How do you set windows to clear all loaded devices and redetect everything on reboot?

[CVNet1]

I swear I read about something in Windows XP that supported clearing all detected devices and redetecting everything again. I need to do this because I'm changing the motherboard on this computer system, so I need Windows to have all detected devices reset so it can detect the new motheboard devices without any conflicts with previously installed devices for the previous motherboard. I realize that it is much better to Reinstall windows fresh in a situation such as this, but at the moment that not really an option. I need to be able to keep the present install (and yes I realize I will need to reactivate windows after this kind of change). The old motherboard was an MSI Nforce1 and the new one is a MSI Nforce2. Once again, I know its best to just reinstall, but thats not an option at present; and I swear I've read somewhere about how you can set windows to clear its installed devices list and set itself up for redetecting everything upon the next reboot.
Thanks in advance for any help

 

[Sid]

Do a repair install. It will blow the hal out and recreate it with a new one for your hardware. Basically do just like you were installing, the system will ask you to continue or repair with recovery console, continue on with the install. It will ask you a little later to repair the current installation, select this.

I've had a few time where it trashes tcp but a quick command will put that back in order.

 

[Pulse]

You can sysprep the machine and make it find all hardware on boot. For Xp it really is fairly simple to do. Look on the cd in the tools folder there should be a deploy cab you can extract with sysprep and also some docs.

I do this at work with 1 image for different brands of hardware and it works fine. You might want to read up on it as you can place the drivers on the comp first before you change boards and there will be no looking around for motherboard cds.

 

[Ranma_Sao]

Theres two Microsoft supported Ways to do this.

1.
Stick Cd in
Drop to a cmd prompt
navigate to CD and type winnt32 /unattend /noreboot
When done shut machine down and replace mobo
or
Stick CD in and select upgrade
At end when machine reboots, power down and change mobo

2. Run sysprep
Find the sysprep tool in the deploy.cab in the support folder on the CD
This takes some research to use, as it can reset a lot of settings you might not have been expecting. But it will work fine

If I were you, I would do option 1.