ROMOSAPIEN9;1169272 said:
I've got 2 extra PC's.
One has a bad hard drive and power supply/box. The other has a good PS and HD.
Questions....
1: Can I just swap out the PS and HD and they work?
2: The one that I'm replacing the components only has 128 ram. But the other has 512. Can I just plug tthe 512 card into the motherboard? or will it need installation?
3: The power supply box has already been removed from the other machine. I didn't do it. I can tell where a couple of its plugs go inside the pc. But does it matter which ones I use for the HD/CD/DVD etc? They are all the same exact size. But they have "P2, P3, P4 etc..." Does it matter which one goes where?
Thanks
It all depends on the motherboard and chip set really.
If they are pretty close to the same, say set up for Pentium III than you should be ok.
However if they are different chips sets (say Pentium III on on Pentium I on the other or the other is an AMD set) than chances are your mother will be different and although It should not do much with your hardrive it could effect your PS and Memory.
Memory changes so much with different motherboards and chip sets.
The only thing I would worry about with swapping hard drives is possibly switching from a fat16 or fat32 filing system to a NTFS Filing system (yes redundant I know lol).
The reason is the bios may need to be updated or you may have to do a complete reformat of the hardrive and possibly reset it to a fat32 or NTFS system because sometimes those issues will cause a bootloop and startup problem.
About your power supply, once again if both computers are basically about the same there should be no problem.
The power plugs to your HD, CD, DVD or Floppy should all be ok, those rarely change.
I would imagine, without knowing any of the parts or specs of the computer that your biggest problem may be the Memory since those change so often compared to other parts.
What you may wish to do is to right down your motherboard name and version along with the bios version of each computer and go on the net to see what TYPE of memory each one uses to see if they will be able to use one on the other. The other thing about looking up the mobo (motherboard) info is to see if you can find a diagram for the one you want to use so you can find the correct placements for your PS to plug into. You may also want to look up your Bios Jumper settings as you may have to reset the bios, don't reset the bios at this time, that is something you MAY have to do down the road if things do not work, but it might be good to go ahead and print out the jumper settings for the bios in case you need it later.
I have frankenstiened (my term for making two into one) computers many times and rarely have a problem. The only problems I do have, when I have a problem, is with memory being compatible and possible Fat32/NTFS problems.
So first things first, look up your motherboards to see what type of memory they require. If they are both ok than you should be fine, if not you may have to buy new memory.
Once you get that out of the way just swap everything and give it a go.
Remember when you swap your HD to the other computer, and the motherboards are different, to have your motherboard driver CD and other driver CDs along with a possible Windows CD. There will be changes and sometimes windows catches them but other times you need your motherboard drivers and other drivers.
Hope that helps and does not confuse.
