rec.autos.simulators

I have just recieved my BX6/Celeron300A/128MB ram with which I am
upgrading my P200MMX system to make GPL run quicker (there, I'm on
topic now).

This is a question to those of you who have recently completed a
similar upgrade.

I am quite happy with the hardware aspect of removing the mobo/cpu
etc., but what I would _really_ like to avoid is having to reinstall
Win95 and all my drivers.

Having changed mobo & cpu will Win95 just fire up and carry on like
usual or will I get an avalanche of 'new hardware found' messages and
the inevitable double entry problems in device manager?

I have heared (but not tried) that selecting 'View Devices by
Connection' in device manager and then removing the 'Plug and Play
BIOS' entry will force Win95 into redetecting all the relevant devices
on the next boot-up.

Has anyone had any experience with this?

Anybody got any tips so I can get back to racing quicker?

Thanks All

Mike Armstrong

When you first boot after the upgrade, windows will find lots of new
hardware. It is not very likely that this will all work at once. Your
best option is to reinstall windows. No need to format or anything, just
start windows-setup from eihter windows or DOS (if it really has a lot
of trouble). Perhaps it's even better to go directly to DOS, before you
give windows a chance to detect new hardware and perform the setup from
there.

All installed software will remain accessable and MOST drivers will be
installed correctly. There are some devices that will need extra
attention. In my case only the modem, network card and printer drivers
had to be installed manually.

Don't forget to make a backup first. You never know what can happen with
gates software!

Good luck,
Johan.

You should be able to avoid a re-install if you still have your old board in
and didn't start screwing with anything....  but the average gamer over 15
should be able to re-install Win95 in his sleep ;-)

In the Device Mangler, remove all the system devices (just say no to 'Do you
want to shut down now' after each one), restart the computer in safe mode
(don't let it boot normally or it will end up putting everything back again)
and remove the hdd and floppy controllers.  You can remove everything under
safe mode if you like...  it saves an extra boot... so that's probably the
better idea...

Shut down the computer, swap the boards, and you should be able to power up
and have Win95 detect all the new devices properly on the new board.  If you
don't remove the devices,  you'll just end up with some duplicates in some
areas, and some non-functioning devices...   if there are still some problem
devices (besides the PCI bridge and USB) remove everything, restart and it
should put everything back properly.  If not, wipe out the Windows directory
and re-install Win95.  75% of the time you should be able to avoid a
re-install...  for the other 25% all you've done is take an extra 10min

Cheers

Joe Walsh
Supercity Technologies

Marc.

Reinstalling Win95 from scratch is (of course) a sinch, however, my
Win95 CD is an oem and as such I thought it would only perform a clean
install and not a reinstall/upgrade.  Is this correct?

It would take more than 10min to reinstall all the software I have on
my system!

Thanks

Mike

In fact, if you do choose to re-install, you might not even need to use the CD.
 Check for an install directory -- go to Start / Find, and search for
"Win95_*.cab".  The .cab files are the compressed install files.  Windows setup
program is located in the same directory.  If the files are there, the setup
process will take far less time than from the cdrom drive.

Just boot with a floppy into DOS mode, and run the setup program.

LOL   Don't be surprised if 95 takes a bit longer than 10min to install, even
with the P-II.

Good luck!
Bob