Upgrading to motherboard with diff.chipset

Goodmorning all,
I'm spending quite some time on system maintenance and I use ghost / drive image on a regular basis, just in case...
Installing a new motherboard should be a breeze especially when it's the same brand/chipset; you should be able to keep your system as-it-is.
When I tried to upgrade my motherboard MSI/KT133A chipset to a new one MSI/KT266A chipset my CD drives where grayed-out and I was not able to install new drivers at all !
The storemanager told me that upgrade to a differend chipset is impossible; You should install the whole system starting from scratch and losing all of your settings etc.
Is there anyone who knows of a solution ??
Thanks in advance
Adrian

 

Thanks, Steve for reply,
I will study this possability and let you know my findings.
Adrian

 

One thing that might work for you is booting into safe mode and removing most (if not all) of the entries in Device Manager. You'd have to reinstall drivers but that's about all.

BTW, the brand of the new mobo won't make a difference (although I really like MSI) and the chipset isn't the same. It's made by VIA but the 4-in-1 drivers install a little differently.

Is there any chnce that you connected your CD-ROM drives to RAID headers on the mobo?

And watch out for those store managers, especially at large chain stores. Think about it this way... do your managers at work (or those you've dealt with through work) have any idea what's going on?

 

Blackbird45, Thanks for reply,
If I understand well, not-recognising the CDrom drive is a via-chipset drivers issue. So; I could also copy the new drivers to a disk partition first; than replace the Mobo and install from there (hoping that after install the CDrom drive is back in place).
(the CDrom drive is not connected to RAID headers).
BTW; I AM my manager at work and give it all to have any idea what's going on. (that's why I'm glad with this BBS and the input of you people).
Thanks, Adrian

 

From my own personal experience I have to go with the Store Manager. It is the better idea.

We USED TO BE ABLE to take a HD with Window on it and put it on a different MOBO and have to work fairly well. That is no longer the case. I tried putting a HD from and older system onto this new MOBO and it WOULD NOT WORK

You can have two MOBO with the same chipset and they MAY NOT be the same. Especially if there was any time lapse between the build dates.

I have taken a HD from one MOBO to another ( older systems not requiring MOBO drivers ) and Windows did its thing but it was never right so I wound up redoing it anyway.

The VIA 4-in-1 drivers are installed AFTER Windows. Should be first thing done and must be done after every re-install. They are actually in Windows System and not on the MOMO. They are just drivers that make Windows work properly with the BIOS of the MOBO . ( IRQ, AGP, IDE controllers etc. ) that is why one system with the VIA drivers already in it * MAY NOT * work properly on a different Chipset. )

The good thing about the 4-in-1 drivers is that they are not Windows version or Chip set specific. ( at least the newest ones aren't ) It says they are for ALL VIA chipsets. I put them on my system with a Soyo/VIA mobo and they DID improve that system.

However, they may be Windows/MOBO combination specific.

I just finished setting up a new system with a MSI KT7 Turbo2, VIA KT133A & VT686B Chipsets, Duron 1.2. And only after I did it right did it work properly.

Lesson learned by me.

If you are going to build a new system start from scratch and do it right or you may be paying for it further down the road. We USED TO be able to mix-N-match. But no more.

BillyBob

 

Hi advos,

I think the best way for me to explain this is to tell you what happened to me. I upgraded an Intel BX chipset mobo to an i815. Did not completely read the manual. I should not have allowed Windows to restart the computer in the middle of set up (this was on a fresh install of Windows and the new mobo). When Windows restrated I had no CDrom function. The reason, Win98se was written before the chipset was produced and didn't have the necessary info to use all of the new hardware onl the mobo. In this instance the fix was easy enough. Just started over (after thoroughly reading the manual) and all went well.

Jump foward about 1 year. Boss has a mobo failure. I offered to replace. Purchased an i815 chipset mobo and new cpu to replace old BX chipset and cpu. Could not reformat, he would lose too much info. No problem, I've done this before. Well, Windows did not get all the info it needed off the mboo's CDrom and I ended up with the same problem I'd had with my own system. Several hours and quite a bit of hair later, I copied Xcopy to his boot disk and booted. Now I was able to copy the necessary portions of the mobo CDrom to his hard drive. Booted into Windows and clicked on the setup file which was now copied on the hard drive. Setup ran as it should and on reboot the CDrom worked.

HTH,
Tin

 

Thanks all for reply.
Sounds like taking a day off and starting from scratch is really the best solution. (shows also that it's important to not only make a ghost/drive image of your complete system but ALSO a regular backup of your data/settings).
Thanks again for the input.
Adrian