Hi Nick,

Generally speaking, a new motherboard means a new installation. This is
because of the different hardware and chipset on the board, both of which
might require different drivers. You might be lucky and get it to work
without, but you could run into problems at a later date. My advice would be
to bite the bullet and go for a reinstallation. Fortunately, installing Vista
is much simpler and quicker than previous MS operating systems (including
XP). Note that when you activate, you will probably need to do so over the
phone.
Dwarf

"ncontorno" wrote:
[color=blue]
> New mobo, new vid card (PCI Express - old vid card/mobo was AGP)
> Fortunately, I have a crappy spare AGP vid card lying around I could use, but
> I only want to reinstall as a last resort.[/color]
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
> > >> So I had Vista Ultimate 32-bit installed and it worked fine on my
> > >> home-built
> > >> PC. My vid card got fried and I decided to do some other hardware
> > >> upgrades
> > >> with it. After putting it all together, Vista won't boot at all even
> > >> into
> > >> safe mode. Each time I never get to the loading bar and it restarts. No
> > >> error message, just the message that a recent hardware or software
> > >> change
> > >> prevented Windows from loading. Startup repair fails and system restore
> > >> doesn't do anything.
> > >>
> > >> I've tried unplugging everything but the essentials, tweaking settings
> > >> in
> > >> the BIOS, disabling firewire/USB, moving around the RAM and cards,
> > >> memtest
> > >> and chkdsk. Nothing. I really don't want to have to reinstall Vista. I
> > >> was
> > >> just getting used to it!
> > >>
> > >> Here's the specs:
> > >>
> > >> GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 Mobo
> > >> 500 Watt Ultra PSU
> > >> AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6 gHz
> > >> EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT
> > >> CORSAIR 2 x 1GB DDR2 SDRAM
> > >> 80GB Maxtor (PATA)
> > >> 250GB WD Caviar (PATA)
> > >> LG DVD Burner (SATA)
> > >> No-name DVD Burner (SATA)
> > >> Floppy (why?)
> > >> PCI modem (why?)
> > >> 4-port USB PCI card
> > >>
> > >> Any help would be greatly appreciated!
> > >>
> > >> Nick
> > >
> > > I'm guessing that part of your upgrades was changing the mothboard,
> > > right?[/color][/color][/color]