replacing it with an equivalent mobo, so the CPU and ram will not be
changed.
Will XP just boot up with the new mobo or do I have to re-install XP?
Also, I know I have to re-activate XP, but will my IP address change or will
my internet connection just start as normal?

 

[Dave B.]

If "equivalent" means identical then it will boot just fine, otherwise you
may need to perform a repair install. Your IP is provided by your ISP,
unless your paying for a static IP, it likely changes every so often anyway.

 

[Bob Harris]

Plan on a "repair" installarion of XP, unless the motherboard is
"identical", not just "equivalent". See links for details. You need a full
retail copy of XP to do a repair, not just an OEM copy. If RAID, SCSI, or
SATA hard drives, you will also need to have new drivers for disk controller
on a floppy and hit the F6 key early during the repair. If plain IDE/ATA
hard drives, don't worry about F6ing.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341



http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm



http://www.extremetech.com/print_article/0,3998,a=23979,00.asp



http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Repair-Windows-XP-t138.html


If successful, you will keep all personal data and settings and installed
programs. If not successful, you will need to perform a clean installation,
which means losing everything on the same partition as XP. Thus, backup
personal data before doing the repair. If necessary, attach hard drive to
another PC and copy files to CD, DVD, another hard drive (internal or
external), etc.

Activation should be straightfoward, if retail XP, and almost impossible if
OEM version of XP.

IP address is likely to change, if you have a normal home-user type internet
account. But, that has nothing to to with your new motherboard; most IPs do
not assign fixed IP addresses to home accounts, and powering off for a while
can result in a new IP address. If you have a cable modem, its MAC number
will not change, and that is usually how the ISP senses whether you are a
paying customer. What is on the home-side of the cable modem is usually not
important to the ISP, and with the right sort of firewall you could prevent
them for seeing it anyway. Ditto for DSL modems. If you have dial-up
access, then the IP address probably changes every time you connect.

 

[ray]

Thanks for the info, Dave.
The old motherboard is no longer available so I'm fitting an Asrock P4I65G.
Problem now is that the owner of the computer does not have a copy of XP
Home and I have only XP Pro.
Can I repair a Home system with an XP Pro CD?

 

[Dave B.]

Not quite correct here Bob. The new motherboard does not have to be
identical, just having the same or similar chipset is enough. Second If the
user has an OEM copy of XP, he indeed does need an OEM cd to do the repair,
not a retail copy as you state.

 

[ray]

I have the product key for the XP home system that is installed at the
moment and I can borrow a XP Home CD from a neighbour.
Is it possible to do a repair using a borrowed CD?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have to replace a motherboard that has been physically damaged.
The present system is Pentium 4 with a 478 pin CPU.
I am replacing it with an equivalent mobo, so the CPU and ram will
not be changed.
Will XP just boot up with the new mobo or do I have to re-install XP?

Probably neither. Unless the new motherboard is almost identical to the old
one, at the very least, you'll have to do a Repair Installation. See "How to
Perform a Windows XP Repair Install" at
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

That usually works, but If the new motherboard is different enough, it may
not, and you will need to reinstall cleanly, losing all your data and
everything else on the drive.

So make sure you have a backup of anything you can't afford to lose before
starting.

 

[Ron Martell]

Thanks for the info, Dave.
The old motherboard is no longer available so I'm fitting an Asrock P4I65G.
Problem now is that the owner of the computer does not have a copy of XP
Home and I have only XP Pro.
Can I repair a Home system with an XP Pro CD?

No. You need an XP Home CD of the same version (Retail Upgrade, OEM,
etc) and the same language in order to do a Repair Install.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[Dave B.]

Only if the installed version and the CD are the same. i.e. upgrade vs full,
oem vs retail.

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