[asotes]

This may seem like an absolutely ridiculous question but I'm an absolute begginner to the inside of my computer and I'd rather ask a stupid question than damage anything.

My current motherboard has died and I need to replace it, obviously that entails removing all of the components from the motherboard. I got to the Graphics card and unseated it from the motherboard however it is still connected to a 3 pin wire connector (yellow, black, red) it does not remove easily - do I just pull hard or is there some sort of tool I need?

More importantly if I do swap motherboards will I still be able to run the same installation of windows I had on the old motherboard? Or at the very least will I still be able to keep the files I had on my old harddrive?

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You do not need a special tool, most of the time there are small tabs that you can press in to help release the connector.

By swapping your motherboard (aka mobo) but keeping all the rest of the hardware the same, will not affect windows. Windows is installed on the harddrive. When you install the new mobo and reconnect everything you should have the same windows and files you did before. Nothing is stored on the mobo.

My only words of caution is to make sure everything is compatible, the hard drive to the mobo, the RAM sticks all the other hardware inside your computer.

Dont worry about asking questions, we all had the same question at one point or another. Please feel free to ask away, let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

Have a good day!

[jaxisland]

You do not need a special tool, most of the time there are small tabs that you can press in to help release the connector.

By swapping your motherboard (aka mobo) but keeping all the rest of the hardware the same, will not affect windows. Windows is installed on the harddrive. When you install the new mobo and reconnect everything you should have the same windows and files you did before. Nothing is stored on the mobo.

My only words of caution is to make sure everything is compatible, the hard drive to the mobo, the RAM sticks all the other hardware inside your computer.

Dont worry about asking questions, we all had the same question at one point or another. Please feel free to ask away, let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

Have a good day!

[SRX660]

Unless the motherboard is very close to the hardware profile of the old motherboard you may have to do a "repair install" of windows to get it working. Depending on the age of the computer there may be the same MB available. Sometimes they are not available so you have to use a newer Mb that has different hardware. If you do not have a windows XP CD you cannot do a repair install. If the motherboard has different hardware than your old board i personally would just do a new install of windows.

SRX660