.....has no one yet come up with a fail-safe routine which avoids the end user having to start from scratch with reformats, reinstalls, etc, etc.? Computers and modern operating systems are supposed to make life easy yet this is one aspect that seems to have been ignored or avoided because it is perceived as being either too difficult or fraught with danger for the user.There must be many like myself with evolving complex and highly configured system/software setups who are currently using a mainboard that's a couple of years old and which imposes a ceiling, without overclocking and the risks that that entails by so doing, on the CPU/Memory speed. It is likely that I will wish to upgrade my mobo sometime in the not too distant future but the prospect of the work involved will actively discourage me from taking the plunge.I am aware that a motherboard upgrade can be attempted by the not so faint hearted by selecting Windows XP's Repair option after a board change, but a successful result is far from being guaranteed. Presumably this route somehow disables/uninstalls existing drivers and substitutes XP's generics prior to the installation of updated drivers from the MoBo's manufacturer. Sounds straightforward, so why is the reality so different and so discouraging? It seems to me that there ought by now to be a way of ensuring a safe and reliable outcome but the topic is rarely discussed or attempted, for example, in the PC mags, presumably because the knowledge is not there. I, like many others, take great pride in ensuring my system continues to run efficiently with maintenance of performance. I'm not one of those who has found it necessary or believes that a periodic routine reformat and reinstallation of Windows is mandatory to ensure a continuing lean, mean and stable system. Upgrading most of the other components can be accomplished with relative ease, yet the mainboard has become an apparent insurmountable obstacle if I really want that >3GHz processor or the fastest DDR ram. Effectively I am blocked from upgrading as the work involved to return my system to it's current all purpose highly configured setup just doesn't bear thinking about.There must be a huge demand out there for a stress free solution to this issue, yet why is nobody with the appropriate skills tackling it? It really is difficult to believe that the computing industry has hit a brick wall on this one and still it seems to be the case. What an admission of failure!Mike (Hoping some bright spark can now shoot me down in flames and point me and all those others to the answers we have, it seems, all missed.) :)

Came across this link:http://www.theeldergeek.com/replace_motherboard.htmAny comments?Mike

Well you could try uninstalling all chipset drivers from your old setup. Then if you run SATA or RAID load the SATA controller you know you have on the new mainboard if possible. I jumped from a Abit NF7-S to a DFI nforce 2 a very small jump but by preloading the Sil 3114 SATA controller it found my harddrives when installing on the new computer. And then you just install the new nforce 2 drivers.Now this was from nforce 2 to nforce 2 so not a very big jump but it should work in most cases :). Can

Hi P

oops, sorry, re-read your post and realized my comment was of no help

If you are going to the same chipset you are unlikely to have any trouble but it depends how thorough the uninstall process is :). If they delete every single file they put in the system folder or such?Like when going from nVidia to ATI or vice versa people are often getting trouble when just uninstalling the old drivers and not cleaning the registry. And some people who did clean the registry maybe missed something and still got trouble.It can be hard navigating through the registry to clean every entry out regarding your chipset drivers :). I mean there is driver cleaner tools for video card but I don

"But is it the exact same board you are getting".....please don't misunderstand me. I am only speculating at present in the event I decided in the future I needed a board with a much higher FSB and one which would take faster Intel CPUs and memory. Currently my limit without overclocking is:Max FSB Speed / Max Memory Speed = 4x 100MHz / 2x 133MHzFastest CPU = 2.4GHz (installed)Fastest Memory = PC2100 (2x 512MB installed)Believe it or not I'm still quite happy with my current Gigabyte 8IRXP MoBo - solid as a rock :)Mike