hello i asked some1 to install some more memory into my computer at the weekend, unfortunately he bodged it a bit and ended up frying 1gb stick of ram and my motherboard! as my pc was a shop bought OEM, i am having a bit of difficulty tracking down an exact replacement board. i wanted to have some opinions on my best course of action, and difficulty levels etc 1 - track down exact motherboard and replace - this seems like the easiest option as i do not have a XP cd because its on a partition on the hard drive and means i wont loose any of my stuff and dont have to re-intall windows from scratch 2 - buy a new motherboard - reformat hard drive and re-intstall windows from scratch. both of these actions would have to be carried out by me (hardware newbie) as i no longer trust any1 else to go near my stuff and due to the fact that if i took it to a shop they might not like what they found on the hard drive also this goes on the assupmtion that all the remaining componants are in GWO and did not suffer from overloads etc any advice would be greatlty appreciated
you can just buy a new motherboard and repair windows if you like. you won't have to reformat the drive. what cpu socket do you have?
its a socket 478b ? http://support.packardbell.com/uk/m...spec_columbia5p&PibItemParent=PB13217801#show would it be difficult to activate windows again once repaired, as i said b4 its an oem so i have the xp sticker with the number but nothing else
I think the windows activation thing only comes up if you change out 4 pieces of hardware so you might not have to worry about that. as far as the motherboard is concerned do you have one in mind? or would you like me to reccommend you one? if so what is your price limit for one? ps anothe thing about the xp activation, the sticker you have will have a row of numbers on it in sets of 5. aslong as you have that you will be able to reactivate it easily if it even ask you to.
yes i have the sticker and the numbers, i take it i would have to d/l a copy of windows as i do not have the original cd? if you could reccomend one that would be great, please bear in mind that i am in the UK so one that is easily available over here would be great, as for budget, as long as it supports my current cpu (intel celeron d 345 3.06ghz) and is possibly a bit better than old one, i had a look on misco (misco.co.uk) and they had a couple of gigabyte ones, thanks for your replies
http://www.misco.co.uk/productinfor...GA-8IPE1000 Pro-G S478 5P LAN SND AGP 4DD.htm yea both of these gigabyte boards will work fine. and there really great boards to.
windows will run any cpu & board. could borrow a friend's copy as long as use your key number!! make certain new board has the back plate with it as your current backplate were your different ports stick thru might be different
might have a problem with that new board because of the dimensions of it is bigger than old board. old board Form Factor: µATX 24.4 x 23.6 cm Form Factor new board Form Factor: ATX 30.5 cm x 23 cm
no as it is taller because of having more pci slots. old board has 3 pci slots & new board has 5 pci slot so won't fit the case as it is micro atx not atx.
oh ok well make sure you get the gigabyte one that is micro atx will search for the link. or you can just get a new cheap case to go with your new motherboard. http://www.misco.co.uk/productinfor...E GA-8IG1000MK 3P AGP 4DDR AUDIO LAN MATX.htm heres the micro version but it's still 24 x 24 would that work ddp?
i think it will work but has to watch out as there might be a standoff by the ide2 connector on the left side of the oldboard. don't know if standoff is metal or plastic or not there
thanks for all your information, a lot of the motherboards that im looking at seem to be 800mhz fsb, as my celeron is only 533mhz would this still be compatible? also thanks for the advice to look for a micro atx board, with the luck i have been having recently, i would have probably bought one that didnt fit
i the one that techguy has linked to in his message is about in my price range, hopefully it will fit, my case is fairly big and it looks like there is a spare centimetre or two around the existing board so should be fine i should look on the bright side as in my pc should be more upgradeable with a new motherboard in it, although 4gb of memory seems a bit eccesive at the prices the are charging now £70 (UK) per gb, but im sure it will come down soon, thanks for your help, im sure i will post again soon, (when i have my pc in pieces!)
as im fitting a new motherboard would it be worth upgrading from xp home to xp professional? also would just doing a repair on the o/s - would that affect the computer stability or speed in any way?, i do a lot of ripping and encoding on it so wanted to keep it stable also my current motherboard is has ide connectors for the cd and hd, the new one is ata? would this make any difference in repairing xp, or reformatting the drive etc sorry to keep asking questions, i just want to make sure i dont have any more costly ££ errors!
