motherboard replacement

[JHZR2]

Hi,

As Ive posted a few times before, my dell precision workstation 620 doesnt work so well... It has sat for a few months now, and tonight I tried to power it up... and it booted 100% fine!

I restarted it to see what changed, and its back to broken... blah.

I called workstation support, and they troubleshooted with me for a good hour (not bad considering I bought the machine refurb in 2001). In the end they determined that it is either the power supply or the system board.

So, my question is this:

Ive bought a new PS and MB from ebay. The PS can be swapped and it isnt software related... but can I swap the motherboard in the machine without having to reinstall the OS, etc? I'm hoping so, even if the revisions of the MB are different, so long as the chipsets, etc are the same, all should be well, right?

I have LOVED this machine, but what Im going through is a prime example of why custom machines are SOOOOO much better.

Thanks,

JMH

 

[tom slick]

you might be able to. it all depends on what kind of luck you usually have.

 

[JHZR2]

just what I didnt want to hear... my luck usually is not luck at all but bad fortune.

This means Ill be replacing OSes or just going out and buying a new mac sooner than Id like...

JMH

 

[Bobert]

If the mobo is the same it should be ok. But often times murphy's law applies, so be prepared for a reinstall if necessary.

 

[tom slick]

you might not have to purchase anything extra, just reinstall the software you already have.

 

[kloppilt]

If the old and new motherboard are the same then I think there is more than 50% chance that you will not need a new install.

 

[The Critic]

I second what the others have said. If you are replacing just the motherboard, have some thermal paste on hand for the reinstallation of the CPU, as you cannot reuse the previous thermal pad. Artic Silver is a good product.

On the current computer I'm using, I installed a new motherboard/CPU/RAM without reinstalling the O/S, and that was 1-yr ago. I had installed a totally different motherboard CPU. Go figure.

 

[JeepZJ4.0]

Oops.... i've never put new thermal paste on the CPU when i changed mobos..... never had a problem but i might do it since i have some money to spend now.

 

[The Critic]

They warned explicitly to never reuse thermal paste...but I guess your example is that it is OKAY. Do you happen to have any pre mobo swap CPU Temps and after mobo swap CPU temps?

BTW, when I was building my Sempron 2800+, some "idiot" at my house threw away my brand-new, $7 5g tube of Artic Silver 5. I ended up having to use the funky Silicon thermal paste that came with the Artic-Cooling HSF. I'm still upset about it from 1-yr ago. I don't forget this kind of stuff.

 

[XS650]

quote:

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They warned explicitly to never reuse thermal paste...but I guess your example is that it is OKAY. Do you happen to have any pre mobo swap CPU Temps and after mobo swap CPU temps?

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Reusing a thermal pad is not a good thing to do. You risk overheating your CPU and at the least will cause it to run hotter which shortens it's life by some amount.

 

[ediamiam]

the o/s is typically loaded onto the harddrive, not mb. the only potential problems would be if devices like video are on the mb, and it is different from your prior config. after bootup, it would detect that you have a new video, or other device, and request an installation of new driver.

 

[JHZR2]

this system has a PIII xeon, which is a slotted processor, with a HUGE heatsink (passive) with heat pipes integrated and attached to the processor permanently... SO no thermal paste necessary!

Thanks for the replies!

JMH

 

[michaelc80]

quote:

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the o/s is typically loaded onto the harddrive, not mb. the only potential problems would be if devices like video are on the mb, and it is different from your prior config. after bootup, it would detect that you have a new video, or other device, and request an installation of new driver.

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True, but if you have Windows XP and change the motherboard to a different model you'll need to reactivate the product. So while it is loaded on the hard drive, the operating system is aware of all of the devices on the computer.

 

[JHZR2]

wow, really? That stinks... not because I want to pirate copies, but because its an annoyance and another thing to do.

I use Win2k, and hope to continue to do so... this wont be an issue, will it?

Thanks,

JMH

 

[acewiza]

Na, you're fine - just bolt that baby in and go.

Is the PS still in question?

I thought it was odd you mentioned it worked once after sitting awhile. Before replacing the board I'd go through it and re-connect, re-plug everything to see if refreshing all those connections clears up the problem.

 

[brianl703]

AMD does not recommend the use of thermal paste, by the way. They are very clear that using it will void the warranty on boxed AMD CPUs. They want you to use phase-change pads instead.

 

[XS650]

Brian, that's valid info on the warranty, but as far as cooling goes, overclockers get better results with good thermal paste. There's no reason to avoid using good thermal paste on an AMD except the warranty. As long as you apply the thermal paste corectly and install the heat sink correctly. There is some risk of screwing both of those operations up.

As long as the CPU doesn't overheat, and they don't know what you used, it's not a warranty problem.

 

[XS650]

quote:

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True, but if you have Windows XP and change the motherboard to a different model you'll need to reactivate the product. So while it is loaded on the hard drive, the operating system is aware of all of the devices on the computer.

---

Michael, I can sort of confirm that.

A couple of years ago I changed the motherboard on a computer and had to call up Micrososft and get Windoze XP reauthorized. OTOH, I just changed almost everything except the motherboard on another computer, CPU, hard drive, memory, DVD drive, and bios. When I did a clean reload of Windows XP, I didn't have to call MS for authorization. It must be recognizing something on the motherboard other than the bios.

 

[kenw]

IIRC, it used to register the processor serial number. that could be the trip. And we did it long before windows started doing it, for warranty purposes as stated previously. A lot of the stuff that we did windows picked up and took over (usually with draconian enforcement..)

but you can make as many problems adding more thermal compoound as you may fix. Thermal grease must be applied evenly, without entrapped air and not too thickly. too much is worse than not enough. If you are going to apply some, clean the old off first. Scraping with a flat edge is usually adequate, it does not need to be "cleaned" with solvents.

 

[michaelc80]

quote:

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XP tracks numerous hardware data points including CPU, HDs, BIOS, video and many others. It will allow minor changes like swapping out a HD, BIOS flash, etc. before invalidating itself. Sometimes two things at once, but never more than two.

Pretty clever little scheme by M$, IMHO. But it is fairly trival to call them and get it re-authorized. They rarely ask questions.

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Yup, at most it's a 2 minute phone call and no big deal. It does stop most of the pirates in their tracks as it should.

If you wait long enough (somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 days) you won't have to phone them anyway. I just finished migrating to a new 2003 server at home when my old one developed hardware issues (all completely different hardware). I had to reactivate it over the Internet (as expected) but didn't have to phone them. This was the third time in a couple years this copy had been reinstalled and I've never had to phone them-just activate it like it was a new copy.

I've done the same thing with Office XP-reinstall it on new hardware and it activates fine if it's been 90 days or more since it was last activated. Try to activate it within a few days and it will require a phone call.