[BillyGman]

I have a desktop PC that I built myself ten years ago, and I believe the motherboard has seen it's best days, and is on it's way out. I have an ASUS motherboard brand new in the box that I never unpackaged which is identical to the one I built this PC with.

Here's my question: if I replace the motherboard only, (and maybe the CPU also) and I use the same memory, same video card, and same hard drive, would I have to reload the OS, (which happens to be Windows 10 pro 64bit)? I'm thinking that once I perform the motherboard swap, Windows 10 should still be intact with all my files, pics, and even favorite places still intact since I'll still have the same hard drive. What do you guys think???

 

[427L88]

The operating system is in the RAM memory stacks, aint it? Plug and play! PS, wait for a pro, I havent done this in years.

 

[Leadhead]

Everything will still be intact, as long as you don't do anything to your hard drive. The system may detect a hardware change, but I don't think it's anything that reinstalling drivers won't fix. What's causing you to think your MB is going out? I would make sure that your ram and cpu are seated properly before doing anything else.

P.S. I'm not a pro. Just have built several desktops.

 

[BillyGman]

The operating system is in the RAM memory stacks, aint it? Plug and play! PS, wait for a pro, I havent done this in years.

AFAIK the OS is in the hard drives.

Everything will still be intact, as long as you don't do anything to your hard drive. The system may detect a hardware change, but I don't think it's anything that reinstalling drivers won't fix. What's causing you to think your MB is going out? I would make sure that your ram and cpu are seated properly before doing anything else.

P.S. I'm not a pro. Just have built several desktops.

The desktop keeps on giving me a locking up and giving me a blue screen. I then have to shut it down and restart it. This has been happening on the average of twice per week at least. Another guy I know who rebuilds/builds desktops once in awhile says that's a sign that the motherboard is on it's way out. Now here's where it gets a little complicated: When I built this PC ten years ago, I built it with twelve hard 15,000 RPM 3.5" hard drives, and put them in a Raid 0 array. Now ordinarily, I would say because I'm replacing the motherboard, I will lose the RAID array, and therefore will also have to reload the OS. However, because these are SAS hard drives, and there are 12 of them in the array, I have an ADAPTEC RAID controller model 51245 miniature circuit board plugged into the main motherboard, and it's the Adaptec board that contains the RAID 0 array. And the Adaptec company doesn't even make this 51245 RAID controller anymore.

Now that I'm thinking of it, it might also be the Adaptec circuit board that is on it's way out. I definitely made things more complicated than they had to be when I built this desktop a decade ago. I'm gonna end up getting rid of the 12 hard drives and replacing them with one solid state HD, since I don't even need that much storage space anyway, and 12 hard drives was overkill. I also didn't need to use 15K rpm SAS hard drives either. But when I make that switch, I'll be losing all my stored pics as well as my long list of favorite places in the OS. So I've been puting it off

 

[lucifershammer]

Memory failure is your most likely culprit. Download and run an exhaustive memory test utility.

90% of the failures we diagnose and repair with your symptoms are memory failures. That doesn’t mean it isn’t your motherboard, but the percentages say you have a DIMM failing.

 

[BillyGman]

Memory failure is your most likely culprit. Download and run an exhaustive memory test utility.

90% of the failures we diagnose and repair with your symptoms are memory failures. That doesn’t mean it isn’t your motherboard, but the percentages say you have a DIMM failing.

OK thanks. I'll give it a try.

 

[billdini]

Tons of things have changed in 10 years. Much faster USB 3.2, Bluetooth, faster LAN, new DDR4 memory and onboard M.2 not to mention WIFI, awesome onboard sound and even graphics. I would buy a new MB and upgrade the CPU and M.2 or faster DDR 4 so you can use it for another 10 years. You don’t know when your MB chipset will no longer be supported

 

[BillyGman]

Tons of things have changed in 10 years. Much faster USB 3.2, Bluetooth, faster LAN, new DDR4 memory and onboard M.2 not to mention WIFI, awesome onboard sound and even graphics. I would buy a new MB and upgrade the CPU and M.2 or faster DDR 4 so you can use it for another 10 years. You don’t know when your MB chipset will no longer be supported

Yeah I hear ya man....but I'm too busy spending $$ on my money pit street/strip Chevelle to have any left over to start spending on my PC

 

[billdini]

Yeah I hear ya man....but I'm too busy spending $$ on my money pit street/strip Chevelle to have any left over to start spending on my PC

A new MB with everything I mentioned with M.2 memory is under $200 but then you have a new CPU to buy. Back to your original question if the old and stored MB's are identical down to the revision level it should be plug and play but if any hardware like sound or video, LAN etc. changed a OS reload will be required. Revision level must be the same. You will also be required to use the same CPU without a reload and by itself that isn't a big chore anymore.

 

[Leadhead]

First thing I would do if I were you would be to unseat and reseat the RAM sticks. I had problems similar to yours a couple years ago, and that did the trick.

 

[BillyGman]

First thing I would do if I were you would be to unseat and reseat the RAM sticks. I had problems similar to yours a couple years ago, and that did the trick.

OK. Just like with cars, the best thing is to try the simple things first. So I'll proceed per your suggestion.

 

[BillyGman]

A new MB with everything I mentioned with M.2 memory is under $200 but then you have a new CPU to buy. Back to your original question if the old and stored MB's are identical down to the revision level it should be plug and play but if any hardware like sound or video, LAN etc. changed a OS reload will be required. Revision level must be the same. You will also be required to use the same CPU without a reload and by itself that isn't a big chore anymore.

Yep, to my knowledge the CPU would be the most expensive item. Thank you for the explanation. Maybe I'll luck out and a reseat of the mem sticks will be the remedy.

 

[nashville beth]

.

 

[pannetron]

If you encrypted any of your files, BE SURE to un-encrypt them before changing the motherboard! The Micro$loth encryption logic uses some hardware IDs to generate the encryption key and different hardware will almost certainly have different IDs -- ask me how I know.

 

[billdini]

Yep, to my knowledge the CPU would be the most expensive item. Thank you for the explanation. Maybe I'll luck out and a reseat of the mem sticks will be the remedy.

Billy that is a very common and good fix with a reseat!