Question Installed new motherboard and cpu, what next?

[UsernamedReddit]

Hello,
I just upgraded some pieces in my build. I am somewhat of a pc builder noob (I've upgraded graphics, ram, processor with same port etc so not totally slow).
I got a new case, motherboard and processor.

I upgraded from an Asus Tuf b365m to Asus prime z590p and processor from i5 9400f to i9 11400kf. (My computer was a pre-built and I've slowly added new gpu/ram/ssds I just outgrew the case and wanted more speed).

I did not download or update anything before I did the build (i feel like i made a mistake with that...).
Now the question, when I turn the pc on what do I do next? I turned it on and it took me to the boot/bios menu but to make sure my pc runs properly what are the steps to get my operating system back up and making sure I have the proper programs removed/installed for my new hardware to run properly?

Anybody who can give me somewhat detailed instructions would be much appreciated, or direct me to a video guide or something... (please talk to me like a laymen I do not know all the technical words).

I just don't want to mess anything up and if I need to plug my hard drive into a different pc and get files onto it I always have that option or if just a memory card works or whatever. I'm just a little confused trying to look stuff up with Google. Thanks.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

You're advised to download all relevant drivers for your new motherboard using a donor system, save them on an USB drive. Then fabricate your OS installer, reinstall your OS and use the prior USB drive with relevant drivers to install all drivers for your platform with the latest drivers. When installing the drivers, do so to install them in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

For added measure, might want to mention the prebuilt's make and model.

 

[Lafong]

If I understand correctly:

You have a new motherboard.

You have a new CPU.

Your existing hard drive has a Windows installation from the old motherboard and the old CPU.

That points to requiring a new Windows clean install.

You would do that by making an installer, using your own USB flash drive of at least 8 GB in size.

You'd go to Microsoft web site and find their "Media Creation Tool". Follow instructions there to download it onto your USB flash drive.

After that is complete, make sure you have saved (backed up to some other drive) anything of importance on the drive to which you want to install Windows.

Then boot from that installer USB stick you made with NO OTHER DRIVE CONNECTED other than the one that you want to put Windows on. Normally, you'd use a boot menu to bring up the choice for booting from the USB stick.

Follow the prompts. You'll see an early choice to "delete partitions" from the existing drive. Delete them all.

That will leave you with a clean Windows install.

That's the basic procedure to get Windows going...it will be the most recent version available at Microsoft at the time.

 

[USAFRet]

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Lafong]

Would an external hard drive work, or do i need a USB flash drive? My external is USB.



No other drive connected, by that you mean unplug both of my SSD's installed, correct?

Never tried it with an external drive. I'd use a flash drive. 8 GB would cost you what....5 dollars or less?

You want ONE hard drive connected. Period.

The one that you want to put Windows on. The one that will be your new C drive. Ideally your fastest drive if it is large enough for future expansion.

 

[USAFRet]

Would an external hard drive work, or do i need a USB flash drive? My external is USB.

Using an "external drive" WILL wipe out any data currently existing on it.
It will also reformat the drive to FAT32. Meaning you would have to do a reformat after, to return it to whatever size it was before.

Much much easier to use an 8 or 16GB flash drive to do this.

 

[UsernamedReddit]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

You're advised to download all relevant drivers for your new motherboard using a donor system, save them on an USB drive. Then fabricate your OS installer, reinstall your OS and use the prior USB drive with relevant drivers to install all drivers for your platform with the latest drivers. When installing the drivers, do so to install them in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

For added measure, might want to mention the prebuilt's make and model.

Hey there, thanks for the quick response. I went through some of the steps and couldn't find a flash drive so I took it to a local Tech shop.

He turned the computer on (I did the boot last night and chose which hard drive to boot from) and the computer turned on and everything is running as it did before I added my new hardware.

My cores are running at about 35°C average (included Coretemp snip in the picture link below) at this moment running just chrome, seems normal.

My system is: System Info (I can't seem to upload photos).

I did not have to install or do anything, it turned on and everything is working as expected. Should I be worried about anything?

Windows is fine, all my stuff is running normal. Core temps are optimal from my understanding.

If everything is working, I've always lived by the Mantra if it ain't broke don't fix it. Would you suggest anything that is absolutely necessary?

Thanks again for the info, If I could have found my thumb drive I probably would have done everything as suggested without going to the Tech shop.

FYI my pre-built was a "Skytech Shadow Gaming Computer PC Desktop – Intel Core i5 9400F 2.9GHz, GTX 1660 6G, 500GB SSD, 8GB DDR4 3000MHz, RGB Fans, Windows 10 Home 64-bit, 802.11AC Wi-Fi" from Amazon: PC Amazon link

 

[Lafong]

Is this correct:

The technician did nothing.......other than connecting your old hard drive with the old Windows installation to the new motherboard with the new CPU?

That can work. You may or may not have issues in the future because you did NOT do a clean install.

Your choice. Most here would tell you to do a clean install.

Does your new setup still say it is activated?

Do you see any yellow exclamation points in Device Manager?

 

[UsernamedReddit]

I had everything plugged in, he just plugged it into power and turned it on to see where we're at. I only had 1 SSD plugged in which has my Windows on it. I still haven't plugged in my extra SSD with more games etc.

It loaded with my login screen, I logged in and it was as it was before I changed anything. Everything normal. Now that it's on I can do a clean install per the instructions via thumb drive? I found one, its 7.7 GB (which is 8GB obviously).

 

[Lafong]

Now that it's on I can do a clean install per the instructions via thumb drive? I found one, its 7.7 GB (which is 8GB obviously).

Yes.

Have you ever installed Windows before?

You might ask yourself "why bother", since all is apparently well right now.

 

[USAFRet]

I had everything plugged in, he just plugged it into power and turned it on to see where we're at. I only had 1 SSD plugged in which has my Windows on it. I still haven't plugged in my extra SSD with more games etc.

It loaded with my login screen, I logged in and it was as it was before I changed anything. Everything normal. Now that it's on I can do a clean install per the instructions via thumb drive? I found one, its 7.7 GB (which is 8GB obviously).

"everything normal" may just mean you haven't yet found the problems.

Using an old drive+OS has 3 possible outcomes:

1. It works just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks/months

I've personally had all 3.
2 generation newer chipset and CPU...I expect #3.

 

[UsernamedReddit]

"everything normal" may just mean you haven't yet found the problems.

Using an old drive+OS has 3 possible outcomes:

1. It works just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks/months

I've personally had all 3.
2 generation newer chipset and CPU...I expect #3.

Yes, I already see option 3. My bluetooth driver no longer exists so that's the first one.

Yes.

Have you ever installed Windows before?

You might ask yourself "why bother", since all is apparently well right now.

Okay I have gotten my windows onto my thumb drive, now what about drivers for my motherboard etc.? When I load the new windows through the thumb drive will everything work and then I can go download the drivers, or do I have to pre-load them onto a separate drive to install through UEFI/Bios?

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, I already see option 3. My bluetooth driver no longer exists so that's the first one.



Okay I have gotten my windows onto my thumb drive, now what about drivers for my motherboard etc.? When I load the new windows through the thumb drive will everything work and then I can go download the drivers, or do I have to pre-load them onto a separate drive to install through UEFI/Bios?

The base Windows install will be enough to get up and running.

 

[Lafong]

3 schools of thought:

1; go to motherboard makers web site and download all possible drivers right now.

2; do nothing; let the Windows installation install whatever drivers it wants to, and then evaluate after you are up and running.

3; go to motherboard makers site and download the NIC (Ethernet) driver on the unlikely possibility that you will need it to connect to the net because the Windows installation didn't provide it for whatever reason.

I've never chosen option 1. I sometimes choose 2 and sometimes 3.

I've NEVER had Windows fail to install the NIC driver, but I guess it can happen and it's important because a net connection is critical.

I generally use Windows supplied drivers ONLY, but some here will tell you that's horrible advice.

Time for you to find out if that installer stick you made will in fact boot your PC. You need to access a boot menu; probably with an F key.

 

[UsernamedReddit]

The base Windows install will be enough to get up and running.

So I'm attempting to load through the thumb drive, it goes to a blank blue screen for a moment and then the PC shuts down. Any idea what the issue is?

 

[USAFRet]

So I'm attempting to load through the thumb drive, it goes to a blank blue screen for a moment and then the PC shuts down. Any idea what the issue is?

That would suggest your flash drive was not properly constructed.

 

[UsernamedReddit]

So clear the flash drive and reinstall? Could it be that the thumb drive isn't fast enough? It's somewhat old. I could always buy a USB 3.0 thumb drive on Amazon as an option.

 

[Lafong]

So clear the flash drive and reinstall? Could it be that the thumb drive isn't fast enough? It's somewhat old. I could always buy a USB 3.0 thumb drive on Amazon as an option.

It doesn't need to be fast.

No current reason to think it is defective.....

Most likely you went off the rails while following Microsoft's directions...made a wrong choice when given option A and option B.

How do you bring up your boot menu on your motherboard? What key?

 

[UsernamedReddit]

It doesn't need to be fast.

No current reason to think it is defective.....

Most likely you went off the rails while following Microsoft's directions...made a wrong choice when given option A and option B.

How do you bring up your boot menu on your motherboard? What key?

F2 or DEL. Then when i select the flash drive to load through and boot, it shows the motherboard screen then goes black then windows light blue. Blank screen, stays there for about 20-30 seconds and then powers down.

And I figured out where my bluetooth went... My motherboard didn't have bluetooth built in. I guess I totally ignored it when purchasing, the first one I was looking at had bluetooth/wifi built in and I could have sworn that's the one I bought.

I guess my failed oversight so I just ordered a bluetooth/wifi PCIE adaptor.

I'll try to reinstall windows onto the thumb drive again for now.

 

[UsernamedReddit]

I just went to format and saw that it's file system default is FAT32. File system options I need to change that?

EDIT: I changed it to exFAT at 8k KB

 

[USAFRet]

I just went to format and saw that it's file system default is FAT32. File system options I need to change that?

No. FAT32 is what it will be.

Follow my link above, exactly.
If it fails, where, exactly?

 

[Lafong]

I just went to format and saw that it's file system default is FAT32. File system options I need to change that?

EDIT: I changed it to exFAT at 8k KB

Let the Microsoft tool control that.

 

[UsernamedReddit]

No. FAT32 is what it will be.

Follow my link above, exactly.
If it fails, where, exactly?

Section II part 1 never begins. It downloads from the windows site, it gets to the finish button, i click finish and it's done. it looks like a new type of drive when i open file explorer.

Then i go to boot through the thumb drive and it never gets to the next step. Just goes loading screen, black screen, light blue windows screen and power down.

 

[Lafong]

When you bring up that boot menu, you should see several choices.

List them here in this thread...by exact name.

 

[UsernamedReddit]

When you bring up that boot menu, you should see several choices.

List them here in this thread...by exact name.

1.Windows boot manager (SATA6G_3 PNY CS900 500GB SSD) (500.1 GB)
2.UEFI: General USB Flash Disk 1100 Partition 1 (8.0GB)