MotherBoard

Well, interested in a new motherboard. It is not that difficult to install. Prices are continously dropping and both processors and boards are improving. If you still have a older 486 with ISA bus or even one of the earlier pentium systems only this is a real consideration. A motherboard plus a AMDK6-2 400 or a celeron 400 processor is available for inder $100 these days. However, you will also need memory since what you got is not usable. Thus it becomes somewhat expensive since you would want at least a 300 processor and preferably 32M of memory. Today the choice would be SDRAM memory but you may have 72 pin EDO which is fine. If buying new memory get PC100 memory.

Please read the manual carefully before starting and observe the precautions specially with regards to Static electricity. Motherboards are delicate. They are not for stepping; on sitting on; or a place to put tools and screws.

You need a Phillips screw driver and maybe a slot screwdriver to replace the motherboard. That is it !!! What about video, modems, sound cards and hard drives ?? and of course WIN95 or WIN98 ??? They will all work but win95\98 but it is sometimes a challenge.

Make sure you have everything you really need backed up prior to starting. Make sure you have a boot disk. Try it first and see if it works. Actually, two boot disks might be an idea. Reversing the ribbon cable for the floppies might mess up your boot disk - A spare is helpful under these conditions. I've been there !!!!

My preference would be a reinstall of win95\98 following a motherboard change. However, if you want to try without, here is what has worked well for me. I have made several and the following approach have been successful.

Prior to shutting down to make the motherboard installation - open control panel --->device manager - system devices and remove them. Also remove the hard drive controller. The preference is to do this from safe mode.
After completing the installation on first boot up you will be asked for the WIN95 CD-ROM to install all the items you deleted, The ones being installed will be proper ones for the new board. Sometimes it will require more than one reboot to get everything set up. This has worked successfully for me several times.
If having problems after above then try a reinstall <refresh one> without formatting.
If neither works, I guess a reinstall is in order. I have never needed to go past the first step but did require a couple of reboots to get everything setup a couple of times.

After completing step one above - shut power off the system and remove the cover. You will need to remove all the installed cards. You do not have to remove the floppy drive(S), the hard drive(S) or the CD-ROM drive or any tape drive or zip drive you may have.
Remove all the cables connected to the drives and to the controller cards. Remove the wires for the LED display lights and the power connector. Then unscrew the screws holding the motherboard to the chassis and remove it.
When removing the cables make a little diagram of which side of the drives the red strip of the cable was connected too and check the board as you take them out to verify that it is pin 1 on the board. You may not find this on some of the older boards but your manual should show pin 1 if you still have it.
You got the old motherboard out. Time to open the manual and take the new one out of the anti static bag it came in. Place the old in the bag and put it away.
Check all the jumper settings on the board per the manual. The store most likely set them and installed the processor and the memory chips you bought if you bought it all in one place. Check the settings anyway. If they are not installed, install the processor and the memory at this time. Refer to the manual for instructions. It is easy. Make sure the memory chips are installed and seated properly. Check that the processor is installed and seated properly.
Place the board in the chassis to check if the standoffs already in the chassis fits the new board. You only need about 2 of them but more is fine. You do need to use the plastic spacers in the other ones. Preferably you want the board supported either by screws or plastic spacers in at least four locations spread apart. More is better.
Place the board in the chassis with the plastic spacers inserted and fasten the board to be brass spacer with screws.
Next connect all the wires for the On-off; the hard drive LED; the Power on LED; Keylock Switch; and the speaker. The Turbo switch and led is not normally used on Pentium boards. Check your manual carefully to install. There may not be an easy way to check which way to install the LED thus you may have to switch them afterwards. Generally black wires are minus. (Ground). Most manauls I have seen provides poor instructions with regards to this and it is sometimes somewhat of a guess.
Install the power connector. The black wires should be in the center on both connectors. Read the manual - THIS IS IMPORTANT. THEY MUST BE INSTALLED CORRECT.
.Install the ribbon cables for the serial and parallel ports. Remember the red stripe on the ribbon cable goes to pin 1. Pin 1 should be marked on the board and also diagrammed in the manual. Then fasten the ports to the back of the chassis with screws.
.Install the ribbon cable for the floppy drives and the hard drives. Connect to the board first and make sure the red strip is were pin 1 is. Then connect to the floppies and hard drives. You can use the diagram made earlier to ensure pin 1 goes to pin 1. Note: Normally pin 1 on drives is the one closer to the power connector.
Next install the cards you need. Video, audio, Modem, and any other. If your old floppy and hard drives were connected to a card (controller card) you no longer need that card and the same applies to any I/O card you may have used for serial and parallel ports.
When installing the cards rock them carefully into place and check to see that they are properly seated. Your computer may not boot if they are not. Fasten the screws.
Connect the external connectors. The video, mouse, keyboards, printers, speakers, mike etc.
Reboot with a boot disk in A: drive.
If you have problems booting turn off power and check the following items very carefully:
- Power connectors properly seated
- All Cards properly seated. The contacts should be all the way down into the connectors. This used to be a real common problem with some of the larger cards. Typical of Vesa Local Bus Cards. Most mother boards today does not support those. However, it can occur with any card
- Make sure that the IDE and floppy cables are installed properly. Sometimes. in the heat of battle only one row of pins is connected while the other is out in the air. Sometimes, they may be offset one row of pins.
- check the I/O port cables to ensure they are installed properly
- I assume you checked all the jumpers and switches on the board very carefully prior to installing the board.
- No overclocking or fancy stuff when installing a new motherboard. Get it working first.
Check to see that the power on LED and Hard drive LED lights up. The power should be on steady the hard drive should flicker. If they do not appear to work shut power off and switch the wires for the LEDs around on the motherboard.
IF the floppy light stays on continuously and it will not boot or the hard drive makes funny noise shut power off immediately. Check to see that you installed pin1 to pin1. (this might have caused problems with the boot disk - have a spare one available).
Once it boots to the floppy and everything appears to work your ready to proceed.
- Remember to check you CD-ROM
- Check the Reset switch
- Check any other switches on the chassis you may have wired.
Re boot hit delete and again refer to your manual to select BIOS DEFAULTS. Also set boot sequence to A,C. At this time you also want to set up your Hard Drive(s) in BIOS. Use autodetect if available.(all new motherboards have it these days and quite a few will detect Hard Drives on boot up)
Next remove the floppy and let win95\98 boot. You will need your WIN95\98 CD-ROM as it sets up the new system devices.
Do an orderly shutdown of win95\98 and let it boot again. It is quite possible that some off the hardware was not set up during the first boot.
You should be done !!!!!