I just installed a brand new motherboard, processor, and ram in my system. Taking me from a 1 to a 3 Ghz machine. Only problem was, every time XP started to boot, it rebooted. The only way I could fix it was a clean intall. Repair didn't work. You know, what a pain in the ass. I gave my wife my old Mobo processor and ram and her 98 box grabbed the new drivers, and happily kept running. Why can't XP do that? Grumble.

I think it has to do with the IDE drivers. I think I tested the theory once on win2k by uninstalling the VIA service pack just before swapping to an Intel chipset board. Unfortunately I can't recall if it worked or not. Anyway, yeah... it's a total pain in the ass.

Yeah...90% of the time it is because of the IDE chipset on the board. Everything else can be easily changed out but XP relies heavily on IDE drivers so you would have had to remove them before changing out your hardware before it would have worked correctly.

Nice to know. For next time. Thanks guys.