I am upgrading my mb from a via pro ( intel p3) to a kt133a ( athlon xp) chipset. The VIA driver package is the same for both boards. I was thinking that I would just let it boot into win2000 and let it plug andplay itself into bliss instead of doing the whole new hard drive format and then reload all the software. A while back I did this with an intel board swap and it went fine. Anyone ever do this, I know its not recommended but will it work? thanks
There are a few computer whizs' on this forum, but if don't get a response, try this website. www.windowsbbs.com
I have done it but most likely you would be happier with a clean install. Try it and see if everything works. I had many problems so I backed up my data and reformatted my hard drive. However, I was using Win98 at the time. Win2000 is WAY better and might recognize everthing without a clean install.
Even if Win2k seems to handle it fine, a clean install lets you also clean out your registry, check the disks for errors, etc. You'll probably end up spending more time chasing weirdness than you would have to just reinstall the software anyway.
Ron, This site has unofficial procedures (based on user reports) posted for all operating systems; this is the link for Windows 2000: http://www.windowsreinstall.com/indexwin2k.htm Go to the link "Windows 2000 Change Motherboard". There may be something useful for you there. I've changed two motherboards (AMD chipset to VIA chipset) with hard drives (ATA 66 to ATA 133) and did not do a Windows 2000 reinstall on either system. Didn't have one blue screen or other problem during the process, or after. There are several ways to do it. Also, see these threads on Google Groups (particularly the last posts that gives a step by step description). This is the procedure that I used. http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=Kingston+Hardware+Profiles http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=Kingston+Hardware+Profiles
Thanks for all the great advice. I set the system up today with an extra HD and the boot up went fine. All the "new hardware" installed fine even without the motherboard cd. I will play with it to see if it is stable. The athlon xp 1700 runs very hot. The heatsink was hot and even the fan. I guess this is normal for these cpu's.
I just bough bare bone system with intel 2G, my transfer procedure go like this, 1) move hard drive, video card, sound card, cd drive to the new box, since the new box have lan card build in I didn't move the ethernet card. 2) turn on the new box, boost up message say no hard drive, no lan card, no cd drive 3) boost up new box using floppy disk (created it when I install the OS) 4) re-install the OS, overwrite the old OS and let software do its thing 5) re-boost, everything back to the way it was with faster speed of course, duration 1 full Saturday. btw, beer and computer don't mix, misjudge the distance when knocking out a plastic panel, sliced open skin above the knuckle, blood spurted, called 911, the whole bit, will let computer technician do it next time.
You could try to change MB without fresh install, but I'd be prepared for it not to work just right and be ready to reinstall. I tried it once and it seemed to work OK at first, but had weird problems. Tech at the computer shop told me, "... if the new bios is different from the old bios, likely to cause problems..." Bios may be the same on the new MB, but likely not?
I want to thank everyone for the advice. Since I have several backups I just booted it up with no format. I immediately installed the via drivers and running great. Everything working as it should, even power management, which used be flakey on other puters.