motherboard swap

[Gilthanaz]

My system will not post (Tyan Trinity 400, Win98SE). I have another motherboard, different brand and CPU. Can I swap motherboards? Will the OS (Win98) get messed up? Is there a way to do this

Thanks

[saladbarkid]

Win98 will probably get screwed up by another MB. Sometimes it works other times it BSODs itself into oblivion. Have you tried resetting the CMOS?

[large_nostril]

When you swap boards, 99% of the time, the OS doesn't have a clue what's going on and you need to reinstall. If you want, we can troubleshoot the system that's not booting and see if we can fix the problem.

[elroy]

I've had some luck doing this with Win9x systems.
Go to your device manager and delete most everything under "system devices" than delete your display adapter. Now shut down and install new board and boot up. When it re-starts it will detect everything that you removed. You may wind up with some duplicate entries in the device manager, just delete the extra ones. Note that some entries are supposed to be there more than once.

[LeftCoast]

Even if it could be done, WIN98 is unstable enough when freshly installed on a new HDD; I'd certainly reinstall it.

How is your HDD set up? Does it have just one big C drive, or is it split up into a C and D drive? If the second way,your risk is limited only to the contents on the C, as when you reinstall the OS the stuff on D will still be there.

Another option is to hook the entire HDD (slave it) to another working computer and back up all the files you want to save, then reinstall WIN98.

[LeftCoast]

Elroy, his old mobo won't POST.

[John Prophet]

Elroy is pretty close there.

here is what you need to do.

put in the new motherboard

boot to SAFE MODE. No need to even bother trying to boot to regular windows yet.

in SAFE MODE run regedit

go in and delete the "hkey local machine/enum" folder...just delete the whole folder.


this will delete all the hardware entries....pretty much the same as what Elroy suggested as doing in the device manager except much quicker, lol...(I have done it both ways..I did it by the device manager like once, lol...now I just delete the hkeylocal machine/enum folder.)

now reboot and it will start detecting the new hardware. I think it first pops up saying the display settings are incorrect and asks if you want to run the hardware wizard..so you do.
I think it is best to NOT reboot everytime it asks you too.....just keep letting it detect all the hardware it can until you have to reboot or until it finishes.


When it finishes there will be some duplicate entries in the device manager....usually keyboard/mouse, dma controller,,,a few other things. Here is what you need to do to fix this.....go down the list.... for each of the duplicates there will be one that looks "normal" and there will be one with a question mark. You need to delete BOTH of them....the easiest way is to delete the "normal" one first...then delete the one with the question mark. (otherwise after you delete the one with the ? mark and you come back down the list you might forget which exact one the "normal" one was...was it THIS dma controller or THAT one etc.)

then reboot again and let it detect those things again. and you should be straight.

uhh...when deleting the doubled entries delete the mouse LAST, lol, hehe...makes it a little easier.

of course there might be some things in the dev manager with question marks that just need drivers...so of course dont delete those unless they are duplicates


dont forget to install the new motherboard/ide/video drivers etc.


Good luck, JP

[saladbarkid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Prophet

Elroy is pretty close there.

here is what you need to do.

put in the new motherboard

boot to SAFE MODE. No need to even bother trying to boot to regular windows yet.

Sometimes, though you can't even boot into safe mode yet. It will BSOD as soon as it attempts to load any kind of Windows. I'ts happenned to me before.

[Gilthanaz]

Thanks everyone for the responses. This is my wife's computer and its a real hassle trying to locate, copy and reinstall all her applications and data. I think I'll try the Safe Mode route.

Another question. If I could obtain the same motherboard on Ebay, can I just stick in iwithout removing old drivers.

[LeftCoast]

Sure. You should have no problems in that case.