Inspiron 4100 help/tips

[ski]

Hello everyone,I am new to the group. After a wide and confusing search,I thought to ask a few questions here. I was given a dell 866mhz 4100 inspiron from my brother [original owner] in exchange for a complete brake job on his car that has a busted usb port.I picked up a good 4100 mobo/processor that is a 1.13 gig processor and want to swap out the boards.The laptop is to donated to my college kid for school. After reading what is on the net,I am a bit leary about doing the swap.I know I can handle the mechanics of it with no trouble but the start up has me worried.Reading about password troubles,bios troubles ect...makes me wonder if it will work at all after I'm done.My brother thinks it is as simple as changing them out. What is the real deal here? The replacement I have for it is still in the lower plastic case with the keyboard,plug ins and memory removed. The small battery[cmos?] pack is dead as well. Any help/tips/suggestions will be greatly appreciated! Thanks ahead to all and happy holidays. ski