Ok, two very different opinions here,

JAD "1. after the install of the MB boot with XP CD and do a repair
install
from the console"

DaveW "2. Unless you replace the motherboard with the EXACT SAME
MOTHERBOARD,
including version, etc., you'll be hosed if you don not reformat the
harddrive and do a CLEAN install of the OS"

Dave, have you had first hand experience with swapping identical chipset
boards and having to reformat. Do you have reason to believe the repair
console wont work?

I normally would reformat but the client has had some custom software
installed which will need to be reconfigured by the vendor if I have to
reinstall the OS.

Anybody else had good or bad luck with either of these scenarios?

thanks


"maurice" wrote in message
u...
I have have to replace a nvidia chipset mainboard a gigabyte ga7n400,
with
another mainboard but really dont want to have to do a reinstall of XP.
Ideally Id replace with the same model but its a very tight budget (and
a
very long story!) so I was looking at using another Gigabyte nforce
chipset
board either the ga7n400L or a new model ga7nf-rz which I can find no
info
on beyond it uses mcp and spp.

I know the sound will be different(the pro uses the nvidia soundstorm
chip)
but hopefully this wont be a terminal
problem, its differences in the different flavors of the nforce chipset
I'm
most concerned about. I was hoping that the core logic for ide drives
etc
would be close enough not to cause a problem but if the past history of
this
job has any bearing then I'm screwed!

any thoughts on these issues much appreciated

cheers

Maurice