Upgrading Acer Aspire

[Computer Hobbyist]

I am posting this here because I can't seem to find a more appropriate place. If this should be posted some where else, ,please move it, but let me know.

A few years ago my wife's computer died. We were in a hurry to get her back on line so I ran out and bought her an el-cheapo Acer Aspire. It had a lot of bang for the buck including a 160 Gig harddrive, a DVD CDW, It has a Semperon 3300. The real problem is the motherboard. It was old technology. Apparently Acer took all the parts they had left over at the end of the life of the 754 socket threw them together and out the factory door "for sale cheap."

My wife loves her computer. It does all she wants, which is internet cruising, playing internet games, some word processing, looking at the occasional video or photo album and the like.

Here is the question. Like a lot of el cheapo computers it came with a copy of XP already installed on the harddrive. I am not even sure there was a restore disk. There is a restore volume on the harddrive. I used some blank cds to create some restore disks.

I want to upgrade the motherboard/CPU/memory. I want to do it some weekend when she is gone and surprise her. For that reason I don't want her to see anything different when she boots up the first time. I want to see if she notices any change.

Of course I can save all her data to another computer on the network or to CD-Rom, but would prefer not to buy and re-install XP or change her desktop in any way. Is it possible to swap out motherboards without re-installing XP from a disk? If I do reinstall, will the reinstall require the reformatting of her harddrive?

I know adding memory is the best upgrade. It has two slots, both are filled with 512 mg sticks. The maximum possible is 2 gig.

[EzyStvy]

If the pc does all she wants it to do why bother

Bare minimum, you'll have to do a repair install of XP...The restore cd's might not handle that...The OEM restore cd's are probably tied to the mobo.....

Odds are you'll also need a better power supply....So you're just about up to the point of replacing the whole system...

How to replace the motherboard on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;824125

[Computer Hobbyist]

As to why not leave it alone, well you and my wife would get along well.

I realize that what I am proposing is just short of a new system, I have a brand new still in the box Antec 350 watt power supply lying around. Like I said she doesn't do anything serious and 350 watts is pretty decent for an MATX motherboard using onboard video.

I read your link. If Acer had given me a copy of XP what I am wanting to do would be completely doable without much trouble. But they didn't. I will check out the ACER site.

[glc]

Read the thread in Tips and Tricks about repair reinstalls. I have a post there talking about changing the IDE controllers prior to doing the upgrade. This will avoid having to do the repair reinstall.

[Computer Hobbyist]

Thanks glc. That helps a lot.

[Computer Hobbyist]

I take it that if you select the standard IDE controller the system will boot after the new motherboard is installed. The sytem will find whatever new hardware that is part of that system (including video and or sound if you are using onboard video and or sound) and off you will go. All you have to do is make sure you haven't left anything on the old system just before you close down that might cause a conflict. If you have reinstalled your NIC or Video or sound etc it should all be good to go.

Is it really that easy?

[glc]

Yep!