I am installing a new motherboard CPU combo for my mother's computer. Her old motherboard is a MSI KM2M combo Socket A board with a athlon 1.8 gig processor.
The new board will be a MBM-PM8M3V-341 :: MSI PM8M3-V Via Socket 775 MicroATX Motherboard and an Intel Celeron D 341 2.93GHz OEM Processor (3.1 lbs).
I have an Antec Smart Power 350 W psu and a EZ Media 300 W Psu to choose from. I'm going with the smart power until I can afford a new PSU for the board.
I have a 512 mb stick of Pc2700 ram.
And a 40 Gig Western Digital HD with Windows XP home edition.
The reason why I am replacing the board and processor is because it won't start. It only makes a series of long beeps and doesn't even go to the post screen. I have consulted many people about this and they agree that it is either the motherboard or processor or both. So I just decided to kill two birds with one stone and get a combo board. This is 10x faster than her oldboard and she won't be doing anything fancy like gaming on this PC.
I wanted to find out how I could do a repair installation or if I needed to do a new installation since she is using Windows XP Home Edition. A friend of mine told me that microsoft does not allow you to use the operating system on a computer with different hardware. I'm not sure if I need to install the operating system on another HD and then set up her HD as a slave drive. Then use the File transfer and Migration tool to transfer her files and settings. Or I maybe do a repair installation and see if that works. Or if worst comes to worst. Back up her data on a removable storage drive and do a clean install. Could someone give me some advice on this?
The new board will be a MBM-PM8M3V-341 :: MSI PM8M3-V Via Socket 775 MicroATX Motherboard and an Intel Celeron D 341 2.93GHz OEM Processor (3.1 lbs).
I have an Antec Smart Power 350 W psu and a EZ Media 300 W Psu to choose from. I'm going with the smart power until I can afford a new PSU for the board.
I have a 512 mb stick of Pc2700 ram.
And a 40 Gig Western Digital HD with Windows XP home edition.
The reason why I am replacing the board and processor is because it won't start. It only makes a series of long beeps and doesn't even go to the post screen. I have consulted many people about this and they agree that it is either the motherboard or processor or both. So I just decided to kill two birds with one stone and get a combo board. This is 10x faster than her oldboard and she won't be doing anything fancy like gaming on this PC.
I wanted to find out how I could do a repair installation or if I needed to do a new installation since she is using Windows XP Home Edition. A friend of mine told me that microsoft does not allow you to use the operating system on a computer with different hardware. I'm not sure if I need to install the operating system on another HD and then set up her HD as a slave drive. Then use the File transfer and Migration tool to transfer her files and settings. Or I maybe do a repair installation and see if that works. Or if worst comes to worst. Back up her data on a removable storage drive and do a clean install. Could someone give me some advice on this?