Replacing a dead motherboard
ok so a colleague of mine brought in her bf's emachine desktop which doesnt power on. He had replaced the power supply but still no sign of life. Anyways there's def power to the board as indicated by a green led on the board. but i just cant get it to start. The old power supply has definitely died. So i am going to suggest replacing the Motherboard CPU and Memory with a motherboard bundle which will prob cost less than £100. Once i've replaced all the parts will i be able to boot the machine using the existing XP install or am i going to have to reinstall the OS too?
I have considered replacing the motherboard with an exact same model but i fear that if i do that theirs a good chance the CPU will be dead too and i dont have a way to test the CPU. I've tested the memory in another system and that works but its a pitiful 256MB.
Thanks for any advice?
I have considered replacing the motherboard with an exact same model but i fear that if i do that theirs a good chance the CPU will be dead too and i dont have a way to test the CPU. I've tested the memory in another system and that works but its a pitiful 256MB.
Thanks for any advice?
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As per Gary's comment on the Bios lnked XP. Emachines use SLP. The SLP(System Locked Preinstallation) version that Emachine uses is tied to the bios of the original motherboard an cannot be installed on another .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Locked_Preinstallation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Locked_Preinstallation
I couldn't remember the formal term -- SLP (thanks spark).
... but clearly that means you'll have to buy a new copy of XP to install on the new motherboard. A repair install won't work, because the re-activation will fail.
... but clearly that means you'll have to buy a new copy of XP to install on the new motherboard. A repair install won't work, because the re-activation will fail.
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As a follow up to 27alan27's method.
I had a dead E-Machine T2642 on the bench and pulled the hard drive. I successfully did a repair install on the E-Machine hard drive to a totally unrelated motherboard, using a retail version of XP Home, and the E-Machine XP Home Product key. The validation also worked flawlessly.
Good info 27alan27.
I had a dead E-Machine T2642 on the bench and pulled the hard drive. I successfully did a repair install on the E-Machine hard drive to a totally unrelated motherboard, using a retail version of XP Home, and the E-Machine XP Home Product key. The validation also worked flawlessly.
Good info 27alan27.
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