Reinstall Windows for new MOBO?

Question

I need to know before I buy the new motherboard if I will need to reinstall Windows heres my situation I recently had a computer that was great! It died to put it shortly now I have a new computer which sucks and I have all kinds of upgrades in it RAM, Hard drive (320 gig) gaming card ect but the mobo needs to be replaced and I want to get the same mobo as I had with the first computer if all I do is change the mobo will I need to reinstall Windows if everything is still on my hard drive? ( current mobo Intel mobo that i want to buy ASUS ( AMD) ) also If I do need to reinstall Windows can I use the Operating system that came with my HP computer?

Answer 1

Yes you have to reinstall windows since the drivers that are intalled in your current PC was for the support of your MOBO. Now, if you change your motherboard, you'll have to reinstall Windows to install services and drives for your motherboard and it I/O ports. But before planning to buy new MOBO you need to make sure that all of your hardware will fit with the new motherboard you are going to buy. Intel CPU wont fit on an AMD motherboard. Post the motherboard model you are going to buy and the current set up you have so everyone can help you better.

Answer 2

The answer to your question isn't definate in all situations but generally if you get a motherboard with the same chipset then you won't need to reinstall windows, but in some if it's just the same brand and isn't too much newer/older than the old motherboards chipset then you may not need to reinstall windows. In saying this if you're planning on changing motherboard i would strongly recommend reinstalling windows as even if it boots you still risk having issues such as poor performance, BSOD's and other unpredictable behaviour as a result of old drivers. If you have to reinstall to a different motherboard it is unlikely the hp cd will work but it depends in some cases this isn't true, although you may be able to get away with using your cd key with another windows cd (whether this is against licensing agreements i'm unsure if hp's licensing is the same as an oem copy there shouldn't be an issue using your hp key on an oem cd as you've kept hardware from the original pc so it's still considered the same machine) Imo best bet is to reinstall windows if you can if thats not an option aim at getting a motherboard with exactly the same chipset to maximise your chances or even better get the same motherboard



Edit:

There's not a 100% answer to your question unless u get the same mobo, i've had a couple of cases where i've replaced a motherboard thats a year or so old with a completely diff model and it's booted fine but to be safe i still always reinstall as generally the risk isn't worth it in my experisnce thou chipset is the limiting factor of whether or not also sometimes enabling/disabling acpi can help, and uninstalling your disk controllers from within windows are generally helpful to get the pc to boot into an old install.

Answer 3

in case you modify the motherboard you're able to could reinstall abode windows, replacing basically the CPU or memory would not make this mandatory. make sure that you recognize the abode windows product code before you try this, if it truly is not any longer written on it then use Belarc Adviser to verify what that is. Reinstalling each and everything is a chore yet upgrading from a Phenom to a center i7 makes it sensible.

Answer 4

No, you don't need to reinstall Windows. However, you should back up all your stuff before any hardware change. You will most likely get a continual reboot happening when you try to start after installing the new mobo. It is due to driver conflict (old drivers with the new) To overcome this without reinstalling, you can do a repair install of Windows. Otherwise, back up and reformat and then reinstall.

Answer 5

If you are replacing the motherboard with a different model of motherboard, you WILL need to re-install the OS. If you are swapping out a motherboard for the EXACT SAME motherboard, you probably don't have to.