# Advice on upgrading from OEM motherboard AMD/ATI



## Kaneb125 (Nov 24, 2008)

Hi everybody,

My gateway GT5432 keeps having blue screens from an nforce SATA driver and it seems like the problem cannot be fixed with an updated driver. 

The motherboard I've ordered is the Asus M3A79-T deluxe. I was planning on moving everything over to this AM2+ quad crossfire capable mo.bo. and was wanting to hear from anyone who has transferred an OEM computer to a new mo.bo.

I know it will be time consuming to make it work, but no matter what I will get it running.

It has vista home prem 32bit. My other specs are to the left  <--------

I'm going to build this computer on an open chassis and see if it will run better with just a HD4850 512MB or with a dual crossfire of the 4850 with my current HD3850 O.C. edition 512MB

Thanks,
Adam B


----------



## LittleLizard (Nov 24, 2008)

You cant crossfire a 38xx with a 48xx. There were rumours that would be posible but i think they were dropped


----------



## Kaneb125 (Nov 24, 2008)

I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. As in, I might get another processor for the Asus Mo. bo. and leave the 64X2 5000+ on the gateway with the 3850.

BUT,  have you ever done a motherboard upgrade on an OEM vista system?


----------



## LittleLizard (Nov 24, 2008)

no, but im going to say you this. DO NOT UPGREADE YOUR HARDWARE IF YOUR COPY OF WINDOWS VISTA IS OEM, you cant install the same copy if you upgrade


----------



## PaulieG (Nov 24, 2008)

Kaneb125 said:


> I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. As in, I might get another processor for the Asus Mo. bo. and leave the 64X2 5000+ on the gateway with the 3850.
> 
> BUT,  have you ever done a motherboard upgrade on an OEM vista system?



I have. I would at least uninstall the chipset drivers before switching out the boards. It will save you some headaches. I honestly do a fresh windows install everytime I change boards. If you run into conflicts, do you have a Vista disk or just the gateway recovery crap?


----------



## Kaneb125 (Nov 24, 2008)

I have the operating system disk that came with the computer.
Opening it in windows brings up a distinctly Microsoft user prompt.


----------



## PaulieG (Nov 24, 2008)

Kaneb125 said:


> I have the operating system disk that came with the computer.
> Opening it in windows brings up a distinctly Microsoft user prompt.



There is a very good chance that this disc will NOT work with your new board, if and when you have to reformat and reinstall windows. Just keep that in mind.


----------



## Kaneb125 (Nov 24, 2008)

I just wonder what drivers to disable/remove

Here are two pics from dev manager.

I am not worried about the microsoft default drivers, just the nvidia and such.

Also, in the drivers folder I believe. I have something like eight instances of the nForce SATA driver that is giving me problems. But they all have different device designations which confuses me as to which ones are unnecessary.


----------



## _jM (Nov 24, 2008)

Paulieg said:


> There is a very good chance that this disc will NOT work with your new board, if and when you have to reformat and reinstall windows. Just keep that in mind.



He's rite man. When my DELL XPS gen 1 took a crap on me (after warrenty:shadedshu)  I bought a new mobo and case to do the same as you are. once I got everything in... popped in the XP cd that came with my dell... and nothing. I got a message stating that the disk will not install on a non-dell motherboard, and im pretty sure your copy will say the same.. cept for yours is a gateway. Its not the hardware, its Windows... when they make those disks for pre-built pc's from gateway,dell,etc. its wrote in a manner that it will not install on any other system than the one it came with or another system of the like (meaning if you had another gateway, you could use that cd.) So Iwould save yourself the headache and goahead and buy a new OS from newegg or somthing, yea its an extra 100$ or so, but its worth it bro, TRUST me! Good Luck


----------



## PaulieG (Nov 24, 2008)

Kaneb125 said:


> I just wonder what drivers to disable/remove
> 
> Here are two pics from dev manager.
> 
> ...



Don't bother disabling them. Just uninstall them.


----------



## Kaneb125 (Nov 24, 2008)

Yeah, this is my first bare motherboard. The OS disk probably has the drivers for the proprietary gateway motherboard.  I will possibly have to do a few driver swaps in safe mode.   

I just wonder why the OS would not be transferable if its OEM. It seems that a properly paid for piece of software should be system mobile.


----------



## _jM (Nov 24, 2008)

Kaneb125 said:


> Yeah, this is my first bare motherboard. The OS disk probably has the drivers for the proprietary gateway motherboard.  I will possibly have to do a few driver swaps in safe mode.
> 
> I just wonder why the OS would not be transferable if its OEM. It seems that a properly paid for piece of software should be system mobile.



Yea thats what i thought. but i was wrong. Even if you buy an OEM from somewhere  like newegg that OS will only allow you to install it on the same hardware, unless you know how to get around the "red tape". The disk you have, well you might as well toss it in the trash cause once you install your mobo. Its useless:shadedshu I know it sounds horrible, but You might get lucky enough to uninstall your current drivers and swap the hardware over and install the new ones, and thats only if it will boot on that ASUS board. 

Correct me if im wrong paulie



Paulieg said:


> Don't bother disabling them. Just uninstall them.



+1 on that


----------



## Kaneb125 (Nov 24, 2008)

People tell me to get XP but I like Vista.  What do you think?

Right now Vista 32bit is only showing around 3500MB of my 4096MB RAM.  Is Vista 64bit even slower and more expensive?


----------



## Namslas90 (Nov 24, 2008)

I've modded many a OEM.  Go into Safe Mode Admin to uninstall drivers.  Reboot.  Defragment HD.  Re-instll drivers in Safe Mode Admin.  

You should do this everytime you change a driver on an OEM unless you use the OEM's download utility on their website.

For most people it just seems like a waste of time, but I have found it to solve a lot of problems.


----------



## _jM (Nov 24, 2008)

Namslas90 said:


> I've modded many a OEM.  Go into Safe Mode Admin to uninstall drivers.  Reboot.  Defragment HD.  Re-instll drivers in Safe Mode Admin.
> 
> You should do this everytime you change a driver on an OEM unless you use the OEM's download utility on their website.
> 
> For most people it just seems like a waste of time, but I have found it to solve a lot of problems.



Thats true, but you have to keep in mind that hes s changing out his mobo, OEMs for pre-builds dont like that.



Kaneb125 said:


> People tell me to get XP but I like Vista.  What do you think?
> 
> Right now Vista 32bit is only showing around 3500MB of my 4096MB RAM.  Is Vista 64bit even slower and more expensive?



Well first off.. i say if you are running a 32bit OS, Vista is crap, you might as well use XP.

Your RAM problem is because of your OS is only a 32bit, 32's can only read/use up to a total of 3gigs of memory, your extra gig is useless bro. you are better off installing 2 1gb sitck paired with another 2 512's to get 3 gigs to use in dual channel.


----------



## Kaneb125 (Nov 24, 2008)

I'm thinking that if I use the Microsoft drivers that it shouldn't care what motherboard it is on....   But I'm probably wrong.


----------



## _jM (Nov 24, 2008)

Kaneb125 said:


> I'm thinking that if I use the Microsoft drivers that it shouldn't care what motherboard it is on....   But I'm probably wrong.



yup


----------



## Kaneb125 (Nov 24, 2008)

_jM said:


> Thats true, but you have to keep in mind that hes s changing out his mobo, OEMs for pre-builds dont like that.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I still have the factory RAM, I could do what you say. It would probably cut down on my power demands and such.  

Is windows XP 64 bit a good option and what about its future, hasn't MS dropped support for it or aren't they going to soon?


----------



## Namslas90 (Nov 24, 2008)

_jM said:


> Thats true, but you have to keep in mind that hes s changing out his mobo, OEMs for pre-builds dont like that.



He could get an exact replacement MoBo, but thats not worth the cost/effort.

But, by properly removing the drivers and re-installing them he may solve his issue, and not need to change out the motherboard.  His issue appears to be the standard driver conflict/bad driver issue common when moding OEM's.


----------



## Kaneb125 (Nov 24, 2008)

_jM said:


> yup



Yup Im wrong?


----------



## Kaneb125 (Nov 24, 2008)

Namslas90 said:


> _jM said:
> 
> 
> > Thats true, but you have to keep in mind that hes s changing out his mobo, OEMs for pre-builds dont like that.
> ...


----------



## PaulieG (Nov 24, 2008)

Kaneb125 said:


> Namslas90 said:
> 
> 
> > Thats my problem with the OEM Mobo.  I think I have multiple instances of my nforce SATA driver and that is possibly causing a problem.  But my system is RAID capable so that means that the other instances of the driver could be for the other unused SATA plugs. The computer only has one 320GB HD right now.
> ...


----------



## Kaneb125 (Nov 24, 2008)

Paulieg said:


> Kaneb125 said:
> 
> 
> > Honestly, the new motherboard is a good idea. I'd go ahead and buy an OEM Vista disk and do a clean install. It will pay for itself, and save you headaches...not to mention run faster.
> ...


----------



## PaulieG (Nov 24, 2008)

Kaneb125 said:


> Paulieg said:
> 
> 
> > I take it that you like vista as well...
> ...


----------



## _jM (Nov 24, 2008)

Paulieg said:


> Kaneb125 said:
> 
> 
> > Honestly, the new motherboard is a good idea. I'd go ahead and buy an OEM Vista disk and do a clean install. It will pay for itself, and save you headaches...not to mention run faster.
> ...


----------



## Kaneb125 (Nov 24, 2008)

_jM said:


> Paulieg said:
> 
> 
> > @ paulie...I agree with that.
> ...


----------



## Kaneb125 (Nov 24, 2008)

Doesn't vista 64bit limit the programs you can run?  I dont know much about the compatability issues with things like hardware monitors and the multitude of other little programs and tweaks I use.


----------



## Kaneb125 (Nov 24, 2008)

Kaneb125 said:


> _jM said:
> 
> 
> > I dunno they look fine to me.
> ...


----------



## Hayder_Master (Nov 24, 2008)

got new asus 790fx it is come with quad crossfire with phenom 2 cpu


----------



## Kaneb125 (Nov 24, 2008)

The asus I'm getting also has the 790fx and quad crossfire. I only have a 64X2 5000+ though.


----------

