Are Processors 'Plug and Play'?

[ZNickel]

As most of you know I've recently had to replace the thermal paste/compound between my processor and heatsink fan, and to be careful I removed the CPU to clean the paste off and apply the new stuff.

Anyway, Computer booted up, did the 'OK beep' and then went to a similar screen that told me that the Processor was overheating, but it told me that a new processor had been installed and asked me to press F1 to run setup, i.e. going into BIOS. I saved and exited the BIOS, computer rebooted and simply worked. No weird screen, no BOSD. Windows just worked! And I happily started using my computer.

But the whole "new cpu installed" thing got me thinking: Can you swap out an old CPU for a new one and not have to re-install Windows? Any thoughts on this?

[EvilNinjadude]

I think the answer is yes, but certain CPU sockets (as found on motherboards) will only hold certain CPUs. That means that if I were to upgrade a Core 2 Quad to a Core i5, I don't think I could keep the Motherboard. Or I'd have to do something techy with it.

[ZNickel]

I think the answer is yes, but certain CPU sockets (as found on motherboards) will only hold certain CPUs. That means that if I were to upgrade a Core 2 Quad to a Core i5, I don't think I could keep the Motherboard. Or I'd have to do something techy with it.

Well, I'm thinking about upgrading from SandyBridge to IvyBridge and my socket (LGA1155) has a bunch of Ivy Bridge Processors available for it.

[XanderK9]

But the whole "new cpu installed" thing got me thinking: Can you swap out an old CPU for a new one and not have to re-install Windows? Any thoughts on this?

Just replacing the CPU won't require to re-install Windows. The reason you saw this message is simply because it triggered a fail-safe and set the cpu-related settings at default to avoid problems.

[SirSlaughter]

You are correct in your assumption. I have an i3 processor and I could place it in my PC right now if I wanted but I will stick with my i7. But a processor does not hold memory like a HDD or motherboard would. It just processes things. if you swapped out your HDD or did a motherboard swap then yes you would have to reinstall windows. But if you buy a new CPU you have to remember this: look at what socket your motherboard is. seeing as you have Intel and you seem to have a 2nd gen you are looking at the LGA1155 slot. so any other processor with that slot will do you just fine. Unless you want to do a complete revision of your build. Just be sure your chipset can support it as well. I know i you have the new 3rd Gen Processors you can use most motherboards but if you have a H61 with a locked BIOS or too dated of a chipset in your motherboard it won't work. It just won't boot up. I had that issue with my lenovo. But i you have a more up to date motherboard then you should be just fine.

I got ninja'd by evil ninjadude...

but going for the ivy bridge. Yes that is the newest and still affordable processors. I have the 3770K and it has been running like a dream. But try to look into a Z77 chipset motherboard for that native USB3.0 support and other goodies you can get that will let you take advantage of your new processor.

[RobbieThe1st]

I will also point out that even replacing the motherboard doesn't always mean you need to reinstall windows, but you have to configure it to take a new hardware configuration /before/ doing the replacement.

Swapping out the harddrive is even easier; so long as you can do a direct copy of your old drive to the new one - a so-called "mirror", windows should work just fine. However, as the partition size will be that of the old drive, you won't get any benefit with the new harddisk. Resizing partitions is psossible, and so it's possible to migrate a windows install to a new, larger drive without reinstalling, but it takes some tutorial-following skills.



(P.S. Of course, for those of us who run Linux, none of this applies; you can plug-and-play just about anything and it'll work - complete new systems, copy the files to a new harddisk and it'll work, plug your drive into a USB->SATA adaptor and boot off *that*...)

[Tygron]

Should be able to update drivers and such even after you put the hardware in the machine. It just might not use the correct driver at first so you'll need to give it the right driver as soon as possible. I switched out my mobo, cpu, and ram all in one go using the same install of windows.

[aj]

Should be able to update drivers and such even after you put the hardware in the machine. It just might not use the correct driver at first so you'll need to give it the right driver as soon as possible. I switched out my mobo, cpu, and ram all in one go using the same install of windows.

I've done the same, though that was onto hardware that Win 7 came with mostly default drivers for. In general, Windows 7's hardware support is pretty good, it can load default drivers for most things until you get an internet connection going.

Of course, if you go to an entirely new mobo, make sure you have at least ethernet drivers on a CD-ROM handy just-in-case. (CD-ROM just in case the USB controller isn't recognised.)

[RobbieThe1st]

It has less to do with updating drivers than it does to do with microsoft's activation stuff. If you're not careful, it can cause all sorts of issues and force a repair install and new activation, at least as far as XP goes(at least, so I've heard, and what I've seen has agreed with it). I will point out, though, that I've not tried moving a Win 7 drive into a different system and saw what happened, so they may have "fixed" that little issue.

[XanderK9]

I will point out, though, that I've not tried moving a Win 7 drive into a different system and saw what happened, so they may have "fixed" that little issue.

From what I have experienced, I noticed that Windows Vista and 7 would still work after the swap, most of the times. The only few cases I was forced to reinstall the OS was because it was originally configured with a very specific driver (usually, it's about the storage drivers which sometimes, just switching between "IDE", "RAID" and "AHCI" sata modes did the trick).

[RobbieThe1st]

I will point out, though, that I've not tried moving a Win 7 drive into a different system and saw what happened, so they may have "fixed" that little issue.

From what I have experienced, I noticed that Windows Vista and 7 would still work after the swap, most of the times. The only few cases I was forced to reinstall the OS was because it was originally configured with a very specific driver (usually, it's about the storage drivers which sometimes, just switching between "IDE", "RAID" and "AHCI" sata modes did the trick).

Interesting.


Just out of curiousity, have you messed with imaging a Vista/Win 7 partition onto another drive? My boss had so much trouble doing it with Norton Ghost that he gave up and reinstalled windows. Personally, I'd use DD, but...

[XanderK9]

At my old job, I was always using Acronis for my backup needs and I am happy with it. You can get a the free "manufacturer specific" version from manufacturers like Seagate and WD. If I remember correctly, the main limitation is that the destination hard drive need to have the same manufacturer of said version of the program. Kingston also have this in their upgrade kits for SSDs.

[Tygron]

I had to reactivate windows on my desktop because it randomly said it wasn't genuine. But typing in the activation code fixed that. I completely made a new system out of my old desktop (before I got my own hard drive to install Windows 7 on) and everything was fine.

[XanderK9]

Yeah, WGA does not have any other flags than "Activated" and "Not genuine", regardless of the reason (it flag the OS as "not genuine" if you pass the 3-30 days activation time or a hardware failure, as stating a few examples). I can tell it was annoying to explain that to the customer when a tech forgot to activate the OS. ¬¬

Also, it will usually ask you to reactivate even if you replace the motherboard with the exact same model.

[Tygron]

Funny enough I didn't have to activate anything when I was changing my parts out the way I was. It just one day decided to do it like two weeks after I moved everything (no hardware changes other than the case and a cpu heatsink... so nothing the computer actually cares about or knows about) to ask me to validate again.