stoopid question

[Wilier]

Please forgive my ignorance but.........

Is it possible to fit a new mobo and not have to reinstall everything??

I know that the cleanest way would be to reinstall my OS after fitting the new board, and then wack everything else back on, but its taken me feking ages to get it looking and running how I like, and cant really be arsed to start again.

Ive read of a way of reinstalling XP over itself. With a few DOS tweaks you can keep your documents and program files etc, but how would the programs run, surley by reinstalling XP, you would clean out the registry, so software from the old install wouldnt run, no???


*confused*

 

[S-Gray]

Hmm

If i recall my time at College, i believe someone said that if you delete the ENUM in the Registry ,it will just be like a "Clean Install". Mainly because it deletes the Hardware from the computer.

But i think its a lot easier to just do a New Install

 

[whipped]

With win95 and possibly 98 it was easy. Go into safe mode, remove all hardware and let windows redetect everything. With win2k/XP it's bloody difficult. Do a reinstall, you'll feel better.

 

[Embattle]

Its possible but can be problematic

Now I must change my water pump

 

[~YuckFou~]

need an enema?

 

[djpringle]

I tried this route some time back and it worked for a while....as Embattle says it's problematic. It'll work work but at the end of the day,back up those important mp3's and re-install....

 

[Wilier]

Originally posted by Embattle
Its possible but can be problematic

Now I must change my water pump

what? seals leaking already??

 

[Embattle]

Naaa it was making a little to much noise due to the pump being loose

 

[Wilier]

Originally posted by Embattle
Naaa it was making a little to much noise due to the pump being loose

what, the pump was loose on its mounting? or the impellor was loose!! (actually, if it had been the impellor, the seals would have leaked anyway, unless its a mag drive thing, which dosnt need seals. Dont get me started on seals, I changed the seals on a cooling water unit yesterday for some 3.3kv VSD gear. Fiddley little bastards, give me a seal with a 4inch ID..............)

/ramble

 

[S-Gray]

You have Seals with 4 inch IDs? Which Impale on Mounting?

 

[Wilier]

Originally posted by Super_Gray[SG]
You have Seals with 4 inch IDs? Which Impale on Mounting?

fool.

 

[S-Gray]

Its True? heh

 

[xane]

My own experience is you just make sure you have the drivers ready, slap in the new hardware and reboot, nothing else.

My main machine has gone through eight motherboard upgrades using Windows 3.1, Windows 95B and Windows 98SE, no re-install necessary.

The ENUM entries are quite handy actually, you can use them as reference when the hardware is moved to another machine and they are useful if you have to re-install the hardware back on the original. My registry is bloated by years of crap software, not ENUM entries.

 

[FuZor]

In my experience a Clean Re-install is always best I'm sure you dont have to, but you will better

 

[Wilier]

OK, so Im gonna try XANE's method, nothing to lose I spose. If it dosnt work, then i'll try a clean install.

Cheers fellas. I'll let you know.

 

[kryt]

Nothing like an fdisk/format session after installation of some new hardware.

Kind of like taking a shit, removing all the crap and looking forward to a speeded up day.

 

[xane]

Although my machine probably needs a good software enema, I have experienced the so-called "speed-up" from re-installs on other machines, what I find is after two weeks of re-loading all your crap back on it slows back down anyway.

Its a constant struggle to maintain my main machine, but I manage to keep most of the crap off it and stop it grinding to a halt, if you have a stable "balanced" machine then hardware upgrades go okay without a re-install.

 

[FuZor]

Originally posted by kryt

Kind of like taking a shit, removing all the crap and looking forward to a speeded up day.

so true

 

[Wilier]

Well, Ive installed the mobo, booted without formatting and its all worked peachy. Had to install a whole bunch of new drivers, and, curiously, new graphics drivers. But it all runs smooth as a babies arse.

I love XP.

 

[xane]

With VIA chipsets, you have to re-install the AGP drivers, so that means re-installing the graphics card as well.

 

[Wilier]

That explains that then.
Just one prob now, floppy drive no worky. ??

Going to try another one tmorra.

 

[S-Gray]

Sure the Cables the right way round?

If its not change the Cable first, ive found they dont work after so long...

Ive broke shitloads of floppies tho.. fuck knows how :/

 

[Wilier]

tried a new cable, in every orifice possible, still no go. The light comes on, but no-body's home.

 

[Insane]

Floppy drive cables, the one major reason why people DONT have floppy drives in their machines

Ensure the red line is on Pin1 on the motherboard connector (normally the cables got a notch in it, if it doesnt Pin1 is the bottom pin to the left of the gap, if your looking at the socket with the gap facing you)

for the drive connector, if you only have one floppy make sure to connect the drive to the cable with the twist in it (this designates drive A and Drive B) but this next one gets a lot of people.
most floppy drive manufacturers put the power on the left side, so naturally you put "red to power"
in some other cases the powers on the right side of the drive (looking at the back of it) so you would instantly think "red to power" which is incorrect.
Always plug your floppy drive cable in so the red line is pointing to the LEFT side of the drive.

boot your machine up and jump into your bios, ensure the drive is enabled on BIOS then let your machine boot.

if the light comes on and stays solid, the cables the wrong way round.
if the light blinks then you hear a constant whirring, you might need to replace the drive.
if the light blinks and goes out, and the floppys quiet then its disabled in bios
if the light doesnt come on, you have a dead floppy.

 

[Wilier]

Thanks for that. I did all of that this mornig, stupidly I was thinking that the notch in the drive socket would match the notch on the cable. Obvious really, it needs to be the other way round.

 

[kameleon]

I cant understand why they dont put sockets on fdd like they do with ide devices

 

[Xavier]

because they're unbelievably easy to fit? the red edge of the cable goes next to the power connector on the drive - the notched sides of the plug go into the notched side of the socket on the mobo and the cable goes in with the twist at the drive end.

shimple pimple...

xav

 

[Wilier]

Originally posted by kameleon
I cant understand why they dont put sockets on fdd like they do with ide devices

bizzarley enough, there is one on both ends of the cable, its just that the one on the end that goes in the drive is wrong