[comp.sys.ibm.pc] REPLACING A MOTHERBOARD

phd_jacquier@gsbacd.uchicago.edu (10/13/89)

Thanks for the replies on accelerator boards. 
To summarize the answers, it does not appear economical to buy an accelerator 
board for an AT 12Mhz 0 wait states (to 386) given the prices of 386 
motherboards.

This leads me to the following super-neophyte question:

How hard is it to change a motherboard? (upgrade from a 286 full print AT 
clone)
A brochure from STAR microsystems claims without details that it takes less
than 30 minutes.

More importantly, even if it's easy, are there things that could go wrong
in the process?

Or is it totally trivial like: remove add-ins, unplug drives and power 
supply, unscrew old board, screw on new board (Are they all of the exact same
size?), plug back add-ins, switch on and enjoy ?

Thanks

davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr) (10/13/89)

In article <5791@tank.uchicago.edu>, phd_jacquier@gsbacd.uchicago.edu writes:

|  How hard is it to change a motherboard? (upgrade from a 286 full print AT 
|  clone)

	Not very.

|  A brochure from STAR microsystems claims without details that it takes less
|  than 30 minutes.

	Maybe for the board itself.

|  Or is it totally trivial like: remove add-ins, unplug drives and power 
|  supply, unscrew old board, screw on new board (Are they all of the exact same
|  size?), plug back add-ins, switch on and enjoy ?

	That's about it. Unless you have very little stuff in your
system and no screws in the cover, you won't do it in 30 minutes, but
60-90 sounds reasonable, depending on how many cables have to be put
back in.

	There's no reason you can't do it, hope you have screws rather
than the nasty little popoffs some people use. They cut the time to
install, but can be a pain to remove. Again, no technical problem, just
takes time. Any good system board should have the saize and mounting
holes right.
-- 
bill davidsen	(davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
"The world is filled with fools. They blindly follow their so-called
'reason' in the face of the church and common sense. Any fool can see
that the world is flat!" - anon