FAQ - Why Cant I Boot To Windows After Changing My Mainboard

[Danno]

Q. I have just installed the motherboard, when i switch the PC on i receive the following message.


A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent furhter damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen restart your computer, if this screen appears again follow these steps:

Check to be sure you have adequate disk space. If a driver is identified in the stop message, disabler the driver or check with the manufacturer for driver updates. Try changing video adapaters.

Check with your hardware vendor for any BIOS updates, Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing if you need to use safe mde to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press f8 to selected Advanced Startup Options and then selected safe mode.

A. After changing a motherboard you must use a clean install of windows. If you dont you will have problems. Sometimes you will see the above message and other times the system will boot to windows but it will run very unstable.

Sometimes you can get away with a repair install however it is recommended wiping the hard drive and starting from scratch.

[hunterhunt]

What are the chances of that happening?

[Danno]

unless you use another motherboard identical to the one you are replacing the chances of needing to wipe your drive and reinstall are very high.

[hunterhunt]

Ok, so if i reinstall the same motherboard on a different tower with the same hardrive etc etc...will i get this problem?
What are the chances?
Advice?

[Taxation]

you wont get the problem if you are simply moving case

[jimb0678]

As Taxation said, there'll be no problem moving to a different tower, even with new components. Although even replacing the motherboard with an identical one may cause problems, as OEMs can be 'tied' to the BIOS. It really depends where you bought it from. With a Vista OEM, the only thing that can't be 'changed' is the motherboard; All other components can be changed at will.

[hunterhunt]

hey, i just bought an ASUS P5N32-E SLI PLUS 775 DDR2

Would I need to reinstall windows when I stick it in?

How can I get a backup of WINDOWS? Do I just drag and drop the file into a DVD CD, and when I stick in the motherboard, insert the disk and itll reinstall windows?

[Coops]

No.

You need a proper Install CD for Windows.

Also depending on what type of Windows Licence you have, OEM or Retail you may not be able to reuse your copy of Windows.

OEM has no transfer rights and can only be used on the system it was purchased with.
Retail can be moved from one system to another but can only be used and installed on one system at any one time.

[hunterhunt]

Ok, So say ; I loan a Windows XP disk off my friend, and use the Serial Code that is already on my computer..will it work?

Remember that theres a new motherboard...etc

and its OEM..

but a technician bought me a new hard drive a few months ago, so wouldnt it be a retail XP?
Or would he have reinstalled the OEM windows XP onto a new hard drive? (with the same serial?)

[Taxation]

if you have an XP cd key sticker on your case, then you will be fine, i do this with computers, because essentially, your buying that cd key to allow you to get to the product

[hunterhunt]

So would i need a Windows XP OEM disk?
or any windows XP Home edition disk?

[Mattf121]

As far as I know it is the SERIAL key that is either OEM or retail. The discs themselves are the same. As long as you use your own serial, then any XP Home Edition CD should do.

[Asce]

It doesnt work if you use a SP2 disc with a SP1 key code.

[Decibel]

Hi Guys...i have a packard Bell old Pc that i m tryin' to upgrade...my mobo is pratically unknown and i was thinking to replace it with another more powerful so i can eventually upgrade also its CPU with intel Core duo or Quad core....Packard Bell does not provide the XP window install CD....But i have a cd creator so i create all my OS back up as the day i bought it....If my system would crash i can reboot with those CD's....

Do you think it will work after i upgraded my PC, (pratically i will replace the case and the mothrboard and eventually the CPU but later).....Can you help me? Thanks a lot :D

[Ben]

No this won't work. As you will require completely different drivers / registry etc.

Unless your current CPU is a Socket 775. Upgrading your CPU at a later date is not really an option. You will probably find you need to do this at the same time as the motherboard. As it will probably have a different socket. IIRC some PB machines had the CPU embedded as part of the Motherboard, but that was a long time ago.

[dwrein]

Heya,

I'm thinking of getting a new motherboard bundle (but keeping hdd, dvd-rw, graphics card and some of the ram etc etc) but I bought my pc (from nova) with Vista Home Premium pre installed. Is there NO way that I can get a new mobo without having to buy vista again?

I do have a cd that I bought from novatech but it is a "Windows Vista Recovery Media fo Windows Vista Products". Will this work or act as a way to install windows again once my mobo has been changed?

[Danno]

if you have a novatech vista recovery disk you can use that to wipe the hard drive and reinstall vista and re-create the recovery partition. the only problem is the license because its an oem license it will have been registered and activated with the hardware originally in the system.

if you change motherboard, cpu and ram microsoft will see the different hardware and may class it as a new system. some info on windows activation can be found here, its written about xp but its similar with vista.

http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php

[Kenman]

I have a new mobo, cpu, and RAM to install. Can you please simplify your statement. A clean install of Windows, OK, but surely only that specific partition, not the whole drive. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks.

[Baggpuss]

Depends how you partition it. You can have several partitions on one drive, or just one, is your choice during windows setup.

As far as OEM liscenses go, ive reinstalled vista a couple times for my brother and hes on his third motherboard since then, so its not necessairly going to mean a new copy of vista but is a possibility.

[Sally-Novatech-Technician]

If you were to replace the MOBO with the exact same one then you should not have a problem with the operating system, although you may need to reactivate it for it to continue to work, if it does not activate online then you will need to call the automated activation line (an 0800 in the UK)
If you change the MOBO for one with a totally different chipset then you will most likely get the BSOD at boot, just after it tries to load the O\S, and the only way round this would be a complete reinstall of the operating system (O\S)
This is one of Microsoft's ways of ensuring that the licence key is only used on the 1 PC, although, technically, if you own the licence (product key) then you should have no problems if, say, your motherboard blew up and was un-replaceable due to the board no longer being available, then you shouldn't have a problem re-using the key, normally the key lives-and-dies with the PC, but as, technically it IS the same PC, just with a replacement MOBO etc. then you shouldn't have a problem, you may need to speak to a customer advisor at M\S and explain what has happened, most of the time they will issue you with a replacement installation ID to enter and get the system back up and running again.
I am a PC Repair Technician at Novatech, and I see this problem on almost a daily basis, remember, ALWAYS back up your important data on a regular basis, there are 2 types of computer user, those who back up their data on a regular basis, and those who WISh they HAD backed up their data regularly.
Hope this has been of some help to you.

Sally-Ann Dixon
Novatech PC Repair Technician

[stevemilw]

I would try un-installing all mobo chip set drivers etc before installing a new board. Maybe theres some sort of driver conflict as well. When the new mobo is installed, you can install the drivers on the cd.


No this won't work. As you will require completely different drivers / registry etc.

bens just proven me wrong. I should proberly read the post first lol

[bob36]

Q. I have just installed the motherboard, when i switch the PC on i receive the following message.



A. After changing a motherboard you must use a clean install of windows. If you dont you will have problems. Sometimes you will see the above message and other times the system will boot to windows but it will run very unstable.

Sometimes you can get away with a repair install however it is recommended wiping the hard drive and starting from scratch.

I'd like to add a third possibility to that, which happened to me when I changed motherboard from a DFI Lanparty DK 790FX M2RS to an ASUS M3A79-T only two weeks ago (All other components remained the same).

I expected to have to do all the reinstall stuff, but I just turned on, and it booted straight into Windows. I'm running Vista 64 bit, and no exaggeration, it literally booted as normal. A message boxed popped up saying it had detected new hardware and searched for drivers, which it installed itself. A little later, it said 'Windows has detected a hardware change' and asked to reactivate. I clicked 'Activate Now' and 5 seconds later it was done. Didn't have to retype my key or anything. I've not had any stability issues so far and I've been using it two weeks.

My copy of windows is perfectly genuine, in case your thinking I have a pirated copy. OEM Vista Home Premium 64 purchased from Novatech just over a year ago.

Anyone else had this happen before, or was I just very lucky?

[Danno]

i have seen it happen before but only a few times. both boards you used have the same chipset, this is probably why it worked out nice and easy for you.

[Dimebag]

It might be worth explaining why after changing a motherboard to a different model you might see the message in the opening post.

Quite simply when Windows attempts to load it will load device drivers for the relevant IDE/SATA/RAID controller to access the volume that Windows is installed on. Your system volume.

If you have installed Windows on a particular system with motherboard A, then switched to motherboard B, which happens to have a different controller on the southbridge* it is possible the drivers that windows references and loads to access the system volume are not compatible with the new controller.

If you happen to replace the motherboard with an identical model, same bios version, same chipset models on the board etc, then Windows should have no problem in booting. Same goes for changing the board with another completely different model / manufacturer that has an identical controller on the board. An example of this could be a pair of boards that both use the Intel storage matrix manager controller; the IHCR series of controllers are also generally quite good for backwards compatibility.

Removing mobo drivers before removing and installing a new board won't make any difference, as even if you did manage to strip out the drivers required to access the controller which holds the system volume, Windows would have less chance of booting at all as you'd still not be able to specify a driver for the new controller on boot up and Windows will halt at that point anyway with what used to be an "Inaccessible Boot Device" stop error.

The only thing you might be able to do is take an image of the machine and create an HAL independent WIM file and slipstream drivers in as needed with the WDS service of Windows 2008 server, or sysprep the image before slipstreaming drivers in with a Win PE environment. Both not terribly easy. Backup your data instead and be prepared to reinstall is the best option :)


*(the southbridge is the chipset which controls native disk access on motherboards)

[JoeJe]

Not 100% sure on this, but I THINK that each copy of Windows is tied to the mobo it was activated on, so you may have to buy a new licence of Windows when buying a new board, or ring up Microsoft and see what they can do for you. Again I'M NOT 100% SURE ON THIS!

[aaron333]

Not 100% sure on this, but I THINK that each copy of Windows is tied to the mobo it was activated on, so you may have to buy a new licence of Windows when buying a new board, or ring up Microsoft and see what they can do for you. Again I'M NOT 100% SURE ON THIS!
OEM's copies do this, retail versions do not.

[JoeJe]

OEM's copies do this, retail versions do not.

Hmm, so for loads of you like me who got a copy of Vista which is OEM licenced (Mine isn't branded to Asus or Dell or whatever...) then your pretty much stuffed if you wanna change motherboards...

[pilgrim72]

That's the price you pay for OEM being cheaper than Retail, I'm afraid. OEM is meant for system manufacturers really, after all.

Mind you, I always buy OEM, amd use it on rebuilds. I never use it on more than one PC, and it always stays with the same 'theroretical' PC, i.e. it may be rebuilt loads of times but it is still the same PC...

Kinda reminds me of that bit in Only Fools and Horses when Trigger says he got an award for using the same Council broom for 15 years or so, and when he's asked how it looks so good, he says it's had 7 new handles and 14 new heads!

:tongue:

Oh, by the way - watch that PSU you're buying mate - generic PSU's are not very good, and it's the one area of Novatech's products that I wouldn't touch with a sh*tty stick!

[FloorIT]

When i changed my Gigabyte for a Asus m2n-sli deluxe, everything worked fine afterwards exept the internet. I ended up wiping just to get internet back
Oh well, made my pc a bit quicker.

[Marcos]

I'm about to replace my entire system.MB RAM HDD GPU etc and its a pretty simple matter of backing up the data first and later accessing it from whichever OS you choose, after you have put the drive with the backup files in the new system. I always backup to a seperate drive and NOT a partition on the OS drive, to reduce the risk of complete data loss in the event of a major HDD failure. Nothing is foolproof, but a regular backup to other media is at least a step in the right direction :)

[Jivemaster Funk]

If you have a Retail copy then its possible to swap out motherboards without a reinstall of Windows, I've done it on several occasions.

This won't work for volume licence copies and probably not OEM though I havn't tried the latter. Also if Windows boots from SATA then it needs to be in Legacy or Compatibility mode and not AHCI and that includes RAID.

Then all you have to do is got to Device Manager and change the IDE controller to the standard one (remove any other drivers) and if you're switching from an Intel based processer to AMD then search and remove any Intelppm and IntelIDE drivers that may be present, and you're good to go.

To be on the safe side I also removed all motherboard and graphics card drivers, and shutdown and rebooted in Safe Mode, though apparently even this isn't essential.

Works for me. The install of Win Seven I'm using right now was swapped from a Gigabyte socket 775 mobo running a Q6600 to an Asus socket 1366 mobo running an i7 920 without any trouble. It just required a reactivation with MS, and it was done. I've swapped Retail copies of XP in the past again no trouble at all.

More information here: http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=793583 and here: http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2007/09/how-to-install-a-new-motherboard-without-reinstalling-windows.ars

As with any other major change that you make to your system, always make sure that you make adequate backups of important data before you do anything.