Need MB supporting WinXP and PCI-e 16x

[browntimg]

Hello all,

We had a critical machine fail and unfortunately the very proprietary software on it is supported only up to Windows XP. The failure was the display card. To complicate matters, the very proprietary display card used to drive the very proprietary monitor is no longer available as a PCI card, only as a PCI-e 16x card. The motherboard does not have a PCI-e 16x slot. The chassis is a non-standard form factor, so I'm going to have to build a new computer, which should be acceptable.

Here is my question: What motherboard is out there that will run WinXP and has a PCI-e 16x slot?

Thank you kindly!

 

[alexoiu]

Hi,
All motherboards on the market have PCIe X16. And the slot is backwards compatible. The only issue that I can think of is a BIOS compatibility if the graphics card is too old, although I doubt it.
Some options (checked on newegg the PCIe x16 option): http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627+600008728&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=280&description=&hisInDesc=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc=
For running the XP you'll have to use nLite for slipstreaming the SATA driver and the SP2 and then burning a new XP CD and use it for installing Windows.

 

[browntimg]

I have an XP SP3 installation CD, so I "think" I'd be ok. My concern was lack of XP drivers for any current motherboard, but from what you say, it doesn't sound like this would be an issue, correct?

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Most of our current chipsets and motherboards only support Windows XP "as is" which means that while you maybe able to run Windows XP out of the box there is not any updated drivers and not any help from support on any issues that you may face. Question for you; do you know if you can run the software in Window 7 (in XP compatability mode)? I have even been able to run Diablo 2 which was released before XP in this mode.

 

[alexoiu]

I have an XP SP3 installation CD, so I "think" I'd be ok. My concern was lack of XP drivers for any current motherboard, but from what you say, it doesn't sound like this would be an issue, correct?

It depends. If you choose a board, go to the manufacturer site and look for XP drivers.
Ex: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4061#dl
or a newer one:
http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=1&m=P8Z77-V&hashedid=ABep6fu3PbH0d2BW
As you can see, XP drivers are available.
Or you can choose an AMD one.

 

[browntimg]

@alexoiu: Great ideas, thank you very much and I will do that.

@IntelEnthusiast: A worthy thought, but it is that our support license covers only machines running XP. I spoke to their support staff and they specifically exclude any Win7 machines from the contract (although you are probably right that it would work).

@all: This is what happens when you don't keep your systems current! In our position, we couldn't as these run medical imaging equipment, and constantly keeping up to date would more than break our operating budget.