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General discussion

Changing Micro ATX motherboards - potential problems??

Feb 23, 2004 3:11AM PST

I currently run a Microstar 6534 ver:1.0 which I'm told is not a fantasic board by any stretch of the imagination, I must say I have to agree after trying to flash upgrade and then swapping my Award BIOS chip unsuccessfully. Then trying to swap my 64 Mb NVidia MX2/400 graphics card for a 256Mb NVidia FX5900 Ultra also unsuccessfully - error message "Parameter is incorrect" showing every time an attempt to load drivers/ software.
So, as I think the problem may be down the the AGP speed/voltage, I am going to change my mobo to an Intel D865 GLCLK.
My question is: Can I just take my old board out and replace it with the new one in a straight one for one swap using all of my existing hardware? (I know I will have to change the SDRAM to DDR)

Discussion is locked

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Re:Changing Micro ATX motherboards - potential problems??
Feb 23, 2004 3:22AM PST

Such changes I have done in the past. Pitfalls are:

1. Forget to remove an extra mounting post and the board didn't boot.
2. Had to change the power supply to meet the new power demands. Light reading at http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20040122/
3. Had to reinstall the OS. Since I backup some 3 different ways, this is always a nice idea since I get a clean machine.

Bob

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Re:Re:Changing Micro ATX motherboards - potential problems??
Feb 23, 2004 3:57AM PST

Thanks for your reply Bob, I dont think I will have snags with my PSU as I have a Jeantech 400W. Not sure what you meant by forgeting to remove the extra mounting post - maybe you could explain further. And is it usual to have to re-install the OS?

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Mounting posts are often CONDUCTIVE metal which is not good when they are not called for.
Feb 23, 2004 4:57AM PST

I think you can imagine that problem.

As to installing the OS, I can avoid it over 1/2 the time, but if the change is big, I know it takes longer to fix the old OS verses just toasting the WINDOWS directory and starting over.

We all backup, so it's not that big a deal.

Bob

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Re:Changing Micro ATX motherboards - potential problems??
Feb 23, 2004 3:54AM PST

It makes good sense to start from scratch and reload everything, even if it appears it may work. But, my experience you have a 50/50 chance and lean more on it working afterwards, but that's me. Take *nothing* for granted, inspect during install and check again. Have al the install s/w available, etc. for a more smoother process. Observe that some items may not be able to swap as you noted the memory, but other items too, especially if going to XP os, just make note of that. If you're using the XP os, it just better to start over again, but backup on any OS important data, etc. for later retrieval.

good luck -----Willy

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Maybe, I missed it?
Feb 23, 2004 6:03AM PST

The OS is not revealed.
XPpro here, and I musta got lucky. I went from an old Abit board to a MSI and XP booted just fine. Of course, I did go through some "found new hardware" but it was painless.
Since, I have upgraded CPU, memory, and PSU without any problems.
Closing, worst case is reinstalling OS. You may get lucky though.

~Tom

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Re:Maybe, I missed it?
Feb 23, 2004 6:41AM PST

Thanks Tom for your input, I have XP home on this comp and XP Pro on PC2.