Replacing motherboard, can I repair install Win7?

[tholley]

I have an old(?) HP Pavilion a1630n desktop pc. It originally came with XP, but I bought a Win7 retail cd and installed it as a dual boot, about a year or so ago.
If it matters it has a AMD Athlon 64 X2, and GeForce chipset.

The mb seemed to have died, the power supply test well within tolerances (even tho I have ordered another), and touching the 2 pins the power button connects to on the MB does nothing. (I have also done numerous other troubleshooting)

Any way I have 2 questions... Do I need to replace it with a MB of the same chipset? I was looking at one with an ATI Radeon chipset.

Also... will I be able to (or have to) do a Win7 repair install, so as not to lose my HDD data?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Maguscreed]

Tricky question to answer, (just so many variables.) though I can tell you with a fair degree of certainty that you may have to reactivate your copy of windows with the new hardware, as windows will think it has been plugged into a new computer.

 

[theog]

If your old HD is SATA.

For Windows 7 Take a look at this tutorial:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html

For Win XP take a look at those two tutorials:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/66010-sata-drivers-load-windows-xp-setup-dual-boot.html

XP Repair Install

 

[whs]

Whatever you do, I suggest you backup your data and/or move it to a seperate data partition - just to be on the safe side: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/72427-data-partition.html

 

[tholley]

If your old HD is SATA.

For Windows 7 Take a look at this tutorial:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html

For Win XP take a look at those two tutorials:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/66010-sata-drivers-load-windows-xp-setup-dual-boot.html

XP Repair Install

sounded like a good idea, and yes I have a SATA HDD, but the MB is dead, no power whatsover, so I don't see how this could work for me.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Any way I have 2 questions... Do I need to replace it with a MB of the same chipset

If you intend to use the same processor (and apparently you do), the new motherboard would have to have the same CPU socket as the old motherboard. The chipset is another matter.

 

[Zepher]

Windows 7 is pretty good at booting up with a different mobo and chipset, so I am pretty confident that it will work for you.
XP on the other hand is a hit or miss.

We are up to 5 mobo/cpu swaps so far with Windows 7 and all of them booted up, found the new devices, installed them, rebooted, and we were up and running.

 

[merkat106]

If you get a mobo with the same chipset, then both OS should be okay without reinstallation. If it is another chipset, then you probably have to reinstall both (although 7 probably will boot up fine).

 

[GeneO]

I tried it once with dissimilar motherboards. It didn't work. Maybe as mentioned if the chipsets are the same.

 

[Bill2]

1) Retail win7 license is fully transferrable as long its only used on a single computer at a given time. What happens is when you first activate it, it gets tied in MS's memory to a hardware hash that is a composite of various hardware components on that computer, the most significant being the mobo. Now, when you uninstall from one computer and install on another, there may be problems activating because MS's servers may think you're trying to use a single license on 2 computers.

If online activation fails (mostly it'll go through), you just need to do the phone activation.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18715-activate-windows-7-phone.html

So feel free to make whatever changes you feel like.

2) A repair install doesnt make sense here- if you change the mobo type, you'll need new drivers. Repair install fixes severely corrupted OS files, thats all.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I would pull the drive and connect it to another computer or an external USB connection to back up your data. I have a Vantec BlacX Dock for this. Once your data is safe, replace whatever parts you want, and your Windows 7 license can be transferred to it. Considering it was an OEM system, I'd go for a new case as well. You can reuse a lot of the HP's parts, but finding a replacement board that fits will be either tough or costly. That's one of the many reasons that most of us build our own towers.

 

[tholley]

Getting a new case might not be a bad idea, but no need to spend the extra dollars if I can find a MB that fits. I'm pretty sure this one fits the bill. Same dimensions (9.6 x 9.6), same socket (AM2). Here are links to both if anyone cares to compare. The main other thing I may pick this one, is it has to have 4 memory card slots.

HP Pavilion Media Center a1630n Desktop PC Product Specifications HP Pavilion Media Center a1630n Desktop PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

CompUSA.com | M4A785-M | ASUS M4A785-M Motherboard

Also... I'm a little confused about the chipset deal. The HP specs only says Chipset = GeForce 6150 LE, which I was thinking is the video card, but the new Asus shows a northbridge chipset (AMD® 785G and SB710 Chipset), video chipset (ATI Radeon HD 4200). So just what chipset do I need to be wary of? The links above show all the specs.

 

[tholley]

2) A repair install doesnt make sense here- if you change the mobo type, you'll need new drivers. Repair install fixes severely corrupted OS files, thats all.

I had read that in allot of cases, if one installs a new motherboard, then when it is time for the first boot up, one could end up with a bsod.

If you get a mobo with the same chipset, then both OS should be okay without reinstallation. If it is another chipset, then you probably have to reinstall both (although 7 probably will boot up fine).

So is it possible I may not even need to mess with re-activation as well?

edit: I did some research on chipsets, and now have a better understanding...

 

[DeaconFrost]

You will most likely have to reactivate, but you have a retail license, so you'd be fine. I suggested the case because you could use any motherboard you wanted. You can get a nice case for less than $50. Many times, the size may be the same, but the screw holes, backplates, layout of the board, etc isn't compatible. It is very rare to be able to fit an aftermarket motherboard in an OEM case.