Computer question, Need answers post haste.

[Spike88]

My grandfather has a emachine with AMD Sempron 1.8ghz. I have a dell with the same exact cpu. About 4 months ago, I bought a AMD Athlon 64x dual core 3.1ghz processor, only to realize that dell sucks, and that I could not install my new CPU into my computer. I'm going to try and convince my grand father to switch desktops with me. He'll take mine, and I'll take his, the only thing that would swap between them would be the HDD and the ram. My question is, if I were to download the necessary drivers onto his HDD, would I be able to put it on my computer without reformating? I plan on reformating my HDD once I put it into the other computer.

[NeonSamurai]

I would say highly doubtful. Even when switching boards of the same make, its not unusual for the OS to reject the board, forcing a reinstall.

[Spike88]

Damn, its going to make it harder to convince him.

[NeonSamurai]

You sure his board will fit and support your new cpu anyhow? There were several different types of socket that the various sempron 1.8ghz cpus (11 different sempron cpus in the 1.8 ghz range) used. They were socket A, socket 754, socket 939, and socket AM2. Your new cpu is I would expect a AM2 socket. About 50/50 that his board isnt AM2.

At any rate I wouldn't blame Dell for it, you probably didn't check to see which socket the dell board has, and what it can support. To my knowledge Dell has never realy used custom sockets/cpus. They have however in the past used specialy keyed memory so that only dell purchaced memory works on their boards. Though I don't know if they still do it.

[AVGWarhawk]

Dell does some strange stuff. I would not attempt it only because it is Dell.

[CaptainHaplo]

If the OS is win2k or above - don't even try it. The chances of it working are very slim. If you have the EXACT same model of mainboard - meaning all the controller chips are the same REV (something you can't tell visually) then yes it will. If you have simple driver chips that are different rev's, HAL will freak and give you a stop error.

Not worth the hassle....

[Castout]

Your grandfather uses a computer from time to time?

Damn cool. I wish my grandma could too . Sorry out topic

[Arclight]

Originally Posted by CaptainHaplo

If the OS is win2k or above - don't even try it. The chances of it working are very slim. If you have the EXACT same model of mainboard - meaning all the controller chips are the same REV (something you can't tell visually) then yes it will. If you have simple driver chips that are different rev's, HAL will freak and give you a stop error.

Not worth the hassle....

:rotfl:

"I'm sorry Spike, I'm afraid I can't do that."

I have a soundscheme for windows from a space odyssey. Totally awesome.


And no, changing hardware config is not something Win appreciates.