I won't add to hardware things, Russ did an excellent job there, but you may
want to consider slip-streaming your OEM CD with SP2. That could help things
along as you would be current and may prevent Windows from choking on
something it may need from SP2 that isn't on your original disk. However I
have had Windows demand the original disk over a slip-streamed disk for
whatever reason in some circumstances.

Brad Loomis
San Miguel, CA

-----Original Message-----

Paul,

If done very carefully, you may be able to upgrade easier than you think. I
have upgraded computers several times, and Win 2K/XP does a pretty good job
of detecting and re-configuring the new hardware. HOWEVER, where the process
can go terribly wrong is the one hardware piece it simply cannot deal with,
and that is the disk controller. It needs to load the disk controller driver
and switch from the basic low level disk access very early on in the boot
process. If the proper disk driver is not loaded, then you get the infamous
"Inaccessible boot device" stop code. This is the one thing that usually is
different between motherboards too.


Russ Poffenberger
[log in to unmask]

-----Original Message-----



Greetings list--

I will (in the not too distant future) be replacing a motherboard, processor
and RAM in a Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2 computer. The change will be from
a Pentium III 1GB to a Pentium 4 3+ GB processor, a higher end ABIT
motherboard, and 1GB of DDR400 (DDR2) RAM from 256 MB of SDRAM (PC2700). I
know this will necessitate running setup again, as there will be major
changes to the HAL and so forth. My questions are as follows: Will setup run
properly from my original OEM installation disk, now that SP2 is installed?
When it comes to the point in the setup routine where activation occurs,
will there be a problem (with MS) due to the new hardware?

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