Change my Mobo?

[nodnerb2]

Hi,

Can I change my Mobo reusing all the same cards,modem etc that are in use now without reinstalling the OS( Win ME)?

Cheers

Nodnerb2

BACKUP ALL YOUR DATA FIRST.

You can TRY going into the Windows Registry and deleting the HKEY_ENUM key and then shut down, put your new board in and reinstall all the components. Upon the next boot up, Windows Me should try to reinstall all the drivers for your new board.

This isn't 100%, but you could give it a try. Keep in the back of your mind that you will probably fair better by just reinstalling the OS and all your apps from scratch.

[daveleau]

I have done this several times with Win 98 and Win2K, and had about 50:50 success. I have tried it several times with ME and never gotten it to work. ME is much more buggy and unstable than 98 or 2K.

Provided your new mobo has all the correct types of slots (if your modem is ISA, then you may have a problem), you should be able to use all of your old hardware. Here's an image to show you the three different types of card slots:
http://www.si87.com/Products/Videoca...pci-or-isa.jpg

[nodnerb2]

Hi,

The cards I am going to use ( hopefully) are a PCI Modem, PCI Sound Card and an AGP Graphics Card.

The other board is an MS 6380E and has the same slots available.

I have only just reinstalled the OS on the machine I want to put the MSI Board into. Do you think I have a better chance of it working ok if I upgrade to Win 2K before doing it?

Cheers

Nodnerb2

If you're going to do that, you might as well just wait and install 2K after you upgrade the hardware. You don't have to have a previous OS on before you upgrade, just have the CD handy when it wants it.

[nodnerb2]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies.

I was going to upgrade this machine for a while now( I just bought a DVDRW and DVD ROM hence the Video card question I have also posted about) so instead of robbing the MSI 6380 and XP 2000 out of my daughters PC and giving her this P III Board thereby risking having nightmares on two PC's at the same time I have decided to bite the bullet and upgrade this one tommorrow.

I have to go back to work at the end of this week for 6 weeks so I don't want to be doing a lot of PC support over the phone for the wife if it don't run ok. At least if I leave my daughters machine alone she( the wife) will be able to get her mail and check the Lottery No's.

I am going to see if I can get an MSI KT6 Delta FISR Board, 512 MB DDR 400 Ram and an AMD XP 2800 CPU, HS FAN Assy.

I don't know whether I should get 1 x 512 mb stick of RAM or 2 x 256 mb ones. As it appears this mobo can only handle 2 x slots with DDR 400 Iin it I thought if I got the 1 stick of 512 I could either go for another one( 2 x 512) later on or a 1gb one instead.

Any suggestions for the pro's and cons for each solution?

Cheers

Nodnerb2