motherboard transplant advice...

[whyrichard]

Hey guys,

so tomorrow i'll be installing my first motherboard, into my first and last windows pc i'll ever own. (i bought it a a powerworkhorse for using cad/cam softwares)


... and i know a mac forum is not the best place for me to ask this, but windows forums are aweful....



... so what should i keep in mind with a motherboard transfer? it is not the exact same motherboard, the old one is an asus A8SN and the new one is an MSI Neo4F.

questions i have:

-if i can't find a place for something to plug in, do i need to worry about it? things like extra ports i never use, etc...

-i have my hard drives configured in a raid-0 configuration. when i hook up my hard drives, do they need to be in a certain order?

-what precautions do i need to make? grounding? how do i ground myself?

-do i need to get new thermal paste for the processor? if the old stuff is still wet can i just use that? (i'm lazy sometimes) it is an athlog x2 4800...

-do i need to do anything on the software side? i heard, maybe new sound drivers, anything else? that is easy right??




THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE with a non-mac related question...



-r.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Hey guys,

so tomorrow i'll be installing my first motherboard, into my first and last windows pc i'll ever own.

... so what should i keep in mind with a motherboard transfer? it is not the exact same motherboard, the old one is an asus A8SN and the new one is an MSI Neo4F.

-if i can't find a place for something to plug in, do i need to worry about it? things like extra ports i never use, etc...

Depends entirely what it is. Also, double check that your power supply has compatible connectors with the MSI board before you start.

-i have my hard drives configured in a raid-0 configuration. when i hook up my hard drives, do they need to be in a certain order?

Potential for trouble here... back up the drives first ont non-RAID media, so you can rebuild. I'll let someone else tackle the details, but yeah, the drives need to match how they were originally set up, and moving motherboards may not be doable.

-what precautions do i need to make? grounding? how do i ground myself?

Get a $3 grounding strap at the same time as you get your new thermal paste

-do i need to get new thermal paste for the processor? if the old stuff is still wet can i just use that? (i'm lazy sometimes) it is an athlog x2 4800...

Never reuse thermal paste. Clean it off with alcohol and reapply fresh, a minimal amount.

-do i need to do anything on the software side? i heard, maybe new sound drivers, anything else? that is easy right??

Almost certainly, you will need new drivers, up to date for this particular motherboard - this encludes whatever is on the board - sound, ethernet, firewire, usb, modem, whatever. Get all of the driver updates downloaded and onto a CD before you start work. May also want to create a BART boot disk first before you start.

You may also have to re-authorize Windows.

 

[whyrichard]

progress, but desperation looms...

Alright.... (Thanks so much for your help!!!!)

making progress... motherboard in and computer running (!)

did the raid setup, i believe, to a raid 0 striped, as before, and it says "detecting array, healthy..." etc, but then i get

"we apologize for the inconvenience, but windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this..."

-start in safe mode
-start in safe mode with networking
-start in safe mode with command prompt
-start with last known good vonfiguration...
-start windows normally"


--any option leads me to the same thing....

the only things i know how to do is pressing f10 to get into raid setup utility, in it i see boot/yes, id 1, health, nvidia, stripe, 1138g... (do i need to wipe the hd at this point? rather not!, seems like raid 0 config is okay...?!)

or by pressing to get into "phoenix, awarebios cmos setup utility", here i've been before only to enable sata 1/sata 2 and raid, (not ide primary master/slave???)

there is a floppy that came with the motherboard, it is labeled "G72-MNPR008-j10 nvidia ck 804 sata raid driver for win2k/xp"
when i put it in the machine i only get "remove disks or other media, press any key to restart", and then i get back to the screen that says "safe mode, safe mode with networking, last known good configuration...."



WHAT DO I DO?!


thank you thank you thank you


r.

 

[simie]

The floppy disk contains the raid drivers, you use this when installing Windows XP. The Windows XP Installation asks you to press F6 to load the SCSI or Raid controller drivers, this allows you to install the OS on the Raid. It can only load these drivers up from floppy disk.

Then further on whilst XP is detecting hardware, it generally asks for the raid drivers disk to be inserted again for XP to use.

You can load the drivers, if the raid controller is not installed after Windows is loaded. Again the drivers are on the floppy disk.

 

[whyrichard]

do i need to install the raid drivers from the floppy if it detectt "healthy raid array"?

if i install the drivers off of the floppy's will i delete the information i have on the raid array?

i have been following these instructions:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/replace_motherboard.htm

and when i get to figure 3, screen asking which disk i should install on, i get "unknown disk, unknown disk, unknown disk, unknown disk" instead of my raid array.


......thank you so much for the help!


r.

 

[whyrichard]

Hello!


now i have begun installing windows, and during "Preparing installation" phase, it says "Files needed" some files on NVIDIA nforce networking controller driver disk 1 are needed

insert nvidia nforce networking controller driver disk 1 into the drive selected below, and then click ok.


i insall the dik that came with the motherboard, i go through all of the disks that came with my computer and no such nvidia nforce networking controller disk....

what do i do? very frustrated! so close!


r.

 

[simie]

I would personally go into the bios and disable the Network interface whilst installing Windows.

When the installation is complete then you can re-enble them and install the drivers from within Windows