Confused about installing new MB, Proc with XP (New MG)

[pauliez]

I have XP on my PC at the moment and have seen some information about HAL that states that an OEM version of XP will record all the hardware on a PC and when a MB and proc are replaced it will consider the new parts a new PC. If this is true for an OEM version of XP will the same thing happen to the version of XP that I have which is not an OEM version? Hope this makes sense.

[StuartR]

Pauliez,

HAL stands for Hardware Abstraction Layer, and is the bit of software that enables Windows to treat all PCs as though they were identical. I am pretty sure that there are just three different HALs for Windows XP, one for MultiProcessor support, one for Uniprocessor support on PCs that support ACPI and one for PCs that don't support ACPI, but I guess it might be possible that a Vendor could create their own HAL.

If you make changes to your PC that require a different HAL then you generally need to reinstall Windows from scratch, but I did find this article explaining how you can create an image that can use different HALs.

StuartR

Edited to add
If you replace your Motherboard and Processor then Windows may decide that this is a different PC, and require you to go through the activation process. This will probably involve a phone call to Microsoft to explain the situation. See this article for more information.

[pauliez]

Thanks StuarR. I'll let you know what happens when I make the change. I was hoping all I needed to do was replace the MB, Proc, RAM and video card. Turn on the PC and just install the drivers for the new MB, Video card and all would work without having to empty the HD and reinstall the OS.

[WyllyWylly]

I think there's a strong possibility that you will be able to do just that. A word of caution: you may need to repair the Master Boot Record (MBR) after installing the new motherboard, which will by extension install a new hard disk controller. If you get a blue screen reading INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE after swapping hardware, start the computer with the Windows XP installation disk, and select a Repair installation. There are plenty of resources on the repair process here in the Lounge if you prefer to do some studying first. This should correct about (wild guess here) 94.9% of all INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE messages.

[pauliez]

Thanks Mark. I am not ready to do the swap yet but will scream loudly if all goes GA GA!