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DesignerEagleEye
DesignerEagleEye asked in Computers & InternetHardwareDesktops · 1 decade ago

Does a new Mobo/CPU require a reinstall of Vista Basic?

With XP, I know that there was a problem where if you had a VIA chipset and changed to a Mobo that had an nVidia chipset, there was a problem where XP had to be reinstalled (using a repair install, not a full clean install). It had to do with a registry value being set wrong, where a BSOD would happen on bootup with a stop error regarding a hardware problem of some sort (I forget the exact stop error).

Anyway, I have Windows Vista Home Basic (32bit), and it's installed on an 80gb IDE drive. I'm adding a 200gb SATA drive to the system as my main storage drive), and upgrading the Mobo/CPU/RAM.

Here is the old Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

Here is the CPU I'm replacing: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

New Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

New CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...

I am leaving town tomorrow, and am expecting this package today... I'm wondering if I should wait to even do this upgrade until I get back, because I need the computer tomorrow before I leave, and I would hate to have to spend the entire day reinstalling everything due to the same sort of problem.

So does anyone know if Vista will boot right up with the new hardware, or will I have to repair install it?

Update:

The package just got here...

I'm not talking about re-validating... I have a genuine copy and all that, and I expect it to need to be re-validated due to the hardware signature change...

I'm talking about a reinstall from the DVD...

But oh well, I guess I'm going to go and upgrade it... I may be in for a long night though! :)

Update 2:

Well well... not only was a complete reinstall of Vista required, I had trouble with a dual-hard-drive configuration and the boot manager!

Installed a 120gig SATA drive from my server, installed vista fresh on it, and went from there.

I tried booting to the old drive first though, and it just went in to a never-ending boot cycle... so instead of repairing on an old slow 80gig IDE, I figured a fresh install on the 120gig SATA was best.

The only problem was the 80gig was recognized as the boot drive, so vista set it up as the boot drive, to boot the windows install on the 120gig! This meant I had to set the 80 gig up as the boot drive in the BIOS, but windows was really running from the 120gig. not happy! So I removed the 80 gig, repaired the bootmgr, and re-added the 80 gig, and now all is fine.

3 Answers

Relevance
  • Ehsan "Ph0X" Kia
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    That's actually a hard question.

    I'm pretty sure it does, because, Windows is very... If you know what I mean.

    If a single screw changes in your computer, it will tell you that your computer changed, and you need to revalidate your Genuine and stuff like that. So yea, if your hardware changes, it will know. For Vista though I'm not sure how it works.

  • GabeC7
    1 decade ago

    I know in XP it *sometimes* just gave you the re-activation warning and you just re-activated, no problem, but sometimes it just messed everything up. I'd expect vista to be very similar in that regard... I'd hope for the best, plan for the worst.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Reformat & Reinstall from the DVD.

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