New motherboard = new machine?

Den_M

I had some stuff delivered at another address during the week - new motherboard, gfx card, psu, case and external hard drive

I'm heading there this evening to get things set up. Thing is, I need to swap my internal hard drive from my old machine to the new one. I have Win XP Home Sp2 installed on it. Does a new mobo mean I wont be able to use it on the new machine? I was hoping to just stick the drive in and boot up as usual but this occurred to me just now.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

You woud have to re-install windows XP as it needs to configure itself for the hardware.

As far as i know, the xp licence agreement considers changing a motherboard a new machine, and therefor requires a new licence, unless the previous motherboard failed

Den_M

Thanks, this is what I suspected. Damn! I could get by without having to lug my pc with me on the train.

Den_M

What about an internal drive without XP installed? I have two, one just contains some bits n bobs I wouldnt mind losing. Could this one be used to install XP on in my new machine?

lynchie

Sean_K wrote: »

You woud have to re-install windows XP as it needs to configure itself for the hardware.

As far as i know, the xp licence agreement considers changing a motherboard a new machine, and therefor requires a new licence, unless the previous motherboard failed

Only if the license is an OEM license (all pcs bought from Dell, HP etc..). If the OP has a retail version of XP (that came in a box with support etc..) then u can transfer the license across to a new machine.

lynchie

Den_M wrote: »

What about an internal drive without XP installed? I have two, one just contains some bits n bobs I wouldnt mind losing. Could this one be used to install XP on in my new machine?

Yeah, u can do that if ya like.. copy all the bits an bobs from the current drive to the one that has xp installed at the minute. Then take it out, install it in new machine, put xp on it.. when installed, take drive from old machine, put it in new one and copy all the stuff u want back off it.

Den_M

That seems like the thing to do then. To be clear on the stuff I need to bring with me:

the two hard drives
the dvd drive
the processor
power cables

At home I have :

case
psu
gfx card
motherboard

Anything else plugged in anywhere that I would need to bring? I havent messed around with motherboards and such before.

Den_M

If there was a pdf or something I could download on this it'd be very handy, any one got a link?

PogMoThoin

or ya could just tell person from m$ on fone activation of xp that you rma'd your mobo, has worked 4 me b4

marco_polo

PogMoThoin wrote: »

or ya could just tell person from m$ on fone activation of xp that you rma'd your mobo, has worked 4 me b4

Indeed, in my experience if you tell them that the motherboard has died they generally do not ask. Have never heard of anyone being refused before.

Den_M

To update:

I brought my whole machine home the other night (managed to fit in in a suitcase)
Assembled the new machine and......it ain't turning on. No power is being distributed at all; the fans dont spin and no LED's light up. I'm pretty sure I have everything connected up ok.

The thing I'm not sure about is the power switch at the front of the machine. There were cables coming from the front panel that I plugged into the motherboard (ATX); reset, power sw, power LED and hd LED. But I should have checked that the power switch was actually connected properly in front. I tried with an old psu and no change.

What I do get is a very light clicking from the PSU if that makes any difference. Not sure if it means its working normally or defective. It's 550w so it's more than able for the job.

Den_M

Just to confirm, I have the 24 pin ATX connection inserted and the 4 pin one also.

The case is

this one

and the PSU is

this one

astrofool

Maybe try and assemble it on the desktop outside of the case (eliminates a short being the problem), also, only connect ram, processor, PSU and graphics card, and also a keyboard and monitor.

Connect the power sw connector to the board and see if it'll turn on.

What type of motherboard is it?

Den_M

I havent tried connecting a keyboard/mouse/monitor yet could that be a problem?
Didnt think they were needed..

astrofool

No, that probably isn't a problem, but following the advice above would at least let you see if it gets to the bios. Also, make sure the button to turn on the power is connected to the correct pins on the motherboard.

Shiny

If you think the switch on the front of the case is the problem then
disconnect the wire from the 2 pin jumper that you have it connected
to on the motherboard.

Get a screwdriver and use it to touch the 2 pins together. If the switch
on the case wasn't working then this will work.

You will only need to touch them together for a second and the PC should
spring into life.:P

Just dont touch the screwdriver off anything else. :P

Den_M

Shiny wrote: »

Get a screwdriver and use it to touch the 2 pins together. If the switch
on the case wasn't working then this will work.

I tried this with the erase CMOS pins, no result. Thanks though I'll try that. The button would have to be in the on position at the time though?

The power sw and others seem to be connected ok. Theres a white cable common to all of them, would this be the + or - ? The other wire in each is a different colour - red, green etc. The colours of the wires from the case dont match the colours on the mobo pins, althought the case wires ARE labelled so i guess that's ok.

One of the guys here at work said it wouldn't matter if these were on arseways anyway although i wouldn't have thought that.

astrofool

For the buttons it doesn't matter which way around, for the LED's it does, I wouldn't worry about LED's as they're not essential to getting it going But yes, the colour is the + and the white is the -.

What hardware are you using?

Den_M

astrofool wrote: »

What hardware are you using?

The case and psu I gave links for a bit earlier, the motherboard is

this one

and the gfx card is

this one

astrofool

Have you tried putting the graphics card in the other PCI-E slot as well? I had a board that would only boot that way once.

Also, there is an extra molex connector to connect in the top left of the board.

I'm betting that it's either a CPU installation problem, a short on the board itself (to the case), or the motherboard is broken. Testing outside of the case in isolation should tell you which it is.

Den_M

Thanks lads. I decided to play it safe and bring it to a local guy with an IT shop that's supposed to be a whizz with computer insides. Just needed to find out if there's a problem with one of the parts before the 'return by' date runs out.