The guys at the computer shop tell me that my motherboard is about to fail. There are some capacitors that are bulging and one is leaking. My system is using a MSI K8N Neo4 motherboard with a AMD Athlon G4 Processor 3500+ and Nvidia GeForce 8400 video card. I have a 640GB WD hard drive and 3 gigs memory. The shop says that I will need a new motherboard, new processor and new memory, since the present ones will not be compatible with the new motherboard. Also they said that I would not be able to use my current hard drive set up. My present hard drive is working fine and it is loaded with Windows XP 3, and a lot of data and programs that I was hoping would be able to work fine with the new motherboard. But they said that they could save documents, photos, etc, but I would have to manually reload a lot of programs. There is nothing wrong with the hard drive and memory, so is it not possible to find a new motherboard that is compatible with the system I have and just replace the old motherboard? Can I just use my hard drive the way it is right now with the new motherboard, without having to reload a lot of stuff?

If you get the identical motherboard with new capacitors, I don't see why you have to replace everything. You definitely don't need to replace the hard drive, as you can get IDE/SATA adapters for pretty much any motherboard. As long as you're careful no not expose anything to electrical shock, the only thing you should have to replace is the motherboard and the form factor/chassis. If it is a different motherboard, you might have to replace everything, but if you find the same motherboard, there should be no problems using the same Hard Drive, RAM, Video Card, and Processor.

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Originally Posted by Lightning55

If you get the identical motherboard with new capacitors, I don't see why you have to replace everything. You definitely don't need to replace the hard drive, as you can get IDE/SATA adapters for pretty much any motherboard. As long as you're careful no not expose anything to electrical shock, the only thing you should have to replace is the motherboard and the form factor/chassis. If it is a different motherboard, you might have to replace everything, but if you find the same motherboard, there should be no problems using the same Hard Drive, RAM, Video Card, and Processor.

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Apparently this motherboard in no longer available. It is about 3 years old. If they replace the motherboard, processor and memory, will I be able to keep my hard drive intact and use it with the new system? Or will I have to use a new hard drive and reload a bunch of programs, etc?

Yes, you should be able to use the same hard drive. At most, you'll need an adapter.

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Originally Posted by Lightning55

Yes, you should be able to use the same hard drive. At most, you'll need an adapter.

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Thanks, I was hoping it would work.