How to replace the exact same Mobo properly?

[Rusher]

Hi,

I have Abit NF7-S ver.2 which got fried recently, so I'm getting an exact same new motherboard (NF7-S ver.2) to replace it. I'm using Windows XP.

Now, I googled it and found out that I need to use Win XP installation CD and choose "Repair The Selected Windows Installation" option in order to replace my motherboard. The catch, however, is that I need to install other drivers separately after that process (I got zillions of other drivers there already ).

So the question is, since I'm getting the exact same motherboard for replacement, do I need to do that process above? Is it possible to just skip all that, boot up the XP normally, and let the system adjust automatically? I'll have everything in the same setup as it was (PCI cards placement, IDE connections, etc.)

 

[Justin]

If it is the exact same motherboard, with the same chipset, you should be able to just replace it, configure BIOS, and be on your merry way - No reinstallation of any sort needed. The important things to watch out for that would render a machine unbootable after a motherboard swap would be:

1) Attachment order of the drives. If you were formerly booting from primary master, that same drive must still be primary master (of course, winders)

2) Legacy or Enhanced/AHCI SATA mode: If you formerly were using Legacy mode for any SATA drives and/or booted from a SATA drive, this mode needs to be set the way it was before.

3) Boot order. Not as important, but can still cause the machine to fail to boot if you never tell it to boot from whatever device your OS is on.

4) Resource configuration. Mostly automated if you had ACPI and resource allocation on defaults. If you set it manually or had ACPI disabled you'll need to check those as well but most likely you can leave those at defaults.


Good luck.

 

[Rusher]

Thank you for the info. I'll test it once the mobo arrive and see what happens.