Changing MSI Motherboard o/s Question

[steveblues]

Hi, I am new to this upgrading of PC's. I am currently upgrading an old TINY PC for my parents. The TINY pc is a P3 with a MS6178 ver1.1 motherboard. It is running windows 98SE. I have bought a P4 MSI motherboard + a 1.7GHz processor to replace this (i realise I have to change the PSU as well). I only have the windows 98se floppy and CD restore discs. My qusetion really is can I just remove the old motherboard and fit the new one together with the old hard drive that has the o/s on it? Any help would be appreciated. Can anyone point me in the direction of How To guides for changing/upgrading motherboards.

[david eaton]

Yes, you can chenge the motherboard and processor.
However, the hard drive will not boot as the Windows installation is set up for the old hardware.
Even worse, the restore discs will not do for a reinstall, as they are tied to the original hardware! The best bet is to look around for a full copy of Win98 SE.

[steveblues]

Yes, you can chenge the motherboard and processor.
However, the hard drive will not boot as the Windows installation is set up for the old hardware.
Even worse, the restore discs will not do for a reinstall, as they are tied to the original hardware! The best bet is to look around for a full copy of Win98 SE.If I can get a full copy is it simply a case of turning on the PC once the new motherboard is in place and inserting the full copy CD and going through re installation?

[mjc]

Actually with 98 there are several ways of 'resetting' it so that you can change motherboards without too much fuss...one which is to boot into Safe Mode, then remove everything in Device Manager...then power down, make the switches and then boot afterwards. Have the drivers ready and Windows should instsall hardware as if it were the first reboot after an install.