WayneM said:
I've been having a lot of problems getting commercial DVDs and streaming
video to work on this 370 mobo. I've updated all the drivers and the only
problem I can find is that every time I boot I get an errror message in my
Event Log that seems to be related to a cable that might be failing. I've
ordered round IDE cables but I'm still waiting for them. But I've been
thinking for quite some time about putting a P4 or XP processor in this
machine which will also require a new mobo. I know I'll also need a new
power supply and maybe memory depending on which board I go with.
Should I format the HDD before I install the mobo and processor or will XP
Pro find the new mobo?
Wayne
Well, depending on what you want to accomplish, neither.
For one, the odds of WinXP even booting so that it *could* 'find' the new
motherboard are next to nil because the installed drivers will not match
and XP will instantly lose the C: drive as soon as it tries to load the old
motherboard drivers that have the wrong PCI bus driver, the wrong IDE
controller driver, the wrong everything...
One the 'format' side, if you don't mind losing all your installed programs
and data then that is fine, but it's not always desirable.
The third alternative is to do a (re) 'upgrade' or repair so the hardware
is redetected and installed. Your existing programs, settings, and data are
preserved that way.
Since you know you're replacing the motherboard you can do the relatively
easy 'upgrade' approach which is to start the XP CD, with windows running,
and select the 'recommended' upgrade choice. Then, on the first reboot,
after it's copied the setup files, interrupt the reboot when the BIOS
splash screen comes up by killing power. Swap in the new motherboard and
when it powers up it will continue the upgrade with the new hardware. The
process is even faster if you first copy the i386 folder to the hard drive
first and invoke winnt32 from there rather than using the CD's autorun.
The other approach, which works even if you had to replace the motherboard
without warning, is to boot the WinXP CD as if doing a fresh install and,
in fact, select the install option on the first screen rather than either
of the two 'repair' choices (one expects a recovery floppy that will, of
necessity, be the old hardware and the other is the recovery console that
can't do hardware changes). Then, when upon inspection of the hard drive it
finds an existing windows installation it will again ask if you want to
repair it. Here you say yes and it will do essentially the same thing as an
'upgrade': replenish the system files while keeping the programs, settings,
and data.
In both cases, upgrade or repair, you lose your service packs since it's
putting/installing the system 'as on the CD' so those will need to be
reinstalled as well. Btw, this can cause disturbing symptoms, and
potentially panic, unless you're aware of it, especially if your WinXP CD
is the original, pre-SP1, distribution. Some things may seem to not work or
to have 'vanished' and programs may perpetually ask to be 'installed',
claiming they are not there. Do not bother with ANY of those, kill them
without installing, until you get service pack 1 redone, at which point
things will automagically work again (because the things they thought were
missing were SP1 related and now they're back). The same thing applies to
Internet Explorer service packs/updates because it comes with WinXP (and so
get's reset back to the distribution).
