reinstall o/s with cpu upgrade?

[babygiorgio1]

im currently running windows vista and wanted to know if i have to reinstall my o/s if i upgrade my cpu (from e6600 to q9550)?

 

[leetskeet]

no.

 

[Fafeifa]

NO But it won't hurt you if you have the time, i would only reinstall OS when i swap mobo's or graphics cards

 

[Aivikrames]

no, def not needed.

 

[RADEoN]

I only format when I switch motherboards...

Although I don't know the legitimacy of it, but I've heard that if you go from 2 core to 4 core, sometimes windows doesn't use the second 2 cores correctly.

 

[Deleted member 184142]

It will use the cores just fine, the only problem most people have is with OEM OS installs when changing out the mobo/HDD, and even then that mostly has to do with validation.

 

[Mackowitz]

FWIW, I went from an e6600 to a q6600 a couple years back and didn't re-install anything or even change any settings, it just recognized the four cores...

In the "old days" when I upgraded from an Athlon to an Athlon X2, I had to re-install a CPU driver or something to get Windows 2000 to recognize the dual cores, but you're already multi-core, so no changes needed. When I changed my kids CPU from a Q6600 to an e7200, I did have to re-activate Vista. Not sure why, it was same mobo - no big deal, five minutes on the phone.

 

[phildabill]

Normally if the architecture is the same, you can update np as HAL remains the same.

I would personally format in your case since you can never tell if traces of the old CPU are left (that could possibly cause the bug described earlier about not handling the 2 extra cores correctly)...

 

[BillParrish]

I agree with the above but just for "fun" (yes I am sick, very sick) I would get the later Intel INF driver package (yes I know its for chipsets, just being careful) and more importantly check the board manuf website for any updated bios and flash it while I had the old cpu in. OS should be no issue.

 

[HemiRick]

I just did this very upgrade and Vista works fine with the Quad once you tell it to update the HAL. Run MSConfig and goto advanced boot section. Check the discover HAL box. Reboot.