Run REGEDIT and delete the entire registry entry called HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\enum. This will essentially wipe your Device manager clean, forcing Windows to redetect all devices upon the next bootup.
There's a few gotchas when you move a hard drive with an exist OS installed to a new motherboard. 98 & ME usually handles the move flawlessly, but you need to take some precautions.
Before making the switch you should backup your boot partition or at least the registry. If anything goes wrong you want to be able to restore Windows to the same exact state it's in right now and use the old hardware. If you have Norton Ghost and your boot partition is not too big and you have room for it on another partition or another drive, make an image of the boot partition (compressed, the image will be about half the size of the data on the partition).
If you can't do this, then at least backup the registry. As long as you don't delete any driver files, restoring the registry will put the system back the way it was.
Easiest way to do this is using Microsoft's Emergency Recovery Utility (ERU). It's on the 95 CD (not on the 98 CD curiously, although it works fine with 98). You can download it here:
http://soldcentralfl.com/quakecoop/files/eru.zip
Put it in a folder and execute ERU.EXE. Save the registry to either the hard drive or a floppy, doesn't matter. ERU will make a folder called ERD (or whatever you name it). If you run the ERD.EXE file in it from a DOS boot, it will restore your registry.
If you have ME use the System Restore utility to save a restore point.
Before the switch, you need to do a few things so Windows won't be confused when you boot up with the new OS:
- Run REGEDIT and delete the entire registry entry called HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\enum. This will essentially wipe your Device manager clean, forcing Windows to redetect all devices.
- When Win98 boots on the new motherboard for the first time, it won't have CD drivers installed yet and won't find the CD so you need to make sure the CAB files are on the hard drive. If you haven't done it already, copy all the CAB files from the Windows CD to the hard drive (just copy the whole Win98 folder on the CD to the root of drive C - in the future whenever Windows asks for the Win98 CD, just point it to the Win98 folder on the drive).
- If there's any special drivers for the motherboard (there may be one for the controller and if it's a VIA chipset there may be several), make sure it's ready to go on a floppy or unzipped into a folder you can easily find on the drive. Don't rely on a CD copy as the CD may not be detected when Windows needs the drivers.
- Have a copy of the video card drivers handy also as it may ask you for it on initial bootup.
- Swap motherboards.
- ONLY install the video card. DO NOT install any other cards yet. This will go a LOT smoother if Windows doesn't have to detect a lot of new hardware in one go. Once all the motherboard devices are recognized you can install your cards.
When you startup with the new motherboard Windows will detect all the new motherboard devices and load drivers from the Windows CD (or the CAB files on the local drive if you copied them) as it sees fit. It will probably have to reboot several times to install everything - don't worry about it.
- Once it installs all the motherboard devices and reboots the last time, you MUST run the device installation wizard in "Add/Remove Hardware" in the Windows Control Panel. Windows does NOT automatically detect all motherboard devices on bootup (common mistake a LOT of people make and #1 reason why people have problems upgrading the motherboard).
- Sometimes Windows will have multiple keyboards and motherboard devices after a motherboard swap (one will probably have exclamation on it). If that happens, remove BOTH (removing one never works) and reboot and let it detect it again. You may need to run the Add/Remove Hardware wizard again.
- This usually goes smoothly. If, however, things are not going well up to this point then try re-installing Windows over itself (a refresh install - you won't lose anything). This will force Windows to redetect all hardware. I strongly recommend you run the Windows installer from a copy of the CAB files on the hard drive (see above) instead of from the CD as Windows may "lose" the CD during installation.
- Once Windows is working fine you can start installing the cards ONE BY ONE (not all at the same time). If you run into a resource conflict, it's MUCH easier to track it down if you install your cards one by one.
Since it's a new motherboard, you may run into a common problem called PCI IRQ Channel sharing (NOT the same as an IRQ conflict). Go here for more details:
http://www.soldcentralfl.com/quakecoop/glfaq5.htm#5_9
Good luck!
