I have a compaq 5150wm it has a micro atx board (1.3 thunderbird) in it.
I want to get a A7N8X-VM board to put in the box as well as 2500+ athlon xp (or faster).I also will put pc 2700 ddr ram in it.

Will I be able to swich over to the new hardware and then put my compaq cd in and start over with the new hardware in the pc box. Or, after I put in the new mobo, cpu, and ram will the computer automatically reconize the hard drive cd roms and other software. Im having lots of trouble because I do not know if I can keep all my old stuff. Its not like compaq gives you drivers for the cd roms and other hardware.

One last thing is the bios version imbedded in the mobo or is it on the hard drive.

Thanks for any help you can give me

Which OS are you running?

Forget about the compaq CD, have you make sure that you have a graphics card... most branded Pre-built pcs like COmpaq comes with on-board graphics, thus decreasing the cost of production.

I m not sure you compaq case would allow you easily to unfit your old mobo. I must say that some evil pc manufacturers like to design the case in the way that makes upgrading a tedious task. Marketing Strategy i guess. You don't need driver cds for CD-Drives, Windows will automatically install them. Try backing up your HDD contents if you have a CD_RW.

BIOS is most frequently found on the motherboard itself.

.........you'll need a new psu as well , thanks to the propiatory ways of compaq, gateway, dell etc.....

tommie j