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**JT[_6_]** · August 26th 16, 02:10 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

Paul wrote:

wrote:
In the recent thread "Lenovo T43 (with XP) Wont Power On", I
mentioned that my old Lenovo T43 died. I have given up on fixing
that computer since it's obvious the motherboard is shot.

I bought an identical T43 from ebay, and it is identical, except it
came with 1gb RAM (my old one had 512mb RAM), and a larger HDD.
(80gb, instead of 40gb).

The computer arrived and had XP Pro SP3 installed. That booted up
immediately, and the computer works fine.

The plan was to insert my old HDD, so I could use use it as I had it
configured, with all my software ready to go. I pulled out the
new HDD, and put in the one from my old computer. It refuses to
boot.

That old drive has XP Pro SP3 on it as well.

In Normal Mode it just went to a blank screen and hung there. I get
a whole screen of words saying there are hardware changes. (No
****). But it's the same model of computer with the only difference
being double the RAM.

You moved a System Builder (OEM) WinXP install from one
machine to another. Kablooie. The difference in the
NIC MAC address should be enough to tip it over.

If both disks were Lenovo Royalty OS installs, that
would not have happened. Those are SLIC activated,
and all they're supposed to check for, is whether
the correct BIOS SLIC table is present.

When playing with computers in this way (doing "spit
swaps"), always back up the drive before you put
it in the other computer. I don't know how many
times my bacon was saved, by having a backup
for a "do-over".

*******

The "official" repair route, might be a Repair Install.
Put the old disk in the new computer, boot with the
WinXP SP3 installer CD, and do the Repair Install from
there.

A Repair Install keeps Program files and User data.
You will have to re-install the drivers. You will
have to redo all the Windows Updates since SP3.
In addition, if the original setup had an "advanced"
version of Internet Explorer, you're supposed to
remove that before Repairing. Since that isn't
possible in this case, you install the advanced version
of Internet Explorer after the Repair, and "hope
for the best".

You will also need a valid license key for the
Repair Install. The process isn't clever enough
to "keep" the old key.

Maybe someone else knows of a "magic" way to fix
your situation. I don't know of a way which is less work.
Using the new disk is certainly attractive, but
you'll have to reinstall Office or whatever.
And that might not be a lot of fun either.

Paul

My company ordered 50 Dell desktop computer (Same model)

I proceeded to build a "Ghost" image of Windows XP to deploy

to all 50 computers. (All needed application were installed on the
Reminds me of an issue I had with Dell ~15 years ago.

image) Imagine my surprise that about 1/2 of the units blue screened

after imaging. After much troubleshooting it was determined that these

identical model desktops were not quite identical.

Dell informed us that they make no promise that the systems would

contain the same hardware. Different chipsets, NIC's, video cards etc...

Basically they used parts from a bin and when that bin was empty... on

to the next bin (Which may or may not contain the same hardware.)

I was furious but got nowhere with Dell tech support.

I had to install and configure most of the 50 PC's manually.

Those were the last Dell computers we ever purchased.

I'm assuming thats what happened to OP.

Same model #'s does not necessarily mean identical hardware.

I still hate Dell!

JT

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