motherboard for 2500+ mobile

I haven't upgraded in a while, and came to realize that even though I could
crank up the FSB on my motherboard, the other components might not like it
because the PCI and AGP buses would be too fast, my mobo not having a
PCI/AGP lock. Who knew? So I'm looking into replacing the mobo, and
looking for suggestions, in the under-$75 range. Looking on Newegg, the
Shuttle AN35N-Ultra looks pretty good for $53. Any others like that I
should check out?

Along those same lines... is it possible to replace a motherboard without
reinstalling Windows? I've had my XP Pro installation running smooth for
about 2 years, with tons of stuff installed. It would take me weeks to get
it back to current status. What would I have to do? I'm guessing: remove
all drivers that are mobo related from add/remove programs and also delete
all mobo hardware devices from the hardware manager. What else?

Thanks,
Matt

On Wed, 06 Oct 2004 08:34:23 -0400, Matt Anderson wrote:

I haven't upgraded in a while, and came to realize that even though I could
crank up the FSB on my motherboard, the other components might not like it
because the PCI and AGP buses would be too fast, my mobo not having a
PCI/AGP lock. Who knew? So I'm looking into replacing the mobo, and
looking for suggestions, in the under-$75 range. Looking on Newegg, the
Shuttle AN35N-Ultra looks pretty good for $53. Any others like that I
should check out?

Abit NF7-S. Very good for overclocking.


Along those same lines... is it possible to replace a motherboard without
reinstalling Windows? I've had my XP Pro installation running smooth for
about 2 years, with tons of stuff installed. It would take me weeks to get
it back to current status. What would I have to do? I'm guessing: remove
all drivers that are mobo related from add/remove programs and also delete
all mobo hardware devices from the hardware manager. What else?

Best if you were to reinstall. XP or any OS for that matter, will think
you have all sorts of hardware that you don't. It may well baulk. You
could try it but not recommended.

Larry Gagnon

Nothing like a fresh install of XP slipstreamed with sp2. Boy does it boot
fast!

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=295

--
Ed Light

Smiley :-/
MS Smiley :-\

Send spam to the FTC at

Thanks, robots.

"Matt Anderson" wrote in message
...
I haven't upgraded in a while, and came to realize that even though I
could
crank up the FSB on my motherboard, the other components might not
like it
because the PCI and AGP buses would be too fast, my mobo not having a
PCI/AGP lock. Who knew? So I'm looking into replacing the mobo, and
looking for suggestions, in the under-$75 range. Looking on Newegg,
the
Shuttle AN35N-Ultra looks pretty good for $53. Any others like that I
should check out?

Along those same lines... is it possible to replace a motherboard
without
reinstalling Windows? I've had my XP Pro installation running smooth
for
about 2 years, with tons of stuff installed. It would take me weeks
to get
it back to current status. What would I have to do? I'm guessing:
remove
all drivers that are mobo related from add/remove programs and also
delete
all mobo hardware devices from the hardware manager. What else?

Thanks,
Matt


I have successfully changed motherboards twice without re-installing XP.
Before you strip your old system, enter device manager and un-install
all drivers that have anything to do with your old motherboard, inc any
system devices - onboard sound, nic, modem etc.

Hopefully (I have heard of this procedure going awry), when you boot up
your new system XP should ask you for the new drivers and you're away.
If it Blue-screens, boot from the XP cd and try a Repair install, I've
heard that this will resolve most problems but have never tried it
myself. Both times I've done it, it worked fine after carefully
removing all mobo-related drivers.

You will (maybe should) be able to get a working system using these
methods, but I partly agree with the other replies - a clean install
from a slipstreamed SP2 cd will give you better stability in the long
run. 2 years is a rather long time to have an installation of XP
running, maybe it's time for a clean install anyway.

HTH
--
Apollo

"Matt Anderson" wrote in message
...
I haven't upgraded in a while, and came to realize that even though I could
crank up the FSB on my motherboard, the other components might not like it
because the PCI and AGP buses would be too fast, my mobo not having a
PCI/AGP lock. Who knew? So I'm looking into replacing the mobo, and
looking for suggestions, in the under-$75 range. Looking on Newegg, the
Shuttle AN35N-Ultra looks pretty good for $53. Any others like that I
should check out?

Along those same lines... is it possible to replace a motherboard without
reinstalling Windows? I've had my XP Pro installation running smooth for
about 2 years, with tons of stuff installed. It would take me weeks to
get
it back to current status. What would I have to do? I'm guessing:
remove
all drivers that are mobo related from add/remove programs and also delete
all mobo hardware devices from the hardware manager. What else?

You might want to check this out:

http://tinyurl.com/4xbw

If you do decide to go for XP "upgrade" route, I would do what Apollo says.
***However*** one thing you ***Must*** do is to make sure you change your
boot disk controller (in Device Manager) to the "Standard Microsoft... bla
bla bla controller" as the last thing you do before you swap boards. This
driver will work (just about) with your old controller and also with your
new controller on the new motherboard.

If you do not do this then there is a very high chance that XP will not even
start to boot with the new motherboard. It won't be able to read your disk,
so it won't be able to load any new drivers or anything and you will be
knackered. It will probably just about manage to do enough to trash your XP
installation though - so that you can't even swap back to the old board!!!

Also, before you swap boards, as well as what Apollo said, check "Show
hidden devices" in Device Manager and delete a load of them too. Certainly
delete anything that looks vaguely like it might be hardware-specific:
sound stuff, network controller, memory controller etc etc.

Chip

Results:

I went with the Shuttle. Slightly cheaper, not missing anything I needed.
Slight issues with the onboard sound not working as expected, but I'm still
able to get 5.1 out of it.
I wish I had read this message before swapping the mobo's, because, indeed,
the VIA controller driver was still trying to load, and it crashed everytime
it reached the point where the VIA driver was loaded. However, all was not
lost. I simply booted from my XP cd, and ended up reinstalling the OS over
the original. With the exception of having to install all the drivers for
the new mobo afterward, it runs just as good as it did with the original
mobo. I was worried for a minute there, but it seems to be just fine. I'm
playing Doom3 a lot. I haven't done much else to really tax the machine,
but it's stable, faster, and way cooler than before. Complete success!

Matt


"Chip" wrote in message
...

"Matt Anderson" wrote in message
...
I haven't upgraded in a while, and came to realize that even though I
could
crank up the FSB on my motherboard, the other components might not like
it
because the PCI and AGP buses would be too fast, my mobo not having a
PCI/AGP lock. Who knew? So I'm looking into replacing the mobo, and
looking for suggestions, in the under-$75 range. Looking on Newegg, the
Shuttle AN35N-Ultra looks pretty good for $53. Any others like that I
should check out?

Along those same lines... is it possible to replace a motherboard
without
reinstalling Windows? I've had my XP Pro installation running smooth
for
about 2 years, with tons of stuff installed. It would take me weeks to
get
it back to current status. What would I have to do? I'm guessing:
remove
all drivers that are mobo related from add/remove programs and also
delete
all mobo hardware devices from the hardware manager. What else?

You might want to check this out:

http://tinyurl.com/4xbw

If you do decide to go for XP "upgrade" route, I would do what Apollo
says.
***However*** one thing you ***Must*** do is to make sure you change your
boot disk controller (in Device Manager) to the "Standard Microsoft... bla
bla bla controller" as the last thing you do before you swap boards. This
driver will work (just about) with your old controller and also with your
new controller on the new motherboard.

If you do not do this then there is a very high chance that XP will not
even
start to boot with the new motherboard. It won't be able to read your
disk,
so it won't be able to load any new drivers or anything and you will be
knackered. It will probably just about manage to do enough to trash your
XP
installation though - so that you can't even swap back to the old board!!!

Also, before you swap boards, as well as what Apollo said, check "Show
hidden devices" in Device Manager and delete a load of them too.
Certainly
delete anything that looks vaguely like it might be hardware-specific:
sound stuff, network controller, memory controller etc etc.

Chip