1) You can't replace your motherboard (unless like, you're replacing a defective model with an exactly identical replacement) without reinstalling Windows. At least, you shouldn't. I've never been able to make it work - Windows will freeze at startup.
Right. You have to reinstall windows. Not really a problem in most cases AFAIK - assuming the disk isn't wrecked (and you have the original CD case with the activation codes).
2) New motherboards have new power requirements, which means they're not entirely compatible with old power supplies. I got burned on that recently when I upgraded my wife's system. Turns out that they went from a 20-pin mobo power header to a 24-pin. Oh, well - needed more power for her new video card, anyway. (World of Warcraft looks pretty sweet on a 7600GT.)
Right - but I was including that in the price. The whole package: motherboard, power supply, and new dram was about $180. Why is it that dram chips never work in a new board? It's gotta be a conspiracy.
Honestly if Faith hasn't reinstalled windows yet, that's exactly what I'd do. Boot up from the Windows CD into Setup, have it erase your old Windows, and reinstall. Go through and reinstall whatever software you use most, although most of it should remain on your disks. And the installer will take all your "My Documents" stuff and save it to a folder you can open later (C:/Documents and Settings/Crashfrog.PROSPERO on my machine, called "Prospero"), but you should backup anyway if at all possible.
True. I was having similar problems to what Faith is describing: the random Windows Blue Screen of Death. I reinstalled windows to see if that would work. It made things better for a bit, but ultimately I ended up scrapping the old motherboard and getting a new one. Now things seem to be swimming along nicely. If she goes with the incremental "swap out this and see if that's the problem", by starting out with replacing the hard drive, she might be able to get lucky on the first switch.
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