Replace motherboard

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Guest

Following my attempt to flash the BIOS on my MSI K9N4 SLI-F board I now have
an unusable computer so I presume I destroyed the BIOS as all I get is a
black screen.

I ordered a replacement but was sent a K9N SLI board by mistake. My
supplier is, unusually, slow in responding to my request to put the matter
right so I am wondering if I could just install the new board, and what
problems I would encounter.

I currently have 2 IDE hard drives, one with Vista, and one SATA drive with
an IDE DVD writer which I am happy to replace with a SATA DVD writer as the
new board only has 1 IDE port.

Although the K9N is of a slightly different spec to the K9N4, it has nVidia
570 chipset instead of nVidia 500, it is at least on the list of Vista
Premium ready boards, (assuming it is a K9N SLI-2F board), whereas the K9N4
is not even on the Vista Basic ready list.

As my old, destroyed, board had some problem with Vista not loading network
drivers whether I installed the latest nVidia or MS drivers I would hope that
the new board would solve some problems.

Can anyone tell me if I am likely to encounter any problems by using the
board I have been sent rather than getting an exact replacement.

Thanks, in anticipation.
 
Viv:
You will have to boot from the Vista DVD and do a repair install.
That way Vista will re-detect all the new hardware and install the proper
drivers.
I have had quite different results (good and bad) using this procedure on
previous OS's (never did it on Vista).
If it fails you will have to do a clean install.
In any event, clean or repair, you will surely end up in the dreaded
activation issue.
Vista will ask for activation.
If you have important data on your drive I would first suggest installing it
temporarily on another PC (as a data disk) and backup all your precious stuff
on CD or DVD or whatever backup media you like.

Carlos
 
Viv said:
Following my attempt to flash the BIOS on my MSI K9N4 SLI-F board I now
have
an unusable computer so I presume I destroyed the BIOS as all I get is a
black screen.

I ordered a replacement but was sent a K9N SLI board by mistake. My
supplier is, unusually, slow in responding to my request to put the matter
right so I am wondering if I could just install the new board, and what
problems I would encounter.

I currently have 2 IDE hard drives, one with Vista, and one SATA drive
with
an IDE DVD writer which I am happy to replace with a SATA DVD writer as
the
new board only has 1 IDE port.

Although the K9N is of a slightly different spec to the K9N4, it has
nVidia
570 chipset instead of nVidia 500, it is at least on the list of Vista
Premium ready boards, (assuming it is a K9N SLI-2F board), whereas the
K9N4
is not even on the Vista Basic ready list.

As my old, destroyed, board had some problem with Vista not loading
network
drivers whether I installed the latest nVidia or MS drivers I would hope
that
the new board would solve some problems.

Can anyone tell me if I am likely to encounter any problems by using the
board I have been sent rather than getting an exact replacement.

Thanks, in anticipation.
Click to expand...

I second what Carlos told you, and I'll add some potential good news. I have
Vista on an Asus M2N-E, which also uses the 570 chipset. The Vista
installation was completely effortless and trouble free. Vista found
everything, installed all needed drivers automatically and everything is
working just great. I hope you have the same experience :)
 
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