[Ham-Computers] RE: Consequences of changing system boards

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Aaron,

To take the last first, the networking problem turned out to be a firewall 
lockdown caused  by a McAfee update glitch.  Shortly after the update 
completely, I got a warning message that system protection was off.  I re-enabled it 
which is probably when the actual lockdown occurred.  But it happened just before 
I stopped for lunch.  During lunch, we had an area wide power grid failure 
(had to go back on the standby generator for a while).  After the outage, the 
router wouldn't come back up (all the port lights came on and stayed on).  And 
shortly after we discovered that my wife's machine couldn't see my machine, the 
OS on her machine (the one that was locked out) went totally berserk and 
began taking 15 minutes to boot up.  So I chased chimeras for three days.

Finally, someone to whom I described the symptoms suggested I turn off the 
firewall on my machine.  Problem went away.  So I uninstalled and reinstalled 
McAfee.  I know.  We should be using something other than McAfee.  But it's free 
and the last new one I tried, that had such high ratings, was a total 
nightmare to get anything to run under.  Never did get the email manager to run.  
Locked up the machine to the pull the power cord point.

Anyway, back to the system board changing question.  The machine is still 
running W2K so no activation BS to worry about.  And learning about MicroSoft's 
points system makes me even less inclined to switch over to XP.  The question 
was whether replacing the system board with another one of the same model 
required reinstalling the OS and all the applications.  I know that replacing the 
CPU with another one of the same type doesn't, as I've had to do that.  
Likewise RAM and drives and other peripherals.  

The CLUNK problem (which definitely came from the computer, not the speakers) 
turned out to be the power supply.  After I replaced it, the CLUNK went away 
(and the drive cage fans run faster).  I was already going to replace it (had 
already bought one, in fact) when I plugged in the NIC semi-hot.  The old one 
apparently had loose laminations in the transformer and would start humming.  
Eventually, it would stop.  Or you could stop it by slamming a cold 807 on the 
desk top.  That was obviously an undesirable situation, as it did the cold 
807 no good.

In a message dated 10/30/2008 5:58:06 PM Central Standard Time, 
aaron.hsu at nbcuni.com writes: 
> When it comes to product activiation, WinXP/Vista monitor for hardware 
> changes.  IIRC, the type of hardware monitored are systemboards, mass storage 
> controllers (IDE, SCSI, etc), processors, hard drives, network adapters, and a 
> few other items.  For processors and hard drives, the serial numbers are also 
> monitored.  Each time there is a change to one of these devices, a number of 
> points are added to a counter (I have a list of the points Vista assigns to 
> each device, but I can't find it right now).  If the number of points within a 
> certain timframe exceeds a fixed threshold (I think it was 10), Windows 
> determines that it's now running on a different computer and will need to be 
> re-activated.  IIRC, a systemboard change was 11 points, so it automatically 
> triggered a re-activation.  However, if you replace the systemboard with an 
> identical unit, then it wouldn't cost you any points.  CPU and hard drive changes 
> cost something like 7 points.  If you change two components in a short period 
> of time (such as a hard drive and video card), then the point total would 
> exceed the threshold and would trigger an activation process.
>   
>  Now, from a licensing perspective, Microsoft considers any type of 
> systemboard replacement to be a "new computer" for which the license needs to be 
> re-evaluated.  If your Windows license is a "retail" copy (bought in a "retail" 
> box on a storeshelf), then the license is transferrable to the "new" computer. 
>  If you have an OEM or "volume" license (such as "Select" or "Open"), then 
> the license dies with the old systemboard and a new license needs to be 
> purchased).  BTW, this applies to all Windows systems, not just ones where a 
> component is replaced - "retail" licenses are transferrable to new hardware, 
> OEM/Volume licenses are not transferrable.
>   
>  As to your "clunk" problem.  I've seen this before.  Many newer systems 
> these days will shutdown the system after making changes to the BIOS settings - 
> this ensures that advanced chipset settings are properly enabled.  The 
> "clunk" is often a "pop" comming from the speakers (turn on/off pop) or the hard 
> drive actuators "parking".  One of my old motherboards started doing this and 
> would not properly turn "off" when exiting from BIOS setup - I always had to 
> "pull the plug" or throw a "hard" power switch to allow the power supply caps 
> to discharge before the system would fully turn off and turn back on.  When I 
> replaced the motherboard a couple years ago, I discovered leaky caps on the 
> motherboard - the probable cause of the problem.  Remember, a few years ago, 
> there was a global problem with bad electrolytic caps.
>   
>  Anyways, I hope you were able to fix the networking problem.  Check the 
> large caps on the motherboard for bulging and/or leaks - if you find any, it's 
> definitely time to replace the motherboard.  For reference, these caps are 
> part of the power regulation circuit and if they go bad, they can cause 
> instability and eventual failure of the power supply.
>  
> 

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480
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