switching motherboard on pc

hey guys, im on my laptop at my house, but cant use this often.

my friend wanted to buy my computer but he would only buy it if his motherboard and stuff would work on my pc, so we tried it and it works its just giving us an error before booting, we're trying to fix it and hopefully itll be soon.

i believe i only have 1 trade, waiting for you to do your part, and once you do it, PM me and ill pay you as soon as i see the PM

thanks

Uhh that depends on A LOT of factors, Hes buying your computer and replacing your mobo with his? Does it support the same type of ram? [DDR/DDR2]? Same hard drive interface? Same CPU Socket? also you will NEED to reformat if you get a new mobo, That could be the reason that error came up.

ive seen all the req's and they all match.. and hes putting his mobo on my computer, and if it all works out he'll pay me for it.

yeah i cant really format as the computer i got never came with a windows xp cd.. and the error is like

we apologize for any inconvenience, but windows could not start up correctly. and some other stuff then it asks me if i wanna start up windows normally.. safe mode, i tried all of them it just gives me a really fast blue screen that i cant read and restarts and it starts all over.

Yep You need to reformat on a new motherboard swap. Im 99% Sure about it. Well Aquire the cd through other means and burn it D [Bit torrent it]

It's probably XP recognizing a hardware change.

The solution may be just going into device manager and uninstalling all the mobo specific components, then shut down and do the switch. That's not recommended in comparison to a fresh XP install, but it's probably doable.

I don't advise doing this long-term, but nonetheless I've seen it work in a lot of mobo swap cases. Boot into Safe Mode, open up RegEdit, and delete the Hardware enum keys. This will basically blow away XP's knowledge of all hardware, and so it will redetect everything cleanly at next bootup.

Mind you that such a change will likely trigger XP's reactivation (for retail license) or flat out denial to run (for many OEM licenses). Only if it's a VLA (corporate) license will it typically move quietly to a new system.

hmm, yeah i might do what tholek said if i dont get ahold of a windows xp cd

dmorris, when i first switched the motherboard it worked fine, and right after it booted up normally it asked us to activate windows, i called them through phone, etc. never worked, they even hung up on me once. so i did a full system recovery, and then it wouldnt even boot and do the stuff i did in my last post, it wont even let me go in safe mode with the new mobo, only the old one.

im gonna try to get a windows xp cd, if that doesnt work ill try what tholek said, thanks guys, ill update you ]

System recovery? Sounds like an OEM install that came with the PC?

Yoou cannot transfer OEM XP licenses to a new PC, and a new motherboard is a significant enough hardware change to constitute a "new PC." Such a transfer violates the license agreement and is thus illegal. And if that doesn't stop you from trying (heh...) the install itself will be tied to the machine and WILL NOT activate on any other, which is what it sounds like you went through.

It's so strict that there was a recent brouhaha with eMachines as reported on InfoWorld's Gripe Line. A customer had a bad eMachines mobo replaced [i8743c2603a]under warranty[/i8743c2603a], meaning it was an authorized factory replacement mobo, identical to the first one. However the onboard MAC and such were different enough to cause his copy of Windows to no longer work, and Microsoft and eMachines both told him he had to BUY another copy of XP. I don't remember if that particular extreme case was resovled amicably or not, but I quote it as an example of just how seroius they are about transferring OEM licenses.

well i didnt know that.. ha \
and yeah system recovery is pretty much putting the pc back to what it was when you bought it.

bah i didnt know i had to get a new windows xp license just because i switched the motherboards.. that sucks.

It's another reason people should think twice about buying pre-fab systems with any intention of upgrading them later. You'll be stuck with either buying or pirating a new copy of Windows, because you can't take the old one along for the upgrade ride.

I only spec pre-fabs for people I know wouldn't be trying to upgrade the mobo and such down the road, but would rather just buy a whole new PC. For those, OEM licenses are fine. Not for upgraders, though, who should be building their own systems. ;)

Now if you buy an OEM license of XP from Newegg (legal only with a hardware purchase, but almost any piece of hardware qualifies), then I think you CAN transfer those -- not legally, as it still violates the OEM EULA -- but I think it will activate. At least that's what I've heard, I've not tried it. But the pre-loaded OEM licenses generally will not transfer at all on foreign hardware.

yeah i bought this computer a long time ago, and i can buy my new monitor for the new computer (building it with newegg) thats coming already.

gonna have to tell him about this oem license thingy, dont think he'll buy it but o well.

[quote366ba64406="dmorris68"]I don't advise doing this long-term, but nonetheless I've seen it work in a lot of mobo swap cases. Boot into Safe Mode, open up RegEdit, and delete the Hardware enum keys. This will basically blow away XP's knowledge of all hardware, and so it will redetect everything cleanly at next bootup.[/quote366ba64406]

Isn't that essentially what I said, but doing it via the registry instead? If I don't need to do a regedit, then I don't. Just curious.

[quote366ba64406="dmorris68"]Mind you that such a change will likely trigger XP's reactivation (for retail license) or flat out denial to run (for many OEM licenses). Only if it's a VLA (corporate) license will it typically move quietly to a new system.[/quote366ba64406]

To be honest, I don't know which version of XM Pro I have ( oops ), but I know my switch went cleanly. (Switched my main OS drive from a Gateway E-3400 to my Cyberpower A64 X-Dreamer)

[quote27e6c4b4e3="Tholek"]Isn't that essentially what I said, but doing it via the registry instead? If I don't need to do a regedit, then I don't. Just curious.[/quote27e6c4b4e3]
I guess that's what you meant, but you mentioned targetting mobo specific devices through Device Manager, which is tricky to do since there are a boatload of them, many of which are hidden from Device Manager. ;) By stripping the entire Enum tree at the registry level, you delete every device in your system, mobo and otherwise, which then lets Windows start with a clean slate... sorta. Still not something I'd recommend, but it usually works in a pinch when a full re-install isn't an option.

[quote27e6c4b4e3="Tholek"]To be honest, I don't know which version of XM Pro I have ( oops ), but I know my switch went cleanly. (Switched my main OS drive from a Gateway E-3400 to my Cyberpower A64 X-Dreamer)[/quote27e6c4b4e3]
But you had to reactivate, right? Unless you have a VLK, I'm positive that you did. That's what I meant by not going "quietly." I've transferred many XP licenses from machine to machine, just not a pre-load that was bound to the OEM hardware, which is the case here. Did your Gateway come with the XP pre-installed? If so, there are various flavors of OEM licenses, so perhaps yours wasn't bound to the hardware like the ones I've seen.

every computer that you buy full with all the hardware and stuff, the OEM is bound to the hardware? and theres no way to make it work without having to get a new license?

not to mention that i cant even boot it up to the activation screen anymore, unless i switch to my old mobo again.

tholek/dmorris, i would only be able to do that if i switched mobos.

If the OEM uses the standard OEM pre-load license, it is bound to the motherboard of the system. It allows for minor upgrades to things like videocards and drives, but not the mobo itself. That constitues a new PC, and those pre-loads will not re-activate, and might not even boot for all I know.

bleh ill just have to sell it with the current motherboard it has

thanks guys.