There is an easy way to proceed with an upgrade such as this but the preparation has to be doee while the original system is still working. The following is copied from a post by BuzzStPoint in answer to a similar question yesterday. "pop in your XP cd.. go to this folder: support\tools\deploy.cab Make a new folder in your c:\ called Sysprep (Notice the capital in the sysprep) Extract the files from deploy.cab to c:\Sysprep Go to your new folder. Double click sysprep.exe make sure you have the "Shutdown" selected in the dropdown. Click the "reseal" button. NOW Dont do a darn thing. Let the computer shut down. This may take a few minutes.. Swap over your Motherboard and CPU. Start the system and you'll see the computer will start to boot into the new user mode. Have your cd key ready. now your all set. At the user section add a new user.. Not the same user name as you had before.. Enter the new user then log out.. Log into your old user name and you can now safly delete the "new" user you had to create." This is the way Msoft designed XP for those occasions when it might be necessary to migrate a System drive into a new machine, and for all practical purposes, upgrading the motherboard/CPU is the same thing. Might be too late for you this time but worth remembering next time you do an upgrade. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and his wife will never forgive you.

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I tried to get a trhead started about this subject in here right before Xmas because Of the issues that were developing on these problems of swapping boards to the PCIx platform but it got pulled for probably being in the wrong forum or just because I posted it :P Now we are having to deal with it on a more guess work than anything else at a right now time instead of being able to hash it out a little before hand. I read BuzzStPoint's posting and knew about it for changing boards with plain AGP/PCI slots and all. But didn't even cross my mind about PCIx exchange from the old type boards. M$ or someone will probably send out a patch to direct the system to look for the PCIx graphics if can't be found elsewhere. In the mean time it is your guess as well as mine IN THE MATTERS OF STYLE, swim with the current; in matters of principle, STAND LIKE A ROCK

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You should try a repair install of XP. Then, at startup it will ask for your serial...you should probably activate XP over the phone because you may have run out of licences. XP will see your comp as a different computer all together. They are pretty understanding of hardware upgrades, they'll make sure you're working again. -Cyclone Real Friends Stab You in the Front

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Maybe I should apologize... I was trying to be short and sweet and left out some details. This was not a voluntary upgrade. The 865 system was blowing ICH5r chips... yes plural, it happened more than once. The system is under warranty, so the company has sent us a new system. It is was cheaper for them to go with the 915 mb. We didn't complain... upgrade for nothing except our agravation. We had kept the HD from the 865 machine and planned on just swapping it in. We had done this previously with other 865s and we got the request for reactivation, just like you mention. This time we had the following changes: 865 was now 915, AGP video was now PCX x16, and we temporarily did not had an optical drive hooked up (cabling issues). The drive we are trying to swap in is a Seagate ST312... Installed our 80 pin cable on mb and ran to HD, which has been installed in proper area in case. Powered up system... no beeps... all looks good.. then a screen appears... (wht letters, blk background) - "We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this. If your computer stopped responding, restarted unexpectedly, or was automatically shut down to protect your files and folders, choose Last Known Good Configuration to revert to the most recent settings that worked. If a previous startup attempt was interrupted due to a power failure or because the Power or Reset button was pressed, or if you aren't sure what caused the problem, choose Start Windows Normally. Safe Mode Safe Mode with Networking Safe Mode with Command Prompt Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked) Start Windows Normally Use the up and down arrow keys to move the highlight to your choice. Seconds until Windows starts: 19 --------------- We have tried all of the above options (safe mode, etc. )and the same thing occurs: Drivers begin loading, scrolling up the page (like the old autoexec.bat file)... Windows XP screen appears then immediately flashes a screen that is basically unreadable because it is replace by the "Intel inside" screen and then the above wht on blk screen message reappears. This scenario will repeat, looping indefinitely. The screen that flashes is wht letters on blue (BSOD blue) and says something about "Windows had detected a problem and is shutting down to prevent damage to your computer.... Technical Info..." The drivers that load all have the same root of multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows\system32\drivers\blahblahblah.sys The drivers are all .sys files except: ntoskrnl.exe hal.dll KDcom.dll \config\system c_1252.nls c_437.nls l_intl.nls \fonts\vgaoem.fon \inf\biosinfo.inf \appPatch\drvmain.sdb The last driver that attempts to load is agp440.sys We have taken the HD out of the new system and have access to it with a USB HD enclosure. So, theoretically, we could make the \Sysprep folder, populate with the deploy.cab files. BUT... I don't know if running the sysprep.exe is safe. The system the USB enclosure is running off of is the wife's W2000 laptop. Can sysprep be run across platforms? And can you designate the drive you wish to be "shutdown" and "reseal"? If M$ has a plan for voluntary migration, seems like they should have one for the world we live in... Emergencies and Disasters.

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actually it's a pretty simple process if it's done right. Move HDD to an all new system or change MOBO/CPU in existing System. 1=After the hardware is changed Use "Repair Install" procedure, be sure the system is booting from the cd/rom drive and the full insatll OS/CD is in the drive.Do not allow the computer to boot from the HDD. 2=After the repair the system may freeze at or before the desktop, just manually re-boot. 3=Install MOBO drivers, and other drivers you may need.. 4=You may have to clean up the Device manager and User Accounts 5=You will need the product key. 5=You will need to re-activate. Repair Install NOTE: A Repair Install will replace the system files with the files on the XP CD that is used for the Repair Install. It will leave your applications and settings intact, but Windows updates will need to be reapplied. NOTE: Factory supplied Restore Disks will not work to do a Repair Install. NOTE: If possible, Before doing the rapair install copy the wpa.dbl file to a floppy and after the repair copy/paste the file to the C:\windows\system32 folder, This will save doing a re-activation of the OS. 1=Set BIOS to boot from the CD/ROM. 2=If the prompt to "Press any key to boot from CD/ROM appears (it should not on a repair Install)(Do so now as you have only seconds).(Ignore if prompt appears on any reboot) 3=Windows setup, Loads files. 4=You will see Windows XP home or Pro setup. 5=To setup windows press "Enter." 6=Press F8 to accept license. 7=To repair selected Windows Installation press "R." 8=Copies files to the Hard drive. 9=Computer will re-boot--Do not use the "press any key" command at the prompt. 10=follow the on-screen instructions.. 11=Enter the "product Key" (Note- It is possible to enter a different product key from the one that was used to install the OS you are repairing but you will run into Licensing problems with MS. 12=The computer may re-boot again during the install, but do not use "the press any key" command at the prompt or you get to do it all over again. 13=Follow on screen instructions.

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