Need To Pick PC Builders' Brains

Hey, if any of you guys on here have any experience building PCs I'd appreciate some advice. My mobo just bit the big one, and I don't have the money to build a whole new machine or the time to waste recreating/recovering my data. I realize that I can try to find another of the exact same mobo, but I was wondering, if it just had the same chipset but the brand or model was different, would I be able to still hot swap the mobos? Reason being, is I would like to see if I can find a mobo with the same chipset that supports better ram. Thanks!

I would not count on it working but it MIGHT. I would not recommend spending any cash on such a gamble unless you can find iron clad documentation that someone had successfully  swapped the exact one you have with the exact one you want to get.

 The gamble is getting the os to at least its basic mode where you can add the proper drivers. The legitimate way would be to install all generic chipset drivers in your OS before you swap. Since your MB is already dead you can't do this. It's been my personal experience that even MB swaps of the same  make and model can fail even if it's just a different revision.

 It's  possible to add drivers and make registry adjustments from outside the OS if you want to research that but it's kinda beyond me patience level to deal with such things so i don't know much about it. Now that I'm thinking about it I should add that the newer windows OS might be able to repair itself from the install disk... You might wanna research trying that. My serious experience is limited to a time before XP

 

PS: moved to Tech Talk

Dean wrote: Sometimes you can get away with it, sometimes you can't. Each motherboard has a unique MAC address and this is recorded in the Windows installation so when you change motherboards the installed version of Windows can reject the new motherboard because the MAC address does not match.   To avoid this what I normally do is buy a new harddrive with the new motherboard and do a completely clean Windows (or Linux if that's your bag) install, you can then fit the old drive as an internal second drive or in a USB caddy as an external drive. That way you can access all your old data, though you will have to reinstall all your software.

Well, I expect it to have me revalidate my OS. It shouldn't block it from running though I would think unless there is a driver issue. I might also be able to use something like UBCD to massage things. Hmm...

(1) I have swapped mobos on an existing install of Windows without issue. Can't guarantee the same for you, but hell.

(2) Swapping motherboards should be perfectly fine as long as all the parts are compatible. Sometimes, sh*t RAM may decide to not function in certain boards. CPUs are all made by one of two manufacturers and are always fine, though, as long as you get the correct board.

//EDIT: I thought Tech Talk was music-related? How is this music-related?


Edited by Gamemako - June 05 2012 at 18:39

In terms of hardware, as long as the chipset is the same there is no reason for incompatibilities.  Dean already mentioned the only issue that I can see arising.

So basically, it's a crapshoot, haha. Alright, well, I will prolly try to find something by the same manufacturer usign the same chipset. And hopefully, I can then telephone microsoft and they wont give me the 3rd degree

Dean wrote: you'll have to buy a new Windows 7 as well.