Any PC Hardware pros in here? Dead motherboard!
 

My main PC blinked out yesterday, rebooted - no video no post screen, nada.

After testing the monitor, video card, then the powersupply, I'm pretty sure the fault is in the MSI K8N Neo Platinum 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb board.

Now seeing how I need to get this running to get some work done and grab some emails, whats my best course? I know if I but a new ATX board I'll have to reinstall vista, but my info should be in tact correct? Can I find another exact model of this board and just slap it in?

I'd *like* to just buy a new board and cpu and upgrade while I'm doing it. What cravats do I need to be aware of? I'd really like to just get running again, not slave the drives and copy all the data off and then formatting, etc..

Thanks

Had something very similar with the same motherboard a couple of weeks ago. Had to buy a new one. They don't make socket 939 mobos anymore so was lucky to find one.

Try taking everything off the motherboard. It should atleast beep.

There's a removable card by the graphic card slot - make sure that is attached properly.

Make sure no power connectors are touching the case.

Yeah did all that, I used to do work like this, but I've been LONG out of it, I'm not even getting the beep.

When replacing the mobo, you should only have to reinstall the OS if the chipset is different in the new board. So if you found another nForce 3 board, it should go in without reinstalling windows.

Have you tried reseating your ram and cpu?

Yeah I tried that Dave... intresting, didnt know that about the chipsets. If I do buy a whole new MB/Cpu can I just do a vista repair and be back up and running?

I doubt it, but it never hurts to try. But you should pull your hard drive first and back stuff up on to another pc before you do that, because you will probably end up formatting.

If you have a storage hard drive already connected internally, unplug it while you are installing windows so it doesn't store any boot or system files on it. I have no real experience with vista, but I know xp and 2k are like that.

Well fuck that sucks

or buy your new setup, install vista to a new drive, install your programs, and then plug your old hd back in, copy the saved files, emails etc back over into your new install.

Is Vista more restricted with activation? I plonked a HD from an AMD Duron board into a Pentium D m/b when I upgraded a couple of years ago, I can't remember if I had to reactivate but I certainly didn't have to reinstall... this was with XP, of course.

Yeah I'd imagine this would be the way to do things... I pretty much can move everything I need too, anyone remember how to copy outlook express emails? I think they are like .mbx files or something.

Usually you'll get a bluescreen when loading windows if you put in a new motherboard. It's not the chipset that causes it exactly. It's the hard drive controller chip that causes that bluescreen most of the time. Windows tries to load the drivers for your old disk controller and of course that won't work for your new mobo/disk controller so it can't read the drives = bluescreen. I always keep a PCI hard drive controller in my machine because I can just put in a new motherboard and slap in the PCI hard disk controller without reinstalling windows. I've done that many of times over the years without a problem.

I hate these forums sometimes, so fucking slow. Can't even edit my damn post in time. Anyway I'm sure someone will pick apart what I said so I didn't mean to say windows can't read it but can't work without those drivers. Infact many motherboard manuals will explain that you can load the drivers for your new hard disk controller on your system before you put in your new mobo and it will work. But I guess it doesn't matter in your situation considering you can't even boot it up...

I hate these forums sometimes, so fucking slow. Can't even edit my damn post in time. Anyway I'm sure someone will pick apart what I said so I didn't mean to say windows can't read it but can't work without those drivers. Infact many motherboard manuals will explain that you can load the drivers for your new hard disk controller on your system before you put in your new mobo and it will work. But I guess it doesn't matter in your situation considering you can't even boot it up...

With XP the bluescreen often comes from things like USB drivers and whatnot.

Check the microsoft website, they actually do have some tips in there (at least for XP) on how to handle a motherboard change.

You may be able to find some Asus KN boards around that will support your processor. But truth is, the price of processors has gone through the floor recently, so you can upgrade for not that much money these days.