Replacing Motherboard

Good Afternoon All,

One of my client pc's motherboard went bad and it is an older motherboard.  I am having an issue finding a replacement, I can only find refurbished ones on eBay, it uses a CPU with a socket 478 connection.  I can't seem to find too many motherboards that still use or have recently used that connection.  My question is if I purchase a new motherboard, CPU and ram, what all will have to be redone for the hard drive to function properly and the OS to work.  I have heard clean installs being the only option, I am wondering what other options are on the table, it is running Windows XP Professional 32-Bit.

Please let me know if you need more pc info.

Thanks!!

HI, What went wrong with the motherboard? If the motherboard can be repaired that is the simplest solution.

When You change the motherboard to a different  Motherboard/CPU/Memory you will in general find that windows Bluescreens and does not run.

You could also find that you have to change the Power Supply, Video card if used, And possibly the Hard Drive. Most new motherboards only support SATA drives for example.

And of course Windows Activation. Even buying a refurbished motherboard, You would want the same make and model to avoid problems.

What Make and Model of computer or Motherboard.

Good Luck

Roger

You have two options in reality, replace the motherboard, or buy a new system.

You can't find an"aftermarket/retail" motherboard guaranteed to fit the case.  The OS will balk if you try to use it with a new motherboard on any big name OEM system, nature of the beast.

Best option, grab a refurb on Ebay from some big outfit in Hong Kong.  I have grabbed about a half dozen mobos from Hong Kong for ancient Socket 478 systems, and I am at 100% happiness with them.  I usually end up paying around the $50 mark with shipping, customer has a 40-50% markup.

Make absolutely sure the model numbers, as well as revision numbers, on the replacement mobo match your current mobo.

EDIT:  Or replace the caps if they are bad, but still, a refurb is sooooo much easier and quicker.

Thanks for the info, the reason I am replacing it is I believe the VGA port that is integrated with the motherboard has failed.  The computer turns on but never displays anything and I do not here the beep from the computer POSTing.  I have thought about simply installing a PCI card and seeing if that will work, but have seen mixed reviews if that will fix the issue.  It is an older MSI motherboard Model # is MSI 865g Neo2-P.  I have found a few refurbished ones on eBay for around $45-50 and they are from Hong Kong.  I wasn't sure if this is my best option or simply get a new one and buy a new CPU, and Ram to go along with it and just try to re-install everything?

Thanks!!

That motherboard has integrated graphics, if you want to repair this you will need to replace the motherboard.  The good new is that this motherboard has PCI slots, so you can purchase a PCI graphics card.  Newegg has them from $19.99.  Newegg.com - Desktop Graphics Cards, PCI, PCI Video Cards

So if I purchase the graphics card and install it, then it should work perfectly fine, just not with the onboard graphics port correct? 

I don't believe your problem is with the VGA connector.  From what you have described it sounds like the integrated graphics chip has failed.