Make sure your backups are current.
- Best case scenario - you already have a very recent disk image
and backup set.
- Second best - you can put that drive in an external case or
another machine and make a completely current backup image.
Direct answers:
1) Should work fine. *
2) *shrug* Should work fine. *
3) Anything can be a problematic point.
4) Your backups are complete.
5) For the PS4S800D-E? No.
* You most likely will have to perform a repair installation of
Windows XP in order to get this working. More information to
follow.
Essentially your currently installed HAL(Hardware Abstraction
Layer) is about to get the shock of its life - as you are changing
all sorts of components on it. As far as it is concerned, it was
turned off with a certain set of components - now you are turning
it back on and all those components have changed. I'd liken it to
going to sleep one night and when you get up in the morning - you
are in a familar bed, but all the arrangements of everything in
your home is now different and - wait - that's not your couch..
Whose TV is that?!
In order to get around that and help Windows XP (the HAL
specifically) adjust to its new surroundings and basically
understand what happened and how to use all the new equipment - you
need to perform a repair installation.
A Windows XP repair installation should be fairly benign. It
should not harm anything - just fix certain files/regitry values,
etc. In other
words - your stuff (files, favorites, email, contacts,
applications, etc) should all remain intact and virtually untouched.
*HOWEVER* - don't take the chance. A computer's data has a great
advantage over many things in life in that the data can be
completely and totally duplicated - backed up - in case of a
disaster on the original copy. I suggest a full backup (better yet
- a full disk image) before you do anything... ANYTHING else.
Anyway - my suggestion would be to ensure you have a current backup
(and/or image) of the stuff on the hard disk drive in the system.
Follow that up with the motherboard swap. You can *try* to boot
into Windows XP if you desire - you might get lucky and the
differences will be something Windows XP is able to adjust to (it
does happen.) If a normal boot fails - try a Safe Mode boot. If
that makes it (Safe Mode boots fine) - try one more Normal Boot.
If it fails again (normal booting) then boot into Safe Mode and
properly shut the system down from there. If neither the Safe Mode
or Normal Mode boots work (or you had to boot into Safe Mode again
and properly shut down) - it is time to perform the Repair
Installation.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341
and/or
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
Know that you *may* (most likely) have to activate your license of
Windows XP after the repair installation. Worst case - you may
have to activate via telephone.
You should also verify that WIndows Updates are working properly
*and* are current. Sometimes a repair installation can cause
hiccups - especially if your Windows XP installaton CD is not the
same service pack level as your installed Windows XP system. You
may (most likely will) have to install the latest service pack and
possibly most (if not all) of the post service pack updates over.
Also - if you have IE7 (or later) installed - that will likely be
broken and you will have to install IE7 (or later) again in order
to get it working (Windows XP came with IE6 - therefore the repair
install will put it back on.)
If your windows Updates are not working...
Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\net stop wuauserv
--> Click OK.
Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\regsvr32 %SystemRoot%\system32\wups2.dll
--> Click OK.
Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\net start wuauserv
--> Click OK.
Download the latest version of the Windows Update agent from here
(x86):
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91237
... and save it to the root of your C:\ drive. After saving it to
the root of the C:\ drive, do the following:
Close all Internet Explorer Windows and other applications.
Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemDrive%\windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe /WUFORCE
--> Click OK.
(If asked, select "Run.) --> Click on NEXT --> Select "I agree" and
click on NEXT --> When it finishes installing, click on "Finish"...
Reboot.
Log on as an user with administrative rights and open Internet
Explorer and visit
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and select
to do a CUSTOM scan... (Every time you are about to click on
something while at these web pages - first press and hold down the
CTRL key while you click on it. You can release the CTRL key after
clicking each time.)
Once the scan is done, select just ONE of the high priority updates
(deselect any others) and install it.
Reboot again.
Come back - let us know if that worked.
(If it did work - try it again - selecting no more than 3-5 at a
time. The Optional Software updates are generally safe - although
I recommend against the Windows Search one. I would completely
avoid the Optional Hardware updates.)
Did I mention backups?
Worth mentioning again...
BACKUPS!
