Old Geezer wrote:

> I am planning on putting a new motherboard in this Windows XP system as the
> present one has various problems. I built this system a year and a half ago
> with an OEM version of WinXP, purchased with a new hard drive. So as I
> understand the EULA, the hard drive is the part that this software is "tied"
> to. That's fine with me, since it's just the motherboard that I want to
> change anyway.
>
> I presume this will be enough of a change to mean re-activating Windows?
>
> There have been countless updates and upgrades to Windows itself and various
> other software (ISP, antivirus, security, etc.) on the system over that year
> and a half, and I hate to do all that all over again, so I am wondering if
> there's any reason I can't just change the motherboard and keep the existing
> hard drive as is, rather than doing a reinstall. The present board has a VIA
> chipset and the new one will also, so I should think just a motherboard
> drivers update would be all that's necessary, if even that.
>
> Am I missing anything here? (It happens. :-) )
>
> O.G.

You'll need to do a repair install of XP. Don't try to boot the system
first just to see if it works. Run the repair install first.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

--
Rock
MS MVP Windows - Shell/User