Any computer building experts on here?

[ape]

Just a well hopefully quick question. I have got on packard bell pc which is getting a bit long in the tooth, so have decided to upgrade it, cant afford the lot in one go so going to do it in bits. Anyway questions is its one of those with a partitioned hard drive where windows is stored somewhere on there and you put a floppy disc in and it formatts everything and reinstalls things itself, if I put a new motherboard and processor in can I just put it allin connect the hardrive and whack the floppy in or am I going to have to get a new hard drive and buy a copy of windows. Its been fine with upgrading memory and a graphics card ages ago but obviously motherboard and processor is a bit more serious lol, any help would be appreciated cheers

 

[Void(EN12-82)]

Hmmm, don't wanna be offensive but my experiences with PB aren't that great

Anyway, I think you should just have to try this... chances are you won't be able to use that master-CD/floppy anymore with a different mainboard. It will probably give you some error about the system not being a Packard Bell or something.

But then again, it might work... but there are other options, like cloning your harddrive to a larger one at low level and starting in safe mode to re-install all the different hardware (or do an in-place-repair of Windows).

Hope this helps, my guess is it would give you the "This is no supported Packard Bell system" error.

Void(EN12-82)

 

[computerbitz]

Short sharp answer is no you can't 'put the restore disk on, if the drive isnt faulty and works fine then you just need a copy of windows xp to load up also as you not using the partition anymore you can delete it and use it as additional space i got a few handouts on installing window i used to give students if you dont know how to do it just let me know and will forward.

 

[ape]

But thats gonna mean buying a new copy of windows isnt it?, and dont want to do anything to this hardrive as I want to sell it on the whole computer that is when ive finished upgrading

 

[computerbitz]

right so you are

1 building a new computer
2 selling old one

or am i way off base here

have you replaced the motherboard and cpu in the PB

or are you talking you bought a new board and cpu for your new build sorry a lil confused by the way your outlined request then if thats the case

or are you upgrading it to sell it

if so just a point of fact if you have ever done any online banking or computer based accounts that you never want anyone else to see and you are selling, i would reccomend a new hard drive then aswell as if a nosey clever person buys they can get your data even if you have deleted it and formatted

 

[ape]

Ok well what I want to do is for now upgrade the motherboard, processor and memory but still use the existing hard drive and use the existing case. hardrive and psu until I can afford to change these. When I can afford to completely replace everything will hopefully put the old packard bell back together and sell it (more than likely to a family member who wants it) to avoid some sod using the information off of my hardrive lol. So what I really need to know is, is this going to be ok, I've used the floppy many a time to wipe everything and start again but if I bung a new motherboard and processor and pop the floppy disc in as normal is it just going to install xp again all fine and dandy and recognise the new motherboard ect or is going to tell me to Eff off as it the copy of XP in the hardrive is registered to the original motherboard if that makes sense
sorry not very good at explaining it.

 

[computerbitz]

probably tell you to get lost as the version of xp you got is specific to the manufacturers mainboard

what you can do is borrow a copy and try to use your cd key from the side of the tower but technically you should get a new copy

this though is not your only problem as most PB cases use a mainboard block specific to there connections and you will not be able to just put a board in and connect the front led, power adn reset switch if they are not on a block you may get away with it

also depending on the age of the tower and the memory in it you may not be able to use that on new one

give me model of the tower and will do a lil research for you tomorrow

If you have no idea goto www.belarc.com and download the install the advisor tool, run it and it will give you a full detailed system summary

tell me to bog off if you want but whats your initial upgrade budget, will see what i can work out for you.

 

[cce]

dell can put a complete spanking new base unit with dual core cpu on your desk for 269.

 

[computerbitz]

dell can put a complete spanking new base unit with dual core cpu on your desk for 269.

Great for surfing the net and office based pc but not much else.

 

[ape]

I'm not sure where to find the model?, it does have a XP registration key on the side of the tower though, so would I be cool in just formatting the lot on the hard drive included the stored version of windows ect borrowing a copy of xp and then using my key to register it?. No I wont tell you to bog off your being really helpful lol, got about £150ish to spend on motherboard processor and memory gond for a AMD X2 either 4200 or maybe the next model up, a motherboard at about 50quid not sure which one yet and 2gig of Geill DDR2 800mhz from overclockers as its only about 50quid. Obviously I change the hardrive at some point anyway and all of the rest of the bits but wanted to start at the main bit.