Swapping my motherboard - how to remove old drivers?

[SpidersWeb]

Title says it all really.

Don't feel like reinstalling my PC but I'm changing the motherboard on the weekend.
Will Windows 7 detect this and load (unlike XP), or is there something I can do to prevent the problem.

I'm figuring worst case, I just run the Windows 7 setup again, choose 'Repair'.

I remember hearing about a software program that uninstalled all your motherboard drivers before you do the swap, but I can't remember what it's called and I can't find it on google (and don't know if it even works on 7!).

 

[daship]

No matter what you try you will have issues unless you reformat and do a fresh install. You can make it work but you will always run into issues til you do a fresh install. Its not worth the hassle.

 

[swifty_morgan]

Every new opsys has updates to the prior. Chances are you can install the board and not have too many problems. A new board comes with a cd with drivers on it. Drivers are also available on line. As long as you install the ethernet driver from the cd to get there... no cd, download before hand put on disc or floppy or thumb drive.
Where you may run into problem is with validation, but if it's like Vista all you have to do is validate when it comes up after starting.... I did one yesterday... says "your hardware has changed since last start up" or something similar.... "you have 3 days to validate".. I've done it many time with no problems, even when pulling a hard drive and putting it in a new machine with new hardware........ last one was with xp 32bit. I did a Vista one last week. You'll have to validate before Windows Update....... which is a good place to find out if you need any drivers for anything. Let us know how you make out.

EDIT:.... I haven't worked with Windows7 yet. I don't see any reason it would be any different than Vista or XP inre to topic.

 

[SpidersWeb]

I'm not worried about drivers, Windows 7 probably has full support built in (it did with my Asrock P45XE). And yeah I've done a fair few installs before (so I know about the CDs etc), but usually I reinstall windows fresh.

Reason i don't want to install fresh again this time, is my 'old' motherboard has only been in for 2-3 months and my Windows 7 install is fresh, everything setup how I like it, I do not want to start all over again.

The issue is the old motherboard drivers crashing windows on startup. XP definately crashes most of the time when doing a motherboard swap, I haven't tried it with Vista or 7 though. 7 might be a bit smarter for all I know.

I know there is a tool that does the removal but can't remember the name.

Validation isn't a worry at all, its a release candidate, can validate it as often as I like I will be buying it when it's released here.

 

[SpidersWeb]

From what I have just found on the internets, Win7 will likely be perfectly fine and do the adjustment automatically.

Will let you know how it goes!

 

[photonboy]

My points:
1) You will likely have issues, but I suppose you have nothing to lose. Back up critical info and files to a second hard drive.

2) Replacing a failing motherboard without reinstalling Windows usually only works fine on a motherboard with the same chipset type (i.e. NForce 4).

I can't help much further but it sounds more like a hardware problem to me. At the very least you should try different RAM (or one stick at a time).

 

[SpidersWeb]

Thanks, it is the same chipset, both are P45, just different brands.

And the computer boots fine as it is, I just doubted it would after I changed motherboards.