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Technical Help & Discussion => Self Building, Upgrading & General Hardware Help => Topic started by: jon996 on July 07, 2005, 18:54

Title: changing major components
Post by: jon996 on July 07, 2005, 18:54

hey all...

just bought a new mother board + cpu. i was wondering if my version of xp is going to go spack and think that its a different pc...?

is there a way round it?

jon<<

Title: changing major components
Post by: Simon on July 07, 2005, 20:16

If you haven't replaced any other major components within the last six months, I think you should be OK, Jon.  :)

Title: changing major components
Post by: davy51 on July 07, 2005, 20:55

it shouldnt ive switched the hard drive in this one to a Dell  and gateway and xp just loaded the new drivers for each board without a glitch

Title: changing major components
Post by: jon996 on July 07, 2005, 22:31

sweet cheers guys  :D

Title: changing major components
Post by: Sandra on July 08, 2005, 00:09

You were very lucky Davy, its never worked for me unless I have installed a regfix that Tony found out about on the hard drive before using it with a different mobo/cpu.
Even when I have applied the fix it has only worked for me about 2 out of 3 times for some reason  :(

I will see if I can find the relevant page on MS knowledge base that tells why its necessary and how to do it later  :)

Title: changing major components
Post by: chorleydave on July 08, 2005, 00:21

As someone who will never use XP and so have not even bothered to learn anything about it, I can't believe what I think I have just read.  Does this mean that if you have XP you can't even upgrade your PC?

I wonder if Longhorn (when it happens) will even allow you to switch the computer on?

Title: changing major components
Post by: Sandra on July 08, 2005, 00:42

Its a Microsh*t security feature to stop someone buying XP Dave and lending it to their mate to install on his pc.
You can do a clean install but if its less than 6 months you mave have problems activating your version again  :roll:

When you install XP it knows the major components such as make and model of mobo and cpu etc.
You can possibly get away with upgrading the cpu in that mobo and increasing the ram, gfx cards etc but you will be very lucky to get away with a drive with XP on working in another mobo, especially if its a different make.

Its the IDE controller drivers apparently that stops it but theres something on MS knowledge base that tells you how to add something to the registry which adds the bit necessary for the different IDE controller drivers to be installed so that it should work.

Title: changing major components
Post by: Sandra on July 08, 2005, 00:58

This is the article :

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314082

It explains why it usually wont work and explains how to create a Mergeide.reg file to add to the original XP installation before you move the hard drive or change the mobo  :)

The relevant part that you need is the MORE INFORMATION then the part you need is after the first text in grey starting with this line :

Quote

1. Copy the following information into Notepad, and then save the file on a 3.5-inch disk. Name the file Mergeide.reg, without the .txt file name extension.

That should solve your problem although with a newer mobo the list it shows of the PnP-IDs of natively supported IDE controllers in Windows XP may be out of date  :(

Title: changing major components
Post by: davy51 on July 08, 2005, 03:27

Thanks sandra
but like i say i didnt have any problems switching but next time ill have to remember this fix

xp just seemed to load the drivers for the board of course my xp is an old one too with a couple tweaks

Title: changing major components
Post by: jon996 on July 08, 2005, 08:48

cheers for all the replies ill try that sandra today..when my new mobo + cpu arrive :D :D