Advice please re: Desktop Motherboard replacement.

[bri160356]

Hi,
My Desktop PC needs a replacement motherboard due to heat-damage behind the Processor socket; the board is noticeably ‘bowed’ and distorted. The processor itself (Pentium P4 3Ghz) is working fine; as is the rest of the machine. The op.sys (Win XP home edition) was already pre-loaded loaded onto the desktop when it arrived new and has not been re-loaded since. I have the original ‘Product Recovery CD-Rom’ and the original ‘product key/sticker number’.
I have purchased a second-hand replacement motherboard of the same spec/manufacturer as the original. When the replacement motherboard board has been fitted and the other components transferred (P4, RAM etc) could any of you clever people tell me what procedure I need to follow to get the Desktop back up and running without compromising the data on my hard-drive. There are programmes on my drive that cannot be recovered.
Thanks & regards in anticipation.

 

[MarkE19]

If the motherboard is an exact like for like swap then there is a good chance that all you need to do is power up the PC and it will boot to XP with no issues. If however the motherboard has a different chip set then there is only a slim chance of getting it to work and you are likely to need to reinstall Windows.

One thing to note is that a supplied copy of XP with a PC is very likely (almost guarenteed) to be an OEM copy. This means that when a motherboard is replaced you also need to buy a new copy of Windows as the license it tied to the original motherboard. As above though, if the motherboard is exactly the same you are likely to have no issues, but if not then you may not be able to reactivate your copy of XP.

As for the programs on the HDD that can not be recovered - you could try installing Magical Jelly Bean Key Finder before you start to get the license keys for the software. Then see if you can find a download for the software and just activate it with the original license key.

Good luck,
Mark.