swopping motherboard different make - reload system?

[Morne]

Hi all

Would you completely reload you system after swopping your motherboard for a different make? or just load the inf and driver files for new board?

[RErender]

It can work, I have been successful in the past by uninstalling all the system drivers, MB, IDE, USB etc, before shutting it down for the last time. You can't be sure that it is 100% correct though after installing the new board. I usually opt to reinstall Windows to be sure everything is right and because I love how quick a fresh install runs whithout all the old bits laying around and a bloated registry. If you have a lot of software installed and it would take forever to install it all back then it might be worth trying just the board swap first...

[gilpo]

Removing the IDE controllers from Device manager is a MUST. That's the only thing I've ever encountered during a mobo swap that will prevent you from booting into windows after the swap. You'll get a BSOD if you don't.

If my memory serves me, there is also a device under system devices that you can remove and it will drop just about every plug and play device. I think it might be the Plug and Play enumerator or something like that (or maybe the ACPI system). Anyway, when you remove it, windows will auto-remove everything else (even usb devices) so that when you reboot with the new mobo, it will re-detect all your new hardware.

[Morne]

the system worked fine after the swop, however I decided to use a reload as a "benchmark or test" to see how system performs or get any erros.