I want to replace the FIC AM37 (BIOS tweaked by the twerps at eMachines) with an ASUS A7V8X-MX.

Someone told me I'd need a new copy of XP Home since the version that came with my machine is "custom fit" for the AM37. Is this true?

I had another guy say that I'd just need to disable old devices and reboot a few times and let XP hash out the new hardware, but will I be able to boot into XP after the install of the new MoBo?

The old chipset is VIA KM266 and the new is VIA KM400. Does this matter? I found a Gigabyte with the same chipset, but the Asus is a better board.

Thanks in advance for any input

Find out what ya Windows Key is and Write it down and borrow a copy of XP cd from a m8 and reinstall.

A copy of XP bound to a motherboard? I doupt it very much but it might happen...when u change motherboards you should ALWAYS format - its does the machine no end of good. As tweakster said - take ur key and reinstall off a standard disk.

Steg

Thanks for the input fellas!
Duly noted.

A windows installation is tailored towards your chipset. If the new motherboard has a different chipset you will need to do a Windows repair (or reinstall).

Basically what I mean when I say your Windows installation is "tailored towards your chipset" is there are chipset drivers which are installed when you install Windows. When you change the motherboard and try to boot, the drivers from the old motherboard still remain. So a lot of times when you try and boot Windows with this new motherboard it won't work because the existing chipset drivers may be the incorrect drivers. The only way to update these if you are not able to boot into Windows is by booting up your Windows CD and either doing a repair or a new install.

If you are able to boot into XP with the new motherboard installed you can just update the drivers from Device Manager (New hardware should automatically be detected at startup. You can then search the hard drive for the correct drivers or search your Windows CD.) Then just check Device Manager and make sure there are no ? or !. Though this most likely will only work if the board is running on the same chipset with only slight differences.

If you cannot boot into Windows after installing the new motherboard, you will need to do try the repair. If that doesn't work, then reinstall.

The easiest route for most people would be to just do a complete re-install of Windows. If you do that just make sure you backup any data on the hard drive that you want to keep before doing so.

Is it an actual XP disc that came with your unit, or is ot one of those manufacturer "System Reinstallation Discs"?