Installing new mobo & cpu keeping existing Windows Vista

[tomacer17]

I about to install a new motheerboard and cpu. Im going to an athlon II X4 640 and an asus motherboard. Its going in my current computer that is running on Windows Vista. The new motherboard and cpu will change my bios from 2.3 to 2.5 version. I want to leave the current Window in untill the installing of mobo and cpu is done. Im hearing that i may have a problem with the Window accepting new components, is this true ? I cant just update the new version of bios, or will i have problem and have to reinstall the window with a new key ? Everything else is staying the same only mobo & cpu is being upgraded.

 

[JDFan]

Vista is a bit better than previous versions of windows with accepting MOBO changes -- what you want to do is on the first boot after replacing the MOBO - boot off of the windows installation disk - let setup run and at the options select repair existing installation (or something like that !) -- what that will do is run a REPAIR install of the OS and will delete the various drivers for the MOBO chipset, LAN , etc. and redo an examination of the drivers installing the new ones for the new MOBO. (it will only change the system files and drivers leaving the rest of the install intact so all of your programs etc. will still be fine) After it finishes running reboot the system from the HDD and once it boots go into the DEVICE Manager and check to ensure that no yellow caution signs are there (this would mean that some device is not working properly) - if there are any then see what the device is and reinstall the drivers for it to remove the caution sign. (sometimes a few items like the onboard sound device etc. will not get reinstalled during the repair installation so must be fixed afterwards by reinstalling them in device manager)

DOing this will most likely trigger the WIndows OS activation to require reactivation if it does you will need to try to reactivate it - if it fails the first time (If your OS has been reactivated a few times already) then you will have to run the Phone Activation process where you call MS (the number is listed in the activation process) - It is a simple procedure where you enter your key as a computer voice repeats it and afterwards the computer will give you a code to type in the activation window and activate your OS install. (that will work 98% of the time but in case it does not then just call MS support and tell them your MOBO died requiring you to replace it and they will assist in getting it reactivated (they normally give you a new key so be sure to save it since that will be the key you use from now on if you reinstall again afterwards)

I have done this process several times and never had any problems (worst time was having to redo all of my shortcuts for programs because I also added a new HDD with the MOBO changing the drive letter assignments - but that was just time consuming to go through and fix them) but others say they have so if you need to be sure that you can recover if something goes wrong you might want to make a backup of the HDD (including system files) or at least your personal files - before replacing the MOBO just to ensure that you can always restart the process or have a copy of non replaceable things if needed.