Topic: PC upgrade advice

[JK]

Hi
I have a very old system(Athlon XP1500) which I wish to upgrade, using as many of my old components as possible. Some of the old components are quite new, new power supply.
I am not worried about having the latest items as all my previous PC cpu's were obsolete a couple of months after purchase. I can get a ECS KV2 Extreme motherboard cheaply from a friend. This has the old AGP, not PCI video which means I can use my expensive ATI card. My problem is that this board uses a AMD socket 939 processor, looking around it appears that they are thin on the ground, can you recommend a site that has these still for sale. The motherboard uses dual memory would that mean I will have to buy another 512M memory module?
I would also like to buy a new case with lots of room inside and cheap. Can you recommend one, not worried about blue light's and clear panels etc. My CD and DVD drives are white, so not into fancy colours.
The main question, when booting up with a new motherboard and processor, will windows think that all the cards:
PCI ADSL Modem
PCI Fax/Voice Modem
PCI Soundcard
are new devices? What will windows think of the new motherboard and cpu?
Kind regards.

[sam]

so are you thinking of using the machine with a hard drive with windows already installed on? If so I doubt that it will detect everything - if you do a fresh install then this will not be a problem.

[JK]

Hi Sam
Yes I am thinking of doing that. It worked ok last time I upgraded. Since then use back up software and have drive images?

[sam]

Since then use back up software and have drive images?

sorry not quite following... its been a hard week, so might be half asleep...  can you run that by me again

[JK]

Hi Sam
You said that if I changed my motherboard and processor, booting up from the old hard drive would not work.
I said that's how I did it last time. My problem is that I cannot do a clean install, except for windows.
Lost most of my programe software cd's, including paint shop pro, which I got from PC world when they made a mistake in the pricing and I took advantage. Last time I did an motherboard and processor upgrade it went ok.

[sam]

oh ok I see - maybe making an image of the disk before hand would be the safe option

[Sandra]

One of the main reasons that XP doesnt like the hard drive moving from one pc to another, or new mobo/cpu as you are doing, is that the IDE controller drivers arent installed so it cant detect the boot sector of your hard drive.
If the new mobo happens to use the same drivers then you are usually ok.
To have a better chance of it booting on a new setup is to install the extra IDE controller drivers that XP can use.
You can add a small registry file to the registry that includes the extra drivers.

Copy and paste all of the following text in the quoted part to a notepad :

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\primary_ide_channel]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="atapi"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\secondary_ide_channel]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="atapi"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\*pnp0600]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="atapi"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\*azt0502]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="atapi"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\gendisk]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="disk"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#cc_0101]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_0e11&dev_ae33]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1039&dev_0601]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase \pci#ven_1039&dev_5513]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1042&dev_1000]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_105a&dev_4d33]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1095&dev_0640]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1095&dev_0646]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1095&dev_0646&REV_05]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1095&dev_0646&REV_07]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1095&dev_0648]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1095&dev_0649]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1097&dev_0038]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_10ad&dev_0001]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_10ad&dev_0150]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_10b9&dev_5215]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_10b9&dev_5219]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_10b9&dev_5229]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="pciide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1106&dev_0571]
"Service"="pciide"
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_1222]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="intelide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_1230]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="intelide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2411]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="intelide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2421]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="intelide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_7010]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="intelide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_7111]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="intelide"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_7199]
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
"Service"="intelide"

;Add driver for Atapi (requires Atapi.sys in Drivers directory)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi]
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"Group"="SCSI miniport"
"Start"=dword:00000000
"Tag"=dword:00000019
"Type"=dword:00000001
"DisplayName"="Standard IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller"
"ImagePath"=hex(2):53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,44,00,\
  52,00,49,00,56,00,45,00,52,00,53,00,5c,00,61,00,74,00,61,00,70,00,69,00,2e,\
  00,73,00,79,00,73,00,00,00

;Add driver for intelide (requires intelide.sys in drivers directory)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\IntelIde]
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"Group"="System Bus Extender"
"Start"=dword:00000000
"Tag"=dword:00000004
"Type"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"=hex(2):53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,44,00,\
  52,00,49,00,56,00,45,00,52,00,53,00,5c,00,69,00,6e,00,74,00,65,00,6c,00,69,\
  00,64,00,65,00,2e,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,00,00


;Add driver for Pciide (requires Pciide.sys and Pciidex.sys in Drivers directory)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PCIIde]
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"Group"="System Bus Extender"
"Start"=dword:00000000
"Tag"=dword:00000003
"Type"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"=hex(2):53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,44,00,\
  52,00,49,00,56,00,45,00,52,00,53,00,5c,00,70,00,63,00,69,00,69,00,64,00,65,\
  00,2e,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,00,00
               

Save it as MERGEIDE.REG

Then double left click on it to add it to the registry, say yes when it asks if you want to add it to the registry.

Hopefully if you move it to another mobo it will boot ok.

Re the ram :
The motherboard supports dual memory but can also run as a single stick or two sticks of different size ram in single channel mode.
If you do have two identical sticks of ram then it will run in dual channel mode which is more efficient.

If you are struggling to get a 939 cpu then have a look on ebay as someone may have upgraded their mobo and cpu and have a cpu for sale.

[JK]

Thanks Sandra
My present motherboard uses VIA  VT8366A  north and VT8233  south chip sets
The new motherboard  uses VIA K8T800 north and VT8237 south . Am I correct in thinking that the south chip controls the IDE? and could there be a good chance that the old driver will pick up the hard drive?
Will your message with the reg entries stay up on the board in case I need them?
 

[gmax]

Whenever i change cpu and MB, i do a Windows XP Repair Install that way i don't loose my data,

A Repair Install will replace the system files with the files on the XP CD used for the Repair Install. It will leave your applications and settings intact, but Windows updates will need to be reapplied.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

[sam]

Will your message with the reg entries stay up on the board in case I need them?

yep it will, unless Clive goes on a manic prunning of the forums, which I doubt...

[Sandra]

It wont do any harm to add that reg file whether you really need it or not 

[JK]

Thanks Sandra.
Just come accross another small problem with the upgrade. The new motherboard has two power connectors, one 20 pin and one 4 pin, but they are on different sides of the board. My ATX power lead has both plugs
but the wires are in a sheaf and seperate about a couple of inches. Can you buy a 4 pin extender cable?
I only use the 20 pin one with my present board, the 4 pin one appears to be made to sit alongside, most motherboards seam to have one 24 pin socket for both plugs.

[Sandra]

Its a different plug for the mobo than the one that you have.
You will need to buy a new PSU, even though its an AMD board the pin is usually called a P4 connector (some Intel P4 cpus were the first to use it), you may be able to get a sepearte lead to use running from a molex plug but check with a pc shop.
The extra 4 pin connector that you have on the later mobo is for CPU power and will be arranged as 4 pins in a square block with a small latching part to lock into the socket, some now even use 8 pins.
The ones you have on the existing PSU are what they call the 20/24 plug and cant be used for the CPU power.
Some mobos use 20 pins and some later ones use 24, it sounds like your old mobo was the 20 pin type but the PSU was for either the 20 or 24 pin type.

[JK]

Thanks Sandra
Got one on Ebay, ATX P4 - MOLEX MOTHERBOARD POWER EXTENSION CABLE 35CM, for less than a £1.
I hope its correct

[JK]

Hi All
Just upgraded and all went ok. Only thing I had to do was re-install the adsl modem drivers.
Thanks for your help.