Upgrading comp, what should i know about the BIOS and CMOS?

[peat moss]

you wont be ask until you put the disc in your cd tray

Don't forget to set up in bios ,to boot from cdrom!

[tesco]

You can also, if it doesn't boot, choose to do a repair install rather than a full format.

but i still recomend formatting it anyway.

[lynx]

It isn't always necessary to perform a clean install, sometimes not even a repair install.

If the chipset maker is the same as the old board, there is often enough similarity between the boards that simply updating the drivers is sufficient. I've always found that for upgrading Via chipset boards you can upgrade the drivers FIRST, and the mobo change usually goes without a hitch.

On the other hand a change of chipset maker usually requires at least a repair install.

[Timz]

It isn't always necessary to perform a clean install, sometimes not even a repair install.

If the chipset maker is the same as the old board, there is often enough similarity between the boards that simply updating the drivers is sufficient. I've always found that for upgrading Via chipset boards you can upgrade the drivers FIRST, and the mobo change usually goes without a hitch.

On the other hand a change of chipset maker usually requires at least a repair install.

i dont think my boards are similar enough. My old board is the Intel Billings D845BG, about 2 years old but its already out of production. Will reformatting, or repair installing definetly fix the problem, or is there something else i have to worry about?

[Mr. Elmo]

oh, btw, when you reformat, are you using a window xp disc or is it one of those system recovery disc?