Change motherboard windows boot install#
Change motherboard windows boot drivers#
Change motherboard windows boot full#

The first place to start is in the XP control panel Add and Remove Programs, or on Vista, Programs and Features, where we'll remove the relevant motherboard drivers. To begin with, we need to move the system to a more generic set of platform drivers.

Change motherboard windows boot install#

Making the Windows install platform-agnostic It also should be pointed out that this brief how-to is Windows XP-centric.

Change motherboard windows boot drivers#

If you're not comfortable with this at any stage, use the Microsoft link above (it's safer), but remove the platform drivers first, as they have been shown to interrupt an OS reinstall across motherboards on at least VIA systems. And don't forget to do all the other things you'd normally do when performing a rebuild, such as updating your Knoppix Live CD, in case you need to do emergency diagnostics.

We will also assume you know the ins and outs of installing, changing, and removing device drivers from the Device Manager. For the love of all you consider holy, at least have an up-to-date backup to rely on.

While at Ars we take great measures to make sure we're not spewing drivel, your particular system may not react predictably, and we can't accept any blame for that. There's also the stock disclaimer to take into mind. There are exceptions to this rule, but they tend to be rather more esoteric (e.g. Changing away from AHCI is tricky, and if you're unsure then Microsoft's official method to change your motherboard will mean you're reinstalling every hotfix and service pack, but it's quite a bit more fault tolerant.

Change motherboard windows boot full#

No, it doesn't involve the sacrifice of a virgin in the full moon on the seventh night before Samhain, but you do have to follow a few steps.ДЄs a general rule, the following procedure will work for you regardless of how much hardware you change, on one provision: You must be able to install Windows and successfully boot it from the stock media, without having to provide storage drivers, which may need your SATA controllers to be in Compatibility or Legacy mode. There is a cure for the reformat fetish-a procedure that will let you swap out your motherboard without having to reinstall Windows XP. Coyote when he realizes there's no ground beneath him, Windows falls over when it realizes there's no disk supporting it. The system will start booting for about ten seconds, then either instantly reboot, or stop on a blue screen, depending on whether it's set to automatically reboot on blue screens or not. Change the SATA channel your system drive is on, or if you drive is (parallel) ATA, swap it from Master to Slave. The moment it takes control of the disks from BIOS, it crashes. That's obvious, right? However, if the hard disk is supposed to be in one place, and then suddenly moves to another, Windows has no idea what's going on. The reason all this is necessary is because Windows has to load from a hard disk. There's a lot of pagan mythology about just what to do when swapping the motherboard, starting with 'Nuke the site from orbit' and 'Just buy another Dell', to more educated guesses involving repair installs, and (if we're really technical) the sysprep utility. This article is intended to show you a better way around one of the more common triggers of the reformat fetish-swapping out the motherboard. Turned the speakers on? Well, you never know. Upgraded CPU? Better reformat to be sure. Changed video card? That'll be a reformatting. In its essence, it's the irrational compulsion to format one's hard disk at the drop of a hat. Like partitions, extended memory, and BSD, it's a strange fossil remnant of a more brutal time that, for one reason or another, staunchly refuses to lay down and die. The post is based on an excellent thread on the same topic, which everyone who's contemplating a motherboard swap should check out first. Ed: The following is a guest post by Ars CPU & Mobo forum guru Hat Monster.